Fertiliser use in agriculture, although necessary for the production of healthy crops, can also be responsible for environmental pollution if not managed carefully. Year 11 Agriculture students have recently been modelling a trial on Urea use in wheat production.
The students, having set up multiple plots of wheat seeds, are trialling application of Urea fertiliser at varying rates. The students will examine the resulting dry matter that each trial plot produces to determine the best practice in nitrogen application. This is similar to research recently conducted by the Wheat CRCV (Cooperative Research Centre for Value), with results that found lowered rates of fertiliser application at an increased frequency dramatically lowered greenhouse gas production and increased crop production at the same time.
The students are keen to analyse their results as they will be put into practice immediately. As part of Agriculture, students are required to run a business. In Year 11, students must run a small nursery business, where budget inputs and outputs are carefully managed on a small scale. The information gathered from this trial will be put to immediate use, trying to improve their businesses and triple their bottom lines.
