Innovative Drainage Management Technologies

15/11/2022

Field day Thursday 17th November

29/06/2021

Our project demonstrated novel drainage management prototypes at National Fieldays, 16-19 June 2021, in Hamilton, where it attracted hundreds people’s attention, attention including farmers of all ages, members of the public and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Climate Change Minister James Shaw, Green MP Eugenie Sage, and MPI Chief Science Advisor Dr John Roche https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=F63139F6-F795-4A79-BFAA-E9D22B43A471

29/06/2021

ACRE (Agricultural Communities respecting the Environment) are hosting a day on 6th July at Andrew Hardie and Helen Longs farm at 569 Maunga road, Dannevirke. 12pm start with BBQ lunch.

ACRE support the Innovative Drainage Management Technologies project and recently Andrew and Helen have installed a bioreactor on their property in the Tararua as an extension of the SFF Project.

Open invite to join ACRE and Environment Network Manawatu as they look across Andrew Hardie and Helen Long’s dairy farm.
Areas on farm covered:
- Bioreactor installed to treat drainage water leaving the farm
- Monitoring of the standoff pad drainage water (by Horizons)
- River management
The day will conclude with the ACRE (Agricultural Communities Respecting the Environment) AGM

RSVP is not necessary, simply come along to see what ACRE is all about

25/11/2020

Summary report from the recent Field day at Waitatapia, Bulls - some positive findings so far.

18/11/2020

Great article in the Rural News this week covering the project and the Field day that was held at Waitatapia a few weeks ago

Preventing nitrogen getting into waterways is high on the priority list for many farmers and growers. There is no silver bullet because farms are different and what works on one property won’t work on another. Peter Burke recently went along to a field day where a solution using innovative drainag...

10/11/2020

A really enjoyable Field day last week at Waitatapia - great turn out and some really good engagement. The Project Team shared the positive results they are seeing from the project so far from both the controlled drainage and the woodchip bioreactor. Look out for the Summary Report from the Field Day over the coming weeks for more information.

27/10/2020

Join our next field day on Thursday 5th November, 9 am – 1 pm at Waitatapia Station, Bulls to learn and discuss what Massey University Researchers/Technicians are finding in their monitoring of shallow groundwater and the effect the woodchip bioreactor is having on nitrate losses in drainage waters at the Waitatapia site

22/10/2020

20/10/2020

A video from the early days of the project about why Hew Dalrymple got involved with the project. If you are keen to see the project in action and get an update on results to date, come along to the Field day at Waitatapia Station on Thursday 5th November - details in event post

21/09/2020

Massey technicians have been busy installing drain flow meters and water quality (nitrate) sensors at Waitatapia for continuous monitoring of farm drains. These set-ups will provide robust monitoring of the performance of controlled drainage and bioreactors at the site.
Stay tuned for the announcement of the next field-day when the project will share its results and findings.

14/09/2020

Covid has posed some major challenges to the project. However, once we entered Level 1 (and level 2 although with its challenges), fortnightly monitoring of drain flows and water quality at the project sites resumed. On the positive side, the controlled drainage is showing its potential to reduce nitrogen leaching by holding back drain water in the soil profile.