Rural Professionals Fund 2021–22

There were 12 successful projects in the second funding round for the Our Land and Water Rural Professionals Fund.

Rob Suisted

Contact:

Rich McDowell

Other Projects:

RPF 2020-21 (round 1)
RPF 2022–23 (round 3)
RPF 2023–24 (round 4)

The Rural Professionals Fund enables individuals and businesses to partner with scientists to rapidly test exciting and innovative ideas that could lead to significant improvements in farming systems.

The fund launched in May 2020, with investment awarded to 15 projects. A second funding round closed in August 2021. Read more about the 12 successful projects below. Follow Our Land and Water on Facebook and subscribe to our e-news for project updates.

Project Summaries

New Ground

Issue 2, December 2022

Magazine summarising the results of all 12 Rural Professionals Fund projects, distributed via the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Managers

Onion monitoring

Measuring real-time nitrogen losses in vegetable production - part 2

Being able to measure nitrogen loss in real time, in relation to weather and management practices, is the key to improving agricultural practices. This project combines 3 sources of information (nitrogen losses, drainage events, on-farm management practices) to show 'cause and effect' and support the improvement of nutrient and irrigation management and other methods to reduce nutrient loss. This mini-project extends a previous Rural Professionals Fund project that resulted in modification to some good agricultural practices. It enables a full year of data capture through an onion then export squash crop cycle, and comparison of 'actual vs modelled' data.

Rural Professional: Jamie Thompson (Ravensdown)
Project Team: Chris Zuierwijk (Bostock), Bruce Searle (Plant & Food Research)

Measuring real-time nitrogen losses in cropping

Delwyn Dickey
New Ground, December 2022

Measuring real time nitrate leaching from a tile-drained Hawke's Bay onion field

Thompson, J., Trolove, S. and Searle, B., 2022.
Adaptive Strategies for Future Farming, Occasional Report No. 34, Farmed Landscapes Research Centre

Social media update

21 August 2022
Facebook

Social media update

9 July 2021
Facebook

Rpf012 Allcock Cows At Rest Needs Permission Woodford 400sq

Impact of composting shelters on dairy farm systems

Composting shelters are cow housing facilities that have developed through farmer innovation. Cows spend a proportion of time under a roofed structure, where they lie on a deep plant-based material. Aerobic composting, from the mix of bedding with urine and dung, creates a warm and dry bedding that can remain in place for a year or more before it is replaced and used as fertiliser. This project aims to understand the implications of these composting systems on farm systems, including potential to improve animal welfare, reduce nitrate leaching and GHG emissions, and impact on farm financials.

Rural Professional: Rachel Durie (Perrin Ag Consultants)
Project Team: Airini Hepi and Kyle Amopiu (Kokako Pi Karere LP), Keith Woodford (AgriFood Systems), Lee Matheson (Perrin Ag Consultants), Kate Robinson (HMC), composting shelter farmers TBC

Whole systems impact of composting shelters in New Zealand: Final report

Rural Professionals Fund final report, August 2022

Composting shelters

Perrin Ag project page

Composting shelters working well

16 December 2022
Dairy News

Social media update

13 April 2022
Facebook

Studying composting shelters

15 March 2022
Dairy Farmer

Social media update

9 March 2022
Facebook

Social media update

5 March 2022
Facebook

Variety from consulting to composting

December 2021
Dairy Exporter

Rpf020 123rf 130100420 S 400sq

On-farm economics of regenerative agriculture

Regenerative and conventional sheep and beef farms will open their books for comparison in this project, which aims to help people understand the financial implications of adopting regenerative farming practices. The economic performance of the case study farms will be reviewed, and trends from paired farms will be used to produce a typical farm run under both regenerative and conventional farming. The project team will also identify how factors such as stage of life, labour input, debt level, business goals and personal values affect how each farmer views economic success.

Rural Professional: Steven Howarth (AgFirst)
Project Team: Bill Garland (farmer), Alex Bromham (farmer), Phil Weir (AgFirst), Katherine Tozer (AgResearch)

Regenerative Agriculture Value Proposition: Final report

Rural Professionals Fund final report, December 2022

Accounting for the future

5 May 2023
Organic NZ

Social media update

4 April 2022
Facebook

Social media update

4 April 2022
Facebook

Social media update

4 April 2022
Facebook

Asaparagus growing

Best-practice nitrogen management in asparagus cropping

Asparagus is a potential crop for more sustainable land use, and robotic harvesting is likely to enable rapid future expansion. It has been considered a low nitrogen crop, but grower practices are not reflecting this. Better knowledge and grower best practice guidance is required. This project will collaborate with growers across the growing regions to collect data, then build understanding of nitrogen pools and dynamics, and together determine what best practice should be. The aim is for asparagus growers to understand how to test their crops, and how to interpret and use that data to improve their farm management practices.

Rural Professional: Dan Bloomer (LandWISE)
Project Team: Karen Orr (NZ Asparagus Council), Cam Lewis (grower, Lewis Farms), Mike Arnold (grower, Leaderbrand), Tony Rickman (grower, Boyds Asparagus), Sam Rainey (grower, Mangaweka Asparagus), Iain Trotter (grower, Wineberry), Luke Posthuma, Derek Ferguson and John Evans (LandWISE), Bruce Searle and Steve Dellow (Plant & Food Research)

Nitrogen Management in Asparagus Cropping: Final report

Rural Professionals Fund final report, July 2022

Social media update

18 June 2022
Facebook

Dji 0864

Real-time water quality monitoring

Farmers are increasingly interested in monitoring the health of their on-farm waterways, usually through spot samples taken manually and sent to a lab for testing. Real-time water quality monitoring is a new technology with few resources to support farmer usage. This project will trial and evaluate the application of real-time water quality monitoring by establishing two shallow groundwater nitrate monitoring sites on a case study dairy farm. Fluctuations in results will be observed in real-time and linked to weather, on-farm, or catchment events. This local data will provide a foundation for informed farm management decisions to improve water quality.

Rural Professional: Charlotte Irving Senior (The Agribusiness Group)
Project Team: John and Sarah Wright (dairy farmers), Nicole Holliday (Ballance Agri-Nutrients), Dr Blair Miller (Lincoln Agritech)

Social media update

31 July 2022
Facebook

Sentinel-1. Credit ESA - CC BY- SA IGO 3.0

Using satellite technology to monitor kiwifruit canopy water content

Some satellites regularly orbiting over New Zealand contain microwave technology that can sense the water content of plants from above. This project will use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a form of microwave sensing, to provide spatial maps of kiwifruit orchard canopy water status. Many growers use soil moisture probes, but orchard soils are often highly variable and need additional methods to identify zones that are well hydrated or under water stress. The project will inform irrigation management, and feed into the development of microwave technology tools for growers to enable decisions that increase harvestable yield and reduce fruit value variability.

Rural Professional: Ash Neilson (RICADO Group)
Project Team: Colin Jenkins and Andrew Wood (Ngai Tukairangi Trust), Phillip Green and John Huntingdon (RICADO Group), Dr Istvan Hajdu and Prof Ian Yule (PlantTech)

Social media update

25 May 2022
Facebook

Kale ready for feeding out

Impacts of dispersed forage feeding

Some New Zealand farmers have adopted a feeding-out, or 'zero grazing' approach to autumn and winter feeding. Brassica, kale and other greenfield crops are harvested, chopped into a loader wagon, and fed out to stock in different paddocks. This disperses the feed across wide areas, with the aim of decreasing soil damage (pugging) and risks to water quality associated with winter grazing. It differs from cut-and-carry to feed pads, which can result in high concentrations of effluent and run-off risks. This project will review the potential environmental, farm management and economic impacts from adopting a dispersed forage feeding approach.

Rural Professional: Sarah O'Connell (The Agribusiness Group)
Project Team: Scott Hassall (farmer), Dave Lucock and Stuart Ford (The AgriBusiness Group), Dr David Scobie and Dr Robyn Dynes (AgResearch), Simon Thorne (Frame Grain & Seed)

Feeding-out to reduce soil damage

2 September 2022
The Agribusiness Group blog

Social media update

3 July 2022
Facebook

Social media update

16 October 2021
Facebook

Dairy cow eating supplement feed

Moving to zero-supplement dairy systems

What would happen if New Zealand's dairy industry stopped using internationally produced supplement, such as PKE? What system changes would be required if all New Zealand dairy farms had to use only what was grown here in Aotearoa? This mini-project will collate the current drivers for dairy farmers to continue importing supplement, the considerations they account for when purchasing, and quantify how their operations would change if they could only use New Zealand produced supplement. The project will also identify alternative stock food products, such as food waste.

Rural Professional: Regan McCorquindale
Project Team: Sean Nixon (Agri Concepts)

Looking into home-grown supplements

September 2022
Dairy Farmer

Social media update

20 May 2022
Facebook

Earthworms

Biological test of soil health using molecular techniques

Farmers and growers are increasingly interested in soil health, but tests to directly measure soil's biological component are still lacking. This project aims to develop a test of soil biological condition, utilizing advances in DNA technologies, to quantitatively determine earthworm populations. Rather than manually count earthworms within a spade square of soil, this test would be part of routine monitoring, saving time and enabling the identification of different ecological groups of earthworms in the soil. Quantifying soil health provides farmers and growers with the information they need to improve soil quality, farm performance, and environmental outcomes.

Rural Professional: Roger Hill (R J Hills Laboratories)
Project Team: Will Burrett (Ngāi Tahu), Nicole Schon (AgResearch), Sara Loeffe (R J Hills Laboratories), Robert Longhurst (Pastoral Nutrient Management)

Social media update

25 March 2022
Facebook

Social media update

30 November 2021
Facebook

A Canterbury farm after flood

Supporting land use adaptation to climate change

This project aims to empower Canterbury farmers to explore new land use options with a clearer understanding of opportunities emerging through climate change. An initial desktop analysis will explore the influences on farmers' openness to consider and knowledgeably act on climate change impacts, and identify any barriers, gaps or constraints that limit Canterbury farmers from exploring land use options suitable for a changing climate. Farmer and community focus groups will explore how to address those constraints and provide insights into what may limit farmer adaptation to climate change. A toolbox of farmers' solutions will be developed to support local climate change adaptation.

Rural Professional: Richard Fitzgerald (Ashburton District Council)
Project Team: Steven Bierma (cropping farmer), Kerry Harmer (high country farmer), Matt Bently (livestock and horticulture farmer), Hamish Marr (cropping and livestock farmer), Nick Giera (dairy farmer), Angela Cushnie (Kanuka Trust), Turi McFarlane (FAR), Mel Brookes (MHV Irrigation), Rebecca Whillans (Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation), Richard Bowman (Barhill Chertsey Irrigation), Tony Finch (DairyNZ), Louise Webster (Ideas Accelerator), Andrew Parish (ECan)

Supporting Land Use Adaption for a Climate Changed Future

Rural Professionals Fund final report, October 2022

Crunch on land use looms for Canterbury

Farmers’ Weekly, 27 October 2022

Research project to share farming ideas on changing climate

1 December 2022
Ashburton District Council

Social media update

29 November 2021
Facebook

Multi-species pasture

Summer-safe multi-species cattle pasture

This project aims to improve the climate resilience of upper North Island hill country farms by identifying a high-performing fodder mixture that combines crop, cereal and pasture species. Five different multi-species fodder mixtures will be tested and compared to a control brassica crop. Each fodder mixture will contain up to five species, selected for suitability to the upper North Island climate, where increasing droughts and changing rainfall patterns mean pasture is no longer a reliable feed source in early and mid-autumn. Adoption of 'summer safe' fodder could fill the increasingly challenging feed gap and provide farmers with the freedom to reduce PKE inputs.

Rural Professional: Phil Weir (AgFirst)
Project Team: Katherine Tozer (AgResearch), Bob Thompson (AgFirst), Angus Peterson (Farmlands), Hamish Johnston (Agricom), John Foley (PGGW Seeds)

Agronomic performance of summer forage crops on a Waikato dry-stock farm

Tracy Dale, Katherine Tozer, Phil Weir, Maryann Staincliffe
Grasslands Journal, 2022

Never mind the flowers

October 2022
Dairy Exporter

Trial aims to boost summer feed resilience

24 August 2022
Farmer’s Weekly

Social media update

22 August 2022
Facebook

Seed mixes for drought or deluge

January 2022
Dairy Exporter

Social media update

26 January 2022
Facebook

Maori couple with children in background

Futureproofing Māori Land Trusts

Succession planning is challenging for many farms, but multi-generational dynamics, geographically dispersed whanau, and complex governance structures add extra challenges for Māori Whenua Trusts. This project will involve two case study Trusts whose trustees, aged from late-60s to late-80s, are under pressure to identify successors and ensure the transfer of whenua management and governance responsibilities. These Trusts have begun a futureproofing journey, having explored land use opportunities to complement their existing agribusinesses. This project will develop an implementation plan for each Trust, matching their identified land use opportunities with the next generation of kaitiaki, and modelling a process for other Whenua Trusts.

Rural Professionals: Ray Mohan and Rhys Millar (Ahika Consulting)
Project Team: Stephen Owens (Akapatiki A Block Incorporated), Nicola Taylor (Pūrākaunui Block Inc), Joy Smith (Ngāi Tahu Law Centre), Haines Ellison (MPI Māori Agribusiness), Paul Hansen (University of Otago)

Futureproofing Māori Land Trusts

February 2023
Video series

Bridging whenua enhancement plans with the next generation of Kaitiaki: Case studies for Māori Land Trusts

Preliminary report (October 2022) available on request

Social media update

26 April 2022
Facebook

Tools & resources Ngā utauta me ngā rauemi

Video

The impact of composting shelters on New Zealand dairy farms

Composting shelters are attracting growing interest from dairy farmers looking to operate more efficient, resilient and profitable businesses. This video (te reo Māori subtitles) presents…
View Video
Video

Dispersed forage feeding to minimise negative impacts on soil and water quality

Scott Hassall harvests kale at scale on his farm in North Canterbury. Harvesting kale, (mowing, chopping, and feeding out) is not common practice in New…
View Video
Video

‘Summer safe’ crops

We need ‘summer safe’ crops because increasing droughts and changing rainfall patterns mean pasture is no longer a reliable feed source in late summer to…
View Video
Summary

Summer forage crops: Options for a drystock farm based on a Waikato case study

Options are required for drystock farmers to fill the summer feed gap. As part of the `Summer-safe multi-species cattle pasture’ project funded by the Our…
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Technical Report

Regenerative Agriculture Value Proposition: Final report

The purpose of this project was to define the value proposition for regenerative agriculture in a sheep and beef context for New Zealand, using a…
View Technical Report
Summary

Sensors increase understanding and interest

Real-time nitrate sensors increased farmer understanding of contaminant pathways through their farm and the impact of rainfall events, and grew community interest in water quality…
View Summary

Academic outputs He whakaputanga ngaio

Rural Professionals Fund final report, October 2022
October 2022

The convergence of water use consent renewals and dairy shed renewals may be a catalyst for land use change in mid-Canterbury aro…

Rural Professionals Fund final report, 2022
July 2022

The data showed a strong linear relationship between the N concentration measured by the sensor and in the grab sample (sensor N …

Rural Professionals Fund final report, 2022
August 2022

The overall conclusion of this report is that composting shelters have diverse benefits to the
human environment, the bioph…

Rural Professionals Fund final report, July 2022
July 2022

Key findings:
• Current nitrogen fertiliser recommendations are based on limited trial work.
• Nutri…

Rural Professionals Fund final report, 2022
November 2022

Effective and reliable, continuous nitrate groundwater sensor monitoring has significant potential for application at the catchme…

Rural Professionals Fund final report, 2022
September 2022

The outcomes of this work revealed the spatial and temporal variability of LWC over 6 monitored kiwifruit orchard blocks during a…

In the media Mai i te ao pāpaho

Rural Today, Magic Talk, 30 June 2021, 05:35am
"We need disrupters to push paradigms, because if we keep doing what we're doing, we'll always get what we've always had"
Feds News, 28 June 2021
“Farmers and their rural professionals often try out new ideas and apply different farming practices because they are curious to see what will happen. Wouldn’t it be great to see some of these promising ideas move beyond the farm gate?”

Pathways to Transition Projects

Te Taiao framework in use

Lessons from Our Land and Water

The Our Land and Water National Science Challenge journey to a Tiriti-led science partnership: the lived experience and the lessons learned
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Tukituki River and Te Mata Peak. Photo: Phillip Capper via Flickr

Synthesis Scenarios for Future Land Use

Steering land use change to meet water quality targets, through the synthesis of Our Land and Water research
View Project
Rural Professional Fund 2020 21

Rural Professionals Fund 2020–21

There were 15 successful projects in the first funding round for the Our Land and Water Rural Professionals Fund.
View Project

Trust and Social Licence

Investigating the importance of trust and approval by the community of the primary sector’s practices, and the connection to productivity and sustainable growth in New…
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Implementing Te Mana o Te Wai

Supporting iwi, hapū, water users, and decision-makers to understand and implement policy that prioritises Te Mana o te Wai
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Taiao Manawa Ora Purpose Led Change Turquoise Small Scaled

Revitalise Te Taiao

Place-based research to develop evidence-based examples of how agribusinesses and communities can make enduring changes in land use, management, value chains, and market focus to…
View Project
This project has produced
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