Plantain to the rescue

Researchers at Massey’s No 4 dairy farm are comparing and measuring nitrate leaching in paddocks planted with three pasture mixes -- plantain only, plantain combined with red clover and white clover, and ryegrass with white clover. Three groups of 12 cows are grazing the different pastures and every month for ten days data is collected. They also have a reserve mob. “The project began this summer and took a bit of setting up with fancy plumbing consisting of tile and mole drains so samples could be collected from each grazed plot,” the uni says. Results from research at Lincoln show that the concentration of nitrogen in cows’ urine is halved when they graze plantain, so we expect a substantial decrease in nitrate leaching from plantain paddocks this winter.