Visiting New Zealand - Update

On Tuesday 11th of November, Elin Martinsson and Matthew Barnett headed to the mighty Waikato. First up was a visit to New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science Limited: AgResearch on the Ruakura campus, where they were hosted by members of the Ethical Agriculture Team. A big thank you to Marianne Hull Cantillo, Keren Ding, Marta Alfaro, and Tony van der Weerden for a fascinating and insightful discussion covering biogas, nitrogen cycling, nitrate leaching, mixed pasture species, new fertilizers, biochar, national inventories, and comparisons of farm-based models. They also saw research in action with a visit to the lysimeters, where the effects of different pasture species on nitrogen cycling were being assessed. 
From Ruakura, they headed towards Cambridge where they were very fortunate to see a Lely Robotic Milking system in action at an organic dairy farm. They had some great insights into how the farm was run and the amazing data collection possible through the Lely system. Next stop: Ōtautahi Christchurch.