This is no joke: New invention minimizes nitrate leaching from cow urine
Bert Quin, a fertilizer expert from New Zealand, has ascertained that every time a cow urinates, the one-foot-square area she's standing over can be flooded with the equivalent of 892 pounds of nitrogen per acre, or 20 times the recommended rate for pasture fertilizer.
Quin devised an unorthodox way for the cow to deliver a dose of a nitrification inhibitor which can reduce the leaching of nitrogen into the soil.
A switch under the cow's tail is attached to a spray can attached to her leg. When the tail goes up and the nitrogen goes out, it's accompanied by a spritz of DCD, a potent nitrification inhibitor.
Field trials are underway in New Zealand. Quin figures the system will cost less than $18 per cow and reduce nitrate leaching by 75 percent.
(Source: The Furrow, September-October 2005).
