Otago | DairyNZ

Nutrients are not cheap – fertiliser alone can make up about 15 to 20 percent of farm working expenses.

Therefore, knowing how efficient your farm is at converting nutrient inputs into nutrients contained in product at a regional level and understanding where losses occur from your farm system is important.

Equally important is deciding where improvements can be made and at what cost.

Click here to view Otago nutrient management indicators

How can I be a more efficient user of nutrients?

Nutrient use efficiency is measured as the ratio of nutrient outputs in product (i.e. milk) to nutrient inputs (i.e. fertiliser and nutrients contained in imported feed).

The more output that can be achieved per unit of input, the more efficient the system is. Being a more efficient user of nutrients makes financial sense – all else being equal , increasing your farm’s nutrient use efficiency will increase productivity and profitability as well as have benefits for the environment.

Regional nutrient management indicators

We’ve developed regional nutrient management indicators to help you determine how you compare to your regional peers in terms of nutrient use efficiency and nutrient losses.

The indicator for nutrient use efficiency is nitrogen conversion efficiency (%). This indicator will tell you how efficient your farm system is at converting external N inputs (i.e. N contained in fertiliser and imported feed ) into N contained in products (i.e. milk and meat).

The indicators for nutrient losses are nitrogen leaching (kg N/ha/year) and phosphorus loss (kg P/ha/year). These indicators will tell you how much N is being leached or phosphorus is being lost from you farm system per annum as a result of current nutrient management practices.

You can find these figures in you nutrient budget or ask your fertiliser representative or farm consultant.