Plantain Project scoops award

Watch out for the DairyNZ-led Tararua Plantain Project, which focuses on using Ecotain plantain to improve water quality.

The project won the team and collaboration award at the recent Primary Industries New Zealand Awards.

The Tararua, DairyNZ-led Plantain Potency and Practice Programme, with industry, government and farmers working together, is designed to research the effects of plantain and support farmers to successfully adopt it on farms.

Golden Bays Rural Service Centre report there is uptake of the Ecotain variety by local farmers however, they note it’s the only plantain studied,  therefore other varieties may also be as effective.

The Tararua project aim is to support all dairy farmers to understand and adopt the grazing herb Ecotain plantain in their pastures to help improve water quality by reducing nitrogen leaching to waterways.

“This project is a blueprint for farmers to utilise plantain in catchments nationwide and cannot be understated,” says project s Dr Burger, the project leader for DairyNZ.

“Research shows Ecotain plantain in pastures can reduce nitrogen leaching from dairy farms by 20 to 60 percent. Plantain also has potential to reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions,” says Dr Burger.

From this project, 88 dairy farmers in the Tararua District now have plantain on their farms, and their learnings are shared with other farmers. The work is part of broader dairy sector commitments, programmes, and on-farm work to reduce farmer environmental footprints.

Plantain use is predicted to lead to flow-on benefits to national and regional economies, and to save farmers more than $1 billion per decade.

The national programme’s farm trial research at Massey University has also shown Ecotain plantain can reduce nitrogen leaching from dairy farms by 20 to 60 percent, helping to reduce nitrogen losses to waterways.

Lincoln University farm trials in Canterbury, on lighter soils under irrigation, show similar trends. More data is being collected in both trials. The programme will develop and tailor advice for farmers in other areas, including looking at the effects of different soil and climate conditions.

Farmwise consultant Brent Boyce says there is significant adoption of plantain in the Top of the South.

He says it’s used in a lot of permanent pasture mixes, giving farmers another option to reduce Nitrogen escape.  However, it is not used in areas where there are issues with buttercup - as in the eastern Golden Bay - as the sprays needed to control buttercup are lethal for plantain.