Farming impacts on water quality

Dr Stewart Ledgard.

AgResearch’s Dr Stewart Ledgard and his team have been working with Lake Taupo farmers and Environment Waikato to develop workable policy to reduce the impact of farming on water quality.

The team is working with a local farmer-led group to test on-farm technologies and management options to maximise farm profitability within nitrogen caps. They’re also developing and validating models to estimate nitrogen losses and mitigation options, including AgResearch’s OVERSEER® tool – software that enables farmers to examine the efficiency of nitrogen use and flows within a farm, possible environmental impacts and mitigation options.

In offering farmers practical nitrogen mitigation strategies that optimise productivity while complying with regional council limits, and providing councils with research that enables them to develop workable policy, this work will be critical in helping farmers and regional councils throughout the country find the balance between economic return and maintaining the environment.