Aim: to use both the CenW and Hurley Pasture models to predict a range of management practices that may influence long and short term soil carbon storage.
CenW research: Exploring the impacts of management and climate on the carbon balance, and explore the changes in soil carbon in grazed grassland systems.
Hurley Pasture Model: Exploring how the alternation of fundamental plant traits can influence carbon and nitrogen in plants, animals and soils. Using a range of management scenarios, the impacts on nitrification, denitrification and the sequestration on carbon will be explored.
Lead research partners
Landcare ResearchMassey University
Latest progress
"MODELLING WORK KEY TO UNDERSTANDING LONG TERM EFFECTS ON SOIL CARBON: Two models, CenW and the Hurley Pasture model, continue to be used in parallel with experimental field work. These provide different, yet complementary, approaches to understanding short and long term effects on soil carbon levels of management techniques and on-farm changes. Our findings include demonstrating that feeding supplements to dairy cows improves efficiency - increasing product produced per hectare while reducing losses of nitrogen, and increasing carbon sequestration per hectare on farm."
Read full annual report