Thursday, March 28, 2024

Nitrate fighter Eco-N might make comeback

Avatar photo
Ravensdown hopes an international agreement could lead to a return of its Eco-N product to New Zealand pastures in autumn 2020.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Eco-N was lauded as the best way to prevent nitrate leeching in soils and the escape of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere from dairy farms but was taken off the market in 2013 after minute residues of the active component DCD were found in milk powder.

There’s now a chance world regulatory authorities, including NZ’s Ministry for Primary Industries, might be able to ratify an umbrella Codex agreement about the middle of next year to set rules for a maximum residual level for a range of benign compounds in food products.

DCD would be part of that and the proposal has been well-received, Ravensdown innovation and strategy general manager Mike Manning said.

There was never a food safety issue because DCD is regarded as safe.

However, there was no international agreement on it so Eco-N was withdrawn to avert possible trade repercussions.

The indications Ravensdown has received are the ratification could be about the middle of next year but it could take longer, Manning said.

“We’d like it to go faster but we haven’t got any influence. We can just encourage and be patient.”

Newer diagnostic instruments are finding things that could not be found before, at very low and benign levels, and it makes sense to cover them off in one agreement rather than doing them each time one is found, he said.

Manning still gets asked by former customers whether Eco-N will be brought back into use.

Though applied right across pasture Eco-N is most effective over cow urine spots on the ground. It prevents nitrate leeching by slowing down bacterial activity, retaining nitrogen fertiliser as ammonium rather than allowing it to convert to nitrate, which would leech into soils. 

As ammonium it was held in the soil for longer, meaning it was also better taken up by plants.

Manning said nitrate leeching is a major issue for water quality and nitrous oxide is one of the three major greenhouse gases produced in agriculture, along with methane and carbon dioxide.

Autumn to winter 2020 will be the logical time for a return of the fertiliser if it is ratified in the middle of next year because DCD is a winter-active compound when the impact of nitrate leeching is greatest.

Most of Ravensdown’s Eco-N sales were in the South Island where it was helped by the cooler, drier winters and soil types.

The company hasn’t done any further research since the product was taken off the market but is absolutely confident in its qualities and properties, Manning said. 

He believes it could be brought back into production relatively quickly if the codex is ratified, subject to dairy companies being prepared to have it back in use.

Ravensdown is regularly checking the nitrate-leeching footprint on farms and is clear a method to reduce leeching must be found.

Tougher environmental regulations, including regional council operational plans, mean the market now could greater than it was in 2013.

Eco-N, developed by scientists at Lincoln University, was launched in 2003 as a help to environmentally aware farmers keen even then to reduce their footprint.

It was not a big seller or money-maker for the co-operative, Manning said. 

However, the farmers who used it found they achieved better pasture growth, which allowed them to save on other nitrogen fertilisers.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading