Fundamentals of Nutrient Management: Why Nutrient Replacement is Essential in Organic and all Agriculture

There is a belief, going back to the foundation of organic agriculture, that nutrient replacement, i.e., the use of ‘fertilisers’, within organic agriculture is not required. Scientific theories and laws as well as practical farming evidence, now conclusively shows that this belief is incorrect, and nutrient replacement / cycling is essential for all forms of agriculture including organic. This paper is an explanation of why nutrient replacement / cycling is essential, starting at the most fundamental levels of the physical laws of nature, progressively building a holistic / systems based view of the behaviour of nutrients, and also energy, in farm systems and the biosphere as a whole. While such a view may at first appear overly detailed, even irrelevant to agriculture, one of the primary keys to the success of scientific understanding is the ability to create a theoretical understanding with precise predictive power. Much of agriculture is based in the complex sciences of biology and ecology where random processes prevent theoretical explanation and prediction i.e., much of agricultural science is empirical. Nutrient management is one of the few areas of agriculture where fundamental physics, even at the sub-atomic level, can penetrate right through the noise of biological systems to directly inform the actions of farmers. Empowered by such understanding farmers have the ability to fully understand the fundamentals of nutrient management and make better informed decisions about their own practices. Such a holistic perspective also ‘shines a light’ on the unsustainability of nutrient management in ‘industrial’ agriculture and the wider human societies of which it is the foundation, as well as reiterating the solutions that have been known for two centuries

Organic Weed Management: A Practical Guide

This technical guide provides an overview of strategies to manage weeds in organic productions such as crop rotation, soil management, crop management, and weeding machinery. The tool provides weed management recommendations for both annual and perennial crops. The guide is designed specifically for organic farmers providing an overview of weed management methods

Organic Stockless Arable Rotation Experiment 199-2007: Review and Analysis Report (Teagasc).

• In 2000 an organic rotation research and demonstration experiment was set up at Teagasc (Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) Oak Park, Co. Carlow, with an overall aim ‘to improve the yield and quality of organic arable crops in Ireland’ • A field scale, long term, stockless seven year rotation experiment was established having three replicates. The single rotation consisted of two years grass / clover pasture followed by five years of cropping, three in cereals, one potato and one legume crop. • The area was previously in long term silage pasture, which provided a good base from which to convert to organic. • Within and across the plots a range of ‘component research’ was undertaken, mainly cultivar comparison and some sowing rate experiments. • The component research varied and is regarded as being at variance with the long term monitoring of the rotation. • The experiment would benefit from a re-confirmation of its aims, objectives, experimental design and management. • Considerable value is placed on the instigation of an ‘industry’ consultative group consisting primarily of organic farmers as well as members of the organic movement, and other agricultural representatives. • It is recommended that the experiment continues to be un-certified, as certification is solely a marketing tool which is often at odds with the requirements of research, especially where standards are at odds with organic principles. It is suggested that a stakeholder representative group would give the experiment the credibility that farmers obtain from certification, i.e., it would be peer reviewed by leading organic farmers

The effect of seed moisture content and the duration and temperature of hot water treatment on carrot seed viability and the control of Alternaria Radicina

Hot water treatment of seeds to control seedborne pathogens is an important tool for organic seed production. Reducing seed moisture content may have the potential to increase carrot (Daucus carota L. var. sativus D.C.) seed tolerance to treatment. Two hot water seed treatment experiments were conducted. The first studied the effect of seed moisture content (SMC), treatment temperature and treatment duration on germination. Maximum safe treatment temperature and durations were established at 50°C and 30-40 min. Germination decreased slightly from 68% at 5% SMC to 63% at 20% SMC (LSD 1.2) for all durations. The second experiment studied the effect of initial SMC and treatment durations on infestation of seed by Alternaria radicina and seed germination. Treatment at 50°C for 30 min for all SMC compared to the control resulted in a decrease in A. radicina infestation from 69.2 to 1.7%. Reducing SMC from 20 to 5% for all durations resulted in a small decrease in infestation from 25% to 18% (LSD 1.5). Reducing SMC to 5% prior to hot water treatment may be a commercially viable means of minimising reductions in seed viability and decreasing fungal infestation levels

The effect of seed moisture content and hot water treatment on carrot seed viability and Alternaria radicina control

Hot water treatment of seeds to control seedborne pathogens is an important tool for organic seed production. Reducing seed moisture content may have the potential to increase carrot (Daucus carota L. var. sativus D.C.) seed tolerance to treatment. Two hot water seed treatment experiments were conducted

Formal collaboration amongst four tertiary education institutions to advance environmental sustainability.

There is increasing awareness in the tertiary education sector in Australia and New Zealand that many of its activities are not environmentally sustainable and need to be changed. In most cases tertiary educational institutions (TEI) are working individually to address environmental sustainability (ES) while taking advantage of a range of information sources and networks, such as Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) to help them achieve their ES aims. In the Canterbury region of New Zealand the four major TEIs have formed an official joint working group to address environmental sustainability on all their campuses. The Environmental Sustainability Working Group (ESWG) started in late 2003 as a grass roots network of staff and students who were interested in ES from the four institutions. The vision was to provide a forum for mutual support, sharing knowledge, information and experience, thereby resulting in faster implementation of ES initiatives at the member institutions. To give the group sufficient ‘authority’ to achieve its aims it was considered vital that the group be officially recognised by the institutions and have the support of senior management. This was achieved under the ‘umbrella’ organisation the Canterbury Tertiary Alliance (CTA) (www.cta.ac.nz). The CTA is a formal alliance between the University of Canterbury (UC), Lincoln University (LU), the Christchurch College of Education (CCE) and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) and was formed in 2001. The aim of the CTA is “to ensure that Christchurch's four major providers develop tertiary education choices in Canterbury in a complementary way. This ensures cooperation in best practice, cost efficiencies, collegiality and ultimately benefits our students” (www.cta.ac.nz/news/cta1.pdf , examples of other CTA activities are joint purchasing initiatives for information technologies and libraries and reciprocal library borrowing rights). Terms of reference for the Environmental Sustainability Working Group (Figure 1) were endorsed by the CTA executive in June 2004. The CTA executive consists of the Vice Chancellors, Principal and Chief Executive of the member institutions and other senior managers. With this authority the ESWG moved on to develop it first major project: waste minimisation

Steam and fish fertilisers: a potential organic systemic herbicide?

A number claims have been made in New Zealand that the combination of steam and foliar fish fertilisers has a systemic herbicide effect. However, these claims are not supported by robust data indicating the necessity for a comprehensive research experiment in order to prove or disprove the hypothesis. A set of experiments was conducted to determine the herbicidal effect of steam in conjunction with two fish fertilisers and two vegetable oils, one containing high levels of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and the other of low chemical reactivity, on a range of pasture plant species. No evidence of a systemic weed kill was found. Similar claims exist regarding the systemic effect of the organically certified contact herbicide Interceptor® in combination with steam. No experimental evidence was found for this either. It was considered that a solid refutation of the concept would be if steam heating plants prevented a systemic herbicide from working. An experiment testing this found that when applied immediately after steaming, Roundup® (glyphosate) was still effective. It can be concluded that while the idea that steam can turn fertilisers and contact herbicides into systemic ones can not entirely be refuted, there is no concrete scientific evidence to support the concept.The author acknowledges The Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF), Ministry of Agriculture for funding the trial

Organic weed management: a practical guide.

Weed management has been identified in many surveys of organic growers and farmers as being their number one problem, often by over 80% of respondents. Good weed management is essential for a successful organic enterprise. However, the amount of detailed information on organic weed management is often sparse and more often covers ‘what’ needs to be done rather than ‘how’ to do it. This aims to address that gap with information on both what needs to be done and how to do it

Industrial hemp and its potential for New Zealand

This report is aimed at farmers, processors and the sections of government involved in the reintroduction of industrial hemp. It aims to provide, assuming no prior knowledge, background information on hemp and the issues surrounding it. It analyses the current political and legal situation; and estimates the potential economic, social and environmental costs and benefits for New Zealand, and makes recommendations based on that analysis. There are detailed briefings on the history, biology, agronomy, and end products of industrial hemp. These provide important technical information and support the analysis and recommendations of the report. These can be left unread if the reader’s main focus is policy issues

The organic seed market and computer vision guidance systems for agriculture

Lincoln Foundation gran