24 Apr 2012

New facility for research on farm emissions opens

2:16 pm on 24 April 2012

Landcare Research has opened a new $2.2 million greenhouse gas research facility at Lincoln University.

The research organisation is helping farmers develop technologies to offset and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with farming.

Chief scientist David Whitehead says the site will help to plug a knowledge gap on the effects of dairy conversions in relation to greenhouse gas emissions.

New field instruments for long-term measurement of greenhouse gas exchange and water use are features of the new facility.

Under current legislation agriculture won't come into the Emissions Trading Scheme until 2015, although the Government has proposed extending that to three years beyond another review due to be done in 2014.