Lake Taupo Protection Trust

Supporting research with MPI’s Sustainable Farming Fund
Ongoing

Introduction

Each farm in the Taupo Lake Care (TLC) region has a nitrogen (N) discharge allowance that potentially renders many current farming systems uneconomic. To assist farmers in the region, the Lake Taupo Protection Trust (LTPT) has initiated a research programme to provide data for evaluating and enabling a shift to a potentially low N-leaching farming system, which will assist farmers maintain a profitable enterprise while meeting their nitrogen discharge allowance. The SFF project will expand the LTPT programme by:

1. Extending the current Lake Taupo Protection Trust funded N-leaching under lucerne trial for a further two years to obtain robust scientific parameters for the Overseer model (used to calculate farm nitrogen discharges)
2. Providing robust data on N-leaching under cut-and-carry lucerne to the Overseer committee to fill a critical data gap
3. Communicating environmental results from the Lucerne trial to farmers in the catchment.

Read more

The Sustainable Farming Fund Project Summary and updates can be accessed at the Sustainable Farming Fund Portal – search for Grant Number 404960.