The Fertiliser Association has signed a 30-year lease with AgResearch to ensure fertiliser research trials at the Ashburton farm will continue.
The Association has been funding the annual maintenance and data collection at Winchmore Research Station for many years
Association chief executive Vera Power said the agreement affirms its ongoing commitment to long-term research on fertiliser use.
“To protect them for the future we have agreed to lease the trial site with AgResearch for the next 30 years.
“We want to ensure that Winchmore can continue to act as a testing ground for researchers for many generations to come,” Power said.
“The site has been providing extremely useful information for almost 70 years and this has allowed us to track changes to pastoral land as agriculture evolves and support our evidence base for sustainable management.
“I could see Winchmore potentially following the development of NZ agriculture over centuries. That’s a really exciting prospect,” Power said.
As the longest fertiliser trial under pasture in NZ the Canterbury Plains site has already seen many changes in farming practices.
Focused on sheep-grazed pasture the farm was established to analyse the long term response of pasture to irrigation and the superphosphate requirements of irrigated pasture.
Over time the consistent management, meticulous record-keeping and archiving of regular soil and plant samples have also proved a rich source of material for many other studies from nutrient cycling to the effects of fertiliser use on earthworms.
Power said the historical data and ongoing fertiliser treatments have been critical to evaluating and understanding the implications of soil contaminants such as cadmium and fluorine accumulation.
“Nobody anticipated these contaminant issues when the trial sites were established.
“Many of the key considerations being examined over the long term, such as impact on soil health and function, soil organic matter and climate change considerations cannot be reproduced elsewhere under actual field conditions,” Power said.
Issues such as the impact of fertiliser use on soil carbon or soil health are now coming to the fore, making ongoing research even more key for NZ farming systems.
“We are increasingly thinking about the long-term sustainability of NZ farming systems and long-term field trails are critical for helping us understand how our actions could impact on future farmers’ choices.
“We don’t know where agricultural technology will take us next but we do know that we’ll be there, measuring its effects so that future generations can make the best possible choices.”
AgResearch chief executive Tom Richardson said more than 500 science publications have drawn on research from the Winchmore site since the long-term trials began.
Winchmore is nationally significant and has over the decades provided AgResearch scientists and others with an important resource to collect and analyse data around fertiliser use, soil health and farming practices.
“This work has added to our understanding and helped improve farming practices in NZ.
“It’s pleasing for us to be able to commit to ongoing trials at Winchmore that will allow us to keep adding to the science to ensure continued improvement and innovation,” Richardson said.
This year Winchmore’s irrigation system has moved from its original border dyke to a centre pivot system.
That included the installation of five new pivot irrigators, two new linear irrigators and connection to the Ashburton-Lyndhurst irrigation scheme.
Researchers will be able to monitor the impact of the new system over time.
