Fertiliser reps have gone from taking soil samples and giving advice on fertiliser to running complex Overseer nutrient budgets and developing detailed nutrient and farm environmental plans.
The recently launched Nutrient Management Adviser Certification Programme (NMACP) is a way of ensuring reps are trained and qualified to provide farmers with the best possible service in this regulatory environment.
Dr Philip Mladenov, chief executive of the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand, said people who were certified would be expert users of Overseer as well as having a thorough understanding of nutrient budgets and nutrient management plans.
Overseer was complex software that needed to be run by professionals, he said.
“While we have no problem with farmers becoming familiar with it themselves it is important to bring a qualified person in to run it.”
Before reps can enter the NMACP they must have completed the intermediate and advanced courses in sustainable nutrient management. Programme participants also need to submit letters from two farmers stating that they have received sound fertiliser advice from that individual along with a letter from the rep’s supervisor.
The whole programme is managed by an e-learning management system used by several tertiary institutions and other large organisations in this country, Mladenov said.
At the completion of the certification process participants have to sit an online scenario-based exam, which takes about two hours to complete. It includes questions on Overseer, nutrient plans, and nutrient advice.
At the moment most of the scenarios in the programme are focused on pastoral farming but Mladenov said they are planning to extend these to include arable, horticulture, and other types of farming.
Once the participants have met the standards and become certified they are expected to carry out a minimum of 15-hours approved professional development annually, which will include modules being developed by Massey University.
It costs each participant $500 to become certified with an annual renewal fee of $200.
The programme is still being funded by the fertiliser industry and DairyNZ – as part of a Primary Growth Partnership project – but it is expected to be self-funding within the next couple of years.
Launched back in November, one of the initial aims of the programme was to have half of the reps from the two main fertiliser companies – Ravensdown and Ballance – certified by the end of May.
The programme is close to that mark. Seventy people have achieved certification while another 40 are going through the process, Mladenov said.
While the majority of reps certified so far are from the two big companies a number of independent consultants have also achieved certification and many more are in the process of applying, he said.
All certified nutrient management advisers are listed on the NMACP website and Mladenov urged farmers to seek out these people to perform their nutrient budgets and plans.
Mladenov also stressed the need for farmers to keep good records to ensure they were inputting the best possible data into Overseer.
Fundamentally it was about helping farmers farm profitably within limits and the programme contributes to this, he said.
Group effort
The Nutrient Management Adviser Certification Programme (NMACP) is the result of collaboration between the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand and DairyNZ.
For some time the Fertilizer & Lime Research Centre at Massey University has been running intermediate and advanced courses in sustainable nutrient management for fertiliser reps and other qualified people but the NMACP takes this one step further.
A governance group drawn from wider industry along with representatives from regional councils, Fish & Game NZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries, the NZ Institute of Primary Industries Management, and universities has directed development of the programme, association chief executive Philip Mladenov said.
This group has also nominated a standard-setting group charged with independently establishing standards for the programme.
