James Hanly

Citation

Thesis Title
Management practices and technologies for reducing Nitrogen and Phosphorus losses from soils receiving farm dairy effluent.

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Dairy farmers’ on-going non-compliance with effluent regulations is problematic. Mr Hanly used a whole system approach to quantify farm-scale nutrient losses in runoff, to demonstrate the impacts of effluent system constraints. He also measured nutrient losses in drainage caused by forage cropping, which is a common practice used to reduce potassium accumulation in soils receiving effluent. His research progressed to developing and evaluating a range of decision-support technologies to assist farmers with improving the design and management of their effluent systems. He also designed and trialled a novel drainage system for removing phosphorus from farm drainage waters and invented an automatic communication and pump shut-off device to improve irrigator reliability. The research demonstrates the benefits of tools that can guide farmers on effluent storage requirements and daily scheduling of irrigations, which are key aspects that influence system performance.

Supervisors
Professor Michael Hedley
Professor David Horne