The Country 11/09/25: Dr David Burger talks to Jamie Mackay

DairyNZ's Chief Science and Innovation Officer says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last week on the Country. You might remember we were
talking about the beloved or our beloved Dr Mike Joy
banging on about nitrate leeching into waterways. Does he have
a fair point and does the solution or could the
solution lie in a simple plant called plantain. Let's ask
the newly announced darien Z Chief Science and Innovation Officer,

(00:23):
Doctor David Berger as one academic judging another is Mike
Joy barking up the wrong tree?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
David, Look, I think it's important that there's been a
lot of progress in the space over the last fifteen years.
Our farms are operating at very different levels of nitrogen
loss today is what we were in the past, and
we've had a real focus on farm solutions to and
mitigations and catchment scale action to try and reduce our
nitrogen footprints, and our science are showing that in many
parts of the country those nitrogen levels in terms of

(00:52):
what's lost from the farm is significantly lower today than
what it has been in the past.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
You guys have been running trials at Lincoln University and University,
for instance, the link con Tril showing a twenty six
percent reduction in night trade with an average of seventeen
percent of ecotaine plantain in the pasture, similar levels for
the Massi University trial. So these are pretty good results.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, that's right, And I think this research has been
all about providing farmers with low cost options to reduce
their nitrogen footprint and stay profitable. And certainly a few
years into that research program now built off a lot
of research before that, we are seeing really good results
in terms of those nitrogen reductions.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's all very well putting plantain into your pastures, and
I remember this back from my days as a farmer.
You've got to keep it persisting or do you have
to continually run short rotation pasture mixes and renewing your pasture.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
And look, that's an important part of the program as well,
understanding how we can maintain those plantain levels across the
sport and certainly in the Canterbury Farms study at the
moment it's showing that ten to fifty percent of plantain
across the whole farm is quite achievable by including it
as part of your seed mixed, as part of past
your renewal, as part of broadcasting and what have you
as well. But certainly a big part of this program

(02:11):
is not only about the science for reducing nitrogen, it's
also about the farm systems implications and how we can
manage that best and support the use of this technology
across the farm system.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
So plantain can reduce nitrogen leaching into waterways? What effect
does it have on the cow's diet? Can it reduce
methane emissions?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
So some of those aspects are also being looked at
as part of the program, but certainly real focus on
that nitrogen reduction potential that has shown up in a
really good results so far.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Hey, doctor David Berger, thanks for your time today. Congratulations
on the promotion. You are now dairyen Z's Chief Science
and Innovation Officer. Well done.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Thanks Jamie,