Pastoral Robotics – Award Winning Technology
Recognised by IMechE, Pastoral Robotic’s solution to nitrate leaching and greenhouse gas emissions from dairy farming is a world first. Learn about the solution and the challenges, both engineering and human.
NZ technology, known as ‘Spikey’, is solving the nitrogen problem faced by pastoral dairy farming. Recognized by IMechE in London – Spikey was awarded the Energy, Environment and Sustainability Prize in London in December 2020. Pastoral Robotics founder, Geoff Bates, will present the technology that keeps the nitrogen on farm where it is beneficial and out of the environment.
Nitrogen is lost off farms in the environmentally harmful forms of:
• Nitrate – that damages our aquifers, rivers and lakes,
• Ammonia – that causes smog
• Nitrous oxide – one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
Yet plants need nitrogen to grow. This technology solves the problem by diverting more of the available nitrogen into herbage growth and minimising losses.
The presentation explains the issue and the solution and the as well as the practical challenge of creating an entirely new machine and new market niche – location and treatment of urine patches the source of high nitrate concentration.