Plantain Potency and Practice programme

The Earlys have used Ecotain® plantain for several years by incorporating it into seed mixes during pasture renewal. The farm also broadcasts plantain seed at 1-2 kg/ha/year on all existing pastures. Broadcasted paddocks have achieved an average of 9% plantain. The farm has also seen successful establishment of plantain when drilled into damaged or pugged areas. New swards have averaged 21% plantain declining to 11% in Year 2 and 10% in Year 3. There is currently 10% across the farm.

The News used Ecotain® plantain for five years and this year are moving on from the farm, with Athol taking up a farm consulting role. Plantain was incorporated into seed mixes during pasture renewal on 10% of the farm each year. New swards achieved an average of 21% plantain, declining to 12% in Year 2 and 7% in Year 3. This was complemented by broadcasting the whole farm each year at 1 kg/ha Ecotain® with phosphorus fertiliser which has been successful in maintaining plantain levels at 10% across the whole farm.

As the Chair of the Plantain Potency and Practice Governance Group, Andy is passionate about plantain and has been using it for several years on his farm in Ashburton. Ecotain® plantain is included at 3 kg/ha in all re-grassing seed mixes on 10% of the farm each year. Tall fescue and timothy are often included in the seed mix along with perennial ryegrass. As well as including plantain in new grass mixes, they also broadcast 1 kg/ha plantain across the whole farm each year in early spring. They achieve 40%, 19% and 11% in Years 1, 2 and 3 swards, and on average 9% from broadcasting. On average there is 13% plantain across the farm.

The Crofts joined the Plantain programme in 2025 as part of a collaborative project with Amuri Irrigation Company. Their farm, Hillcrest, is situated in the small Inness Drain catchment in the Amuri Basin, along with Peter Allison’s farm, Airlie (see dropdown). Monitoring of groundwater in the catchment has shown steady improvements in nitrogen levels, dropping from around 20 mg/L in 2020 to around 12-15 mg/L in 2025. Overseer-modelled nitrate leaching on Hillcrest farm has also decreased by around 22% in the same period. The Crofts are keen to see continued improvements to water quality in their catchment and are moving to rapidly establish plantain across their farm. They have included plantain in all new pasture mixes and are drilling plantain into existing swards on around one third of the farm each year.

Peter Allison and Fran Gunn have joined the Plantain programme with their farm Airlie in 2025 as part of the collaborative project with Amuri Irrigation Company. Like Hillcrest, Airlie is located in the small Inness Drain catchment. They have been using plantain for several years in their new grass mixes. This year, they achieved 17% plantain in their Year 1 swards. They will continue to establish plantain with new grass and potentially broadcasting in 2026, with the aim of reducing nitrogen in the catchment ground water.

The Ranfords joined the Plantain programme in 2025 as part of the Amuri Irrigation Company collaborative project. They have been using Ecotain® plantain for several years as part of their crop rotation on their runoff, Blakiston, which is in St Leonards Catchment, Amuri Basin. They have achieved excellent establishment and persistence, with averages of 22% plantain in Year 1, 13% in Year 2, 25% in Year 3, and 12% in Year 4. The pastures at Blakiston are cut for silage and grazed by young stock. They also use plantain at their nearby dairy farm where they have achieved 17% in first year swards, declining to 13% by the third year.

Gert and Arjan Van’t Klooster joined the programme in 2025 as part of a new collaborative project with DairyNZ, Morvern Glenavy Irrigation, and Environment Canterbury (ECan) to reduce nitrogen leaching in the Waikakahi catchment, where ground water nitrogen has been high. They have three farms in the catchment – Tawai, Bosterra, and Rua. Sowing including plantain took place for the first time in Spring 2025. They have so far sown 9 paddocks of new swards with 3 kg/ha Superstrike Ecotain® together with perennial ryegrass and white clover at Tawai and Bosterra. These achieved an average of 20% plantain content. They have also broadcast 59 paddocks with 4 kg/ha Prillcote Ecotain® plantain (2 kg/ha bare seed equivalent) in late spring. The autumn assessment showed low levels of plantain at 1% on average. This may be a result of sowing too late into spring when ryegrass covers were high. Gert and Arjan plan to broadcast earlier in spring next season and also establish more new pastures with plantain.

Robert Smith joined the programme as part of the Waikakahi catchment project in spring 2025, and broadcast 4 kg/ha Prillcote Ecotain® across both of his neighbouring farms, a total of 101 paddocks. The plantain was spread with nitrogen fertiliser following the cows in the first round in September. An average of 4% plantain was visible the following autumn and this is expected to increase over the next 12 months as the plants mature. Robert also established new grass swards including 3 kg/ha Ecotain® on four paddocks achieving an average of 20% plantain. He has had success with controlling weeds post-establishment using a weed wiper.

Bruce joined the programme as part of the Waikakahi catchment project and broadcast 11 paddocks with Ecotain® in November 2025. Average plantain content by autumn was 4% and this is expected to increase over the next 12 months.

Joy joined the programme in 2022 and has included plantain in some of her regrassing mixes over the past few years. She now has renewed interest as part of the Waikakahi catchment project, and has begun using plantain in all her new grass mixes and is also broadcasting in some paddocks to lift plantain levels.

These farms have predominantly focused on incorporating Ecotain® plantain in seed mixes for re-grassing for the last 4-5 years as part of the Edendale Aquifer Group project to reduce nitrogen leaching. They renew around 5% of the farm each year so expect around 3-4% plantain across the farm with pasture renewal alone. Swards have achieved around 15-20% plantain in the first 2 years, but spraying for Californian thistles and ragwort has prevented persistence for longer. This year the farms have experimented with increased rates of plantain seed and broadcasting into established pastures. There are some challenges with plantain establishment on wetter areas of the farms.

The McRaes have been successfully establishing Ecotain® plantain in new pastures for 6 years, and were instrumental in setting up the Edendale Aquifer Group, which has a strong focus on reducing nitrate leaching in the catchment. They generally establish new pastures following tulip crops, using a roller drill to keep the seed shallow. Using this method they have achieved 27%, 21%, 12% and 12% in Year 1, 2, 3 and 4-year-old pastures respectively. The McRaes broadcasted plantain into damaged paddocks after the wet year in 2024, achieving an average of 5% plantain in the first year and 20% by the second year. The McRaes are passionate about being pro-active in doing their bit for the environment.

Steve has been establishing Ecotain® plantain for three years as part of the Edendale Aquifer Group project to reduce nitrogen leaching. He has had excellent success using 3 kg/ha Ecotain® in his pasture mix, with average 36%, 17% and 8% plantain in 1-, 2- and 3-year-old swards respectively. Steve uses a roller drill to keep seed shallow at sowing. Steve has also had good success with broadcasting into established pastures, achieving an average of 10% in the first year. Broadcasting is done in October with a fertiliser spreader. Steve believes broadcasting in spring is more effective than autumn due to annual grasses filling the available gaps in autumn.

SDH started using Ecotain® plantain for the first time in spring 2022 by including it in their new pasture mixes. Plantain has been sown as part of new mixed swards in autumn and spring. The farm has had excellent success with high plantain levels established and achieved 10% across the farm area relatively quickly. New swards established with 3 kg/ha plantain have achieved an average of 25% plantain and held at around 20% for the second year and 12% in the third year. Some third-year swards have been maintained up to 20%. They have trialled broadcasting into established pastures, achieving 5-10% plantain.

Farmers in the Rotorua Lake catchment are required to achieve significant reductions in nitrogen loss to meet their nutrient discharge allowance allocated by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

The Holdems have been using Ecotain® plantain for seven years with great success. Predominantly, they broadcast plantain over the whole farm with fertiliser annually. Every paddock contains some level of plantain, achieving an average of 20% plantain content across the whole farm. The farm has also experimented with direct drilling plantain with an annual ryegrass in autumn to help with winter feed.

Farmers in the Rotorua Lake catchment are required to achieve significant reductions in nitrogen loss to meet their nutrient discharge allowance allocated by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

The Fowlers have been incorporating Ecotain® plantain for four years with great success, mainly through broadcasting seed with fertiliser, achieving 22% across the farm. The farm's topography is predominantly rolling, and the establishment of plantain has been very successful on the hill faces. All paddocks contain plantain, with at least a third of paddocks with 30% or more. The Fowlers have also been lowering nitrogen fertiliser inputs to 0-30kg/ha and have seen an increase in clover as a result. Their low-input, low-cost system has an operating profit 145% of the DairyBase average for the Rotorua district.

Farmers in the Rotorua Lake catchment are required to achieve significant reductions in nitrogen loss to meet their nutrient discharge allowance allocated by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

The Dibleys have been using Ecotain® plantain for four years with great success. Initially the plan was to broadcast one third of the dairy platform each year. However, after very successful establishment in the first year, and seeing the results on neighbouring farms, they now broadcast the whole farm at 3kg/ha every year. Almost one third of the farm currently has paddocks containing 30% or more plantain, with 19% across the whole farm.

Farmers in the Rotorua Lake catchment are required to achieve significant reductions in nitrogen loss to meet their nutrient discharge allowance allocated by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

The Beuths have used Ecotain® plantain for the past six years, predominantly established through broadcasting in autumn and including it in new pastures during renewal, achieving 12% across the farm. The Beuths have had success with drilling plantain with clover into newly established ryegrass, after broadleaf weed control. They have found that broadcasting in autumn onto very wet, poorly drained soil has led to low levels of plantain.

Farmers in the Rotorua Lake catchment are required to achieve significant reductions in nitrogen loss to meet their nutrient discharge allowance allocated by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Waerenga Farms have used Ecotain® plantain in the past and are now actively re-introducing it to the farm by broadcasting seed over their effluent block along with fertiliser, achieving 17% plantain. Having already achieved their 2032 nutrient target, the farm sees opportunities to use plantain to provide flexibility in stocking rates and production levels on farm.

Partner farmers in the Tararua district participated in the Tararua Plantain project from 2018 to 2021 and some of the farmers continued with the Plantain programme. Grasslands Association published results of monitoring on the farms. Click here for more information.

The Passeys have had good success with incorporating Ecotain® plantain into their farm system through a mixture of sowing it as pure swards, in mixed grass-based pastures, and broadcasting onto established pastures, achieving 16% across the farm.

Partner farmers in the Tararua district participated in the Tararua Plantain project from 2018 to 2021 and some of the farmers continued with the Plantain programme. Grasslands Association published results of monitoring on the farms. Click here for more information.

The Filers began using plantain as part of the Tararua Plantain project. A dedicated 13 ha block of the farm was sown in pure swards, making up 16% of the whole farm. Additional broadcasting of plantain seed with spring fertiliser on established pastures made up a total of 20% plantain across the whole farm.

Partner farmers in the Tararua district participated in the Tararua Plantain project from 2018 to 2021 and some of the farmers continued with the Plantain programme. Grasslands Association published results of monitoring on the farms. Click here for more information.

The Allomes were pioneers in the use of Ecotain® plantain in the Tararua district, introducing it into their farm system in 2017. They previously established pure plantain, or plantain and red? clover as part of a cropping rotation after fodder beet or turnips. After 18 months, plantain crops were oversown with permanent pastures, becoming mixed swards. Due to weed challenges, Ben and Nicky are re-focusing on establishing plantain in mixed swards.

Partner farmers in the Tararua district participated in the Tararua Plantain project from 2018 to 2021 and some of the farmers continued with the Plantain programme. Grasslands Association published results of monitoring on the farms. Click here for more information.

The Reads began using plantain as part of the Tararua Plantain project. They included Ecotain® plantain in a seed mix during re-grassing after turnip crops for several years. They are now also adding plantain in new pastures in spring after forage oats, and broadcasting plantain seed into damaged paddocks. Thomas and Jennifer believe plantain is a viable N-loss mitigation tool in a productive pasture system.

The Makkers have been incorporating Ecotain® plantain for the past six years with good success, mainly through broadcasting a third of the farm each year, achieving an average of 8% across the farm. The farm uses plantain as a tool to reduce nitrate leaching, provide a more reliable summer feed source, and reduce ryegrass staggers.

The van Rases used Ecotain® plantain from 2021-2024 as part of their plan to lower their footprint. Plantain was established by broadcasting the seed in spring with fertiliser, and by including it in new pasture mixes (first by establishing the grasses, controlling weeds, then broadcasting plantain). Using these methods, they achieved 7-10% plantain across their farm. They plan to pick up use of plantain again if nitrogen leaching becomes a catchment priority.

Owl Farm has been incorporating Ecotain® plantain since 2021. Plantain is established through new pastures. The farm has also started broadcasting in targeted paddocks that are more open, but not due for full renewal. Currently at 5% plantain across the farm, the goal is to build and maintain 10%.