Winter housing/stand-off pads

Research has shown that the microbes in the soil that convert nitrogen into nitrous oxide are at their most active when soils are very wet. By removing stock from wet pasture using winter housing or stand-off pads, the amount of nitrogen deposited onto the soil in dung and urine at these critical periods can be reduced.

This reduces both leaching and nitrous oxide emissions although by how much is situation and weather specific. A potential downside is that the dung and urine produced while livestock are removed from pasture may need to be stored and this produces more methane emissions than if it was deposited onto soils during grazing.

Research is underway to quantify reductions of nitrous oxide emissions achievable through this action, under different farming regimes and in different parts of the country. Research is also underway into the effects on methane emissions of collecting and managing effluent from winter housing and stand-off pads. Scientists want to establish whether using housing/stand-off pads will simply swap emissions of one greenhouse gas for another.