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A plantain that’s helping to solve one of New Zealand agriculture’s greatest challenges, nitrogen leaching and its effect on waterways, is winning awards for its developers. Agricom, a New Zealand based seed company, won the Primary Industries New Zealand, Innovation and Collaboration Award this week for its development of Ecotain®. Ecotain environmental plantain is a forage ...

Have you heard about Ecotain® environmental plantain, but want to know more about how to implement it on your farm?  Agricom is hosting four free events for farmers and rural consultants at Culverden, Bankside (near Rakaia), Temuka and Papakaio (near Oamaru) on Wednesday 12, Thursday 13, and Friday 14 September. These events are designed to provide information on the benefits ...

A plantain that started life as a common weed has been recognised for its contribution to the future of farming with an Innovation Award from Fieldays.  Ecotain® is an environmentally functional plantain that significantly reduces nitrogen leaching on livestock farms. It was officially launched in September 2017 when proprietary seed company Agricom announced major research fi ...

New independent research findings continue to highlight the nitrogen mitigating effects of Ecotain™ environmental plantain, with one study showing it halved the concentration of urinary nitrogen in cows. In September 2017, proprietary seed company Agricom announced major research findings that showed Ecotain can significantly reduce nitrogen leaching from urine patches on live ...

At the foot of the Kaimai Ranges lies the Troughton dairy farm. Ben and Sarah Troughton sharemilk 500 cows on the 200-hectare property, which is owned by Ben’s parents Terry and Margaret Troughton and has been in the family for more than 100 years. A lot has changed over the last century, and the current generation of Troughtons are embracing a variety of sustainable and envir ...

Around 150 industry stakeholders, seed retailers and farmers attended an on-farm event to hear the latest research findings on Ecotain™, a plantain cultivar that research has found acts environmentally to significantly reduce nitrogen leaching. Representatives from seed retailers Fonterra FarmSource, PGG Wrightson, Farmlands, dairy supplier Synlait, and other industry represen ...

The launch of the first ever environmental plantain that has been shown to reduce nitrogen leaching from the urine patch has been well received by industry and farmers, says Agricom lead scientist Dr Glenn Judson. Proprietary seed company Agricom has bred Ecotain, which has excellent performance as a forage plant for livestock and is the environmental plantain within Agricom’s ...

A plantain that started life as a common weed has now been shown to have the ability to significantly reduce nitrogen leaching from the urine patch. Proprietary seed company Agricom has bred the specific plantain genotype and says with New Zealand's national herd number of 6.5 million dairy cattle, the breakthrough could have a significant impact on reducing nitrogen leaching ...