INTEREST IN NITROGEN

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 9

INTEREST IN NITROGEN

Use of artificial nitrogen cropped up regularly when former Nuffield farming scholars attended a reunion conference at Palmerston North this week. Most have been impressed by the way that English farmers use nitrogen.

Mr P. G. Morrison, of Sheffield, set the ball rolling in a paper on advances in arable farming when he said that in the future it would be necessary to make greater use of available water and to have the main plant food, nitrogen, available at the lowest possible price.

Nitrogen fixed by clover was undoubtedly cheap, he said, but if arable farming was to develop and make best use of land, labour and capital reasonably-priced nitrogen was essential. This would benefit pastoral farming also by shortening the period of pasture dormancy. This was followed by a call from Mr C. N. Mackenzie, of Motunau, for an investigation to see what would be the place of nitrogen at half its present price.

Mr G. J. Slater, of Hilton, Geraldine, expressed his interest in the possible role of nitrogen in stimulating growth over the winter period when soil temperatures were low and the supply of other forms of nitrogen to the plant were restricted. He foresaw this being applicable over the southern half of New Zealand and suggested that use of artificial nitrogen might transform the whole country. If it was available for $3O a ton, he said, usage might soon move up to Im tons.

Mr J. L. Daniell (Master, ton) said that even on hill country where they relied on pastures nitrogen might fit in in certain circumstances.

In discussing lessons that could be learned from United Kingdom farming, Mr J. R. Cocks, of Eiffelton, referred to the contribution that nitrogen made in the United Kingdom to attaining top levels of production. He thought that they must all have been impressed with what could be done with nitrogen and in a world climate of falling nitrogen prices there were tremendous possibilities at the top level of management in cropping and other fields. This was a field for much research, he said. Later in a paper on research and extension Mr J. N. Tripe, of Wanganui, urged that farmers would have to

determine the form that they wanted nitrogen in. He said that he was keen on liquid nitrogen. At this stage Mr Slater suggested that they should get their nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium all in the one bag. Nitrogen was a highly complex subject and one of which in New Zealand very little was known, said Mr M. T. Bamford, of Masterton. In Canterbury, he thought, nitrogen in granulated form might largely be lost into the atmosphere and while application of anhydrous ammonia might I be the answer, here again there was the cost of the equipment to do this job.