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With dairy farming still a major contributor to NZ's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there is heightened interest in identifying and testing mitigation strategies for intensive dairy operations, as well as assessing their potential impact on the GHG inventory. With a recently acquired multi-gas analyser, Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research are now capable of undertaking continuous long-term paddock-scale studies of full GHG budgets of pasture systems. We have set up our multi-gas analyser system to investigate an irrigated mixed-species pasture right from the initial conversion, which is occurring this month. In this presentation we will demonstrate the capability of our system by showing measurements of the CO2, N2O, NH3 and CH4 exchange during a few weeks prior to the conversion. We show examples of the responses of the gas exchange to grazing events and to effluent application. We will also outline our measurement strategy for obtaining annual GHG budgets and assessing the mitigation effects of the mixed-species pasture.