Abstract

Nutrient losses from farmland are a contributor to excessive nutrient levels in ground and surface water. Better farm management can be used to reduce the amount of nutrients lost from the farm and into water bodies. A nutrient budget is one way of indicating amounts of nutrients that may be lost from the farm, and whether or not nutrients are accumulating in the soil. A series of nutrient budgets done over time can also indicate whether changing farm practises are having an impact on the amounts of nutrients lost to the environment.

Greenhouse gas emissions are also of interest to environmental issues and reflect aspects of the efficiency of productivity, and energy and nitrogen use on farms (Wheeler et al. 2003).

Nutrient Budgets for Waikato Dairy and Sheep/Beef Farms for 1997/98 and 2002/03 [PDF, 730 KB]

Nutrient budgets for Waikato dairy and sheep/beef farms for 1997/98 and 2002/03

Abstract