Posts by Ross Mason
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you don’t import a new plant into NZ without making sure it doesn’t overrun our native forests (gorse).
And in the dog kingdom. Pit bulls. The bastard who signed those in should be shot.
What risk assessment?
PS @Bart, Keep it up, you are doing well.
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WHAT???
It is just a teaser with not a lot of substance
It must be true. I read it in the paper!!!
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Little aside..but linked:
Had this email from a friend who has close links with "the 'old DSIR" Grasslands.
"I didn't hear any claims that the GM clover fixed less nitrogen. So I think that was probably a red herring. I was just trying to point out how important clover has been to NZ - 'like forever', whether the public realised it or not. I don't think many people realise just how much research Grasslands has been doing for decades to improve our pasture - it is an unsung success, going on in the background. Apparently NZ farmers were much keener uptakers than Old World farmers overseas, in that they were always keen to plough under their pasture and resow if Grasslands put out a new variety that was better, which they frequently did. Folk spent years collecting pasture seeds overseas to try to breed new varieties here with better characteristics than ours, like to add in extra drought resistance or rust resistance or pest resistance or anything else."
She also told me of doing high school holiday work testing for tanins in clover(!) years ago at Grasslands. So it has been going on for a while.
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Russell:
The development of crop varieties that fix their own nitrogen from the air and effectively provide their own fertiliser is being pursued in various places. That would be an amazing innovation.
and Joe Wylie
You reckon? All legumes - beans, peas, lentils, etc. - already do this to some degree without benefit of genetic assistance
Quite.
This country's farms have been built on clover purely for the reason it DOES fix nitrogen from the air. The problem with clover that doesn't if I get the drift with the new stuff is that it may produce less. Then Joe Farmer will need to dump even more "nasty artificial nitrogen" - usually urea - into the ground to replace the "naturally acquired stuff".
Piss on it.
Hmmm......more urea....more run off....less farting....more milk...decisions decisions decisions...
Edit: _ Quick search reveals no mention of less nitrogen fixing in mentioned type of clover but it might be worth asking someone who knows if hte clovers we use on the farm fix more nitrogen or not.
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Shock horror.......
Apols to S&G
Time, time, time, see what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winterAhhh, seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me
At any convenient time
Funny how my memory slips while looking over manuscripts
Of unpublished rhyme
Drinking my vodka and lime
Have fun and thanks for the book! -
FYI I managed to slip in a brief mention of Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves in today's thermo lecture
.......the poetic "disassembly" of body parts......??
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Moggys huh?
Eric Bogle had something to sing about them.
And we can't forget Little Gomez since we are talking about pets....
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Choke.
I keep hearing Forest's Mum saying: "It's my time Forest, it's my time."
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I thought we just looked for the FMBs?
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You will never be anything more than Poets, Scientists and other dreary things that don't inspire great things.
Quite right. I'm so f*%king bored.
And Poets
And dreary things And how to spice it up a bit