Dairy Farm Effluent

Dairy NZ Farm Fact – “Principle #3: develop wetlands and riparian buffers to intercept, trap and remove nitrate N.”

Dairy NZ has stated that “by understanding how nitrogen is lost (the mechanisms) a set of principles can be applied to farm management practices to help minimise avoidable N losses.

Government agencies are under constant pressure to legislate solutions for the problem. Agribusiness and Farm technology approaches to dealing with nitrogen leaching have focused on limiting fertiliser applications along with soil, stock and riparian management. There has also been a concerted effort to improve effluent catchment ponds and subsequent effluent redistribution systems. These approaches are now demanded for dairy farm nitrogen-management plans and can be considered “Top of the Cliff” solutions.
In contrast, little commercial or environmental headway has been made towards developing “Bottom of the Cliff” solutions. Few have investigated techniques for recovering and utilising the nutrients inevitably lost into waterways. But if ecological restoration targets for our diminished and degraded lowland NZ waterways are to be realised, collection and management of nutrient-rich farm drainage so that it supports healthy, productive and valuable fish life BEFORE it leaves the farm will have to become a goal. This is one outcome of installing our Nitro EELS System.

The Raglan EELS “Nitro EELS” system is the only commercial product in development for a solution based wetland nitrogen management plan that contains a direct return on investment of approx 3-5% per annum.