Plantain proving its worth | Ep. 50

Rotorua farm owner Steve Holdem joins us to share his experience with Ecotain plantain: what’s worked well, what he and wife Paula have learned about maintaining it, and how it’s saving them from reducing their stocking numbers. 

Also on the podcast is DairyNZ’s Kate Fransen, who’ll give a clear overview of what a decade’s research has taught us about plantain. New results show even better than expected leaching reductions can be achieved.

Notes
Plantain - DairyNZ
DairyNZ Podcast: 'Plantain for production and environmental wins | Ep. 20'
Inside Dairy: pages 25-29 of June/July 2023 edition (goes live June 1)

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at talkingdairy@dairynz.co.nz

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Chapters

• 1:17 Intro to the DairyNZ-led Plantain Potency and Practice Programme
• 5:05 How plantain works: four mechanisms
• 8:20 Plantain's current use by farmers across the regions
• 10:02 Why Steve started using plantain
• 12:37 Learning to maintain it
• 15:12 Recent research results: significant leaching reductions
• 21:14 Results on Steve's farm
• 25:45 Steve: how to get the best out of plantain
• 28:09 How farmers can get credit for using plantain
• 30:56 Where to now with the research
• 33:25 Steve: "Get into it"
• 34:03 Kate on management challenges