title: Grazing and feeding management to reduce urinary nitrogen excretion and enteric methane emissions while maintaining or increasing milk production

authors: Garrett, Konagh

abstract: Rising global population is driving the requirement for more sustainable food production. Although, pastoral milk production efficiency has improved to meet demand, the intensification of practices has simultaneously increased environmental footprint by increasing methane (CH₄) emissions and urinary nitrogen (UN) excretion. Therefore, design and evaluation of practical on farm mitigation methods are required. The objective of this thesis was to explore strategic feeding managements during early and late lactation, with the aim of reducing methanogenesis and UN excretion, while maintaining milk production.
For the purpose and objective of this work, the mechanistic and dynamic dairy cow model, MINDY (Gregorini et al., 2013, 2015, in press) was used. 
The first modelling experiment evaluated the effect of altering herbage allowance (HA) on dry matter intake (DMI), milk solids (MS), UN, and CH₄ production. As expected, greater HA increased DMI and MS production at a diminishing rate. Increased HA heightened consumption of fermentable carbohydrates and N containing compounds, resulting in greater emissions of both CH₄ and UN. However, with increased HA the emission intensity (g kg MS⁻¹) and CH₄ yield (g CH₄ kgDM⁻¹) declined. The results from this experiment agree with other studies and was used as a basis to add additional strategic feeding management in the following experiments.
The second experiment examined altering the time of herbage allocation to reduce methanogenesis and UN excretion while maintaining MS production. The treatments were a factorial arrangement of HA (as the first experiment) and time of pasture allocation either after the morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) milking. The PM treatments on average had a greater DMI (1.9 and 1.7%) and MS yield (2.3 and 0.7%) as compared to AM, in EL and LL respectively. The PM treatments also produced 5.1 and 3.6% more CH4 and 4.7 and 7.8% less UN in EL and LL, respectively. Altering the time of HA is a simple and cost-effective management practice to reduce the environmental footprint of productive grazing dairy cows.
Finally, supplementation strategies were evaluated on top of experiment two’s treatments by the addition of either maize silage (MZ), maize grain (MG), or barley grain (BG) fed either prior to AM, PM, or each milking. When allocated BG, MZ, and MG in the PM rather than the AM cows respectively consumed 0.2, 8.9, and 1.2% more DM in EL and 4.0, 11.0, and 2.5% more DM in LL. Consequently, PM allocation of BG, MZ, and MG resulted in production of 0.2, 2.2, and 0.3 % more MS in EL, and 1.7, 3.6, and 1.0 % greater in LL. Similarly, the PM supplement allocation on average excreted less UN and emitted more CH₄. However, the weak positive relationship between CH₄ and UN indicates potential to simultaneously reduce their production by altering the time of herbage and supplement allocation. 
Grazing and feeding management tools are inexpensive and easily integrated into practice yet aid in reaching both mitigation and production goals. Further empirical research is required to understand their usage under competitive grazing and use in conjunction with other mitigation techniques.

text: Grazing and feeding management to reduce urinary nitrogen excretion and enteric methane emissions while maintaining or increasing milk production Rising global population is driving the requirement for more sustainable food production. Although, pastoral milk production efficiency has improved to meet demand, the intensification of practices has simultaneously increased environmental footprint by increasing methane (CH₄) emissions and urinary nitrogen (UN) excretion. Therefore, design and evaluation of practical on farm mitigation methods are required. The objective of this thesis was to explore strategic feeding managements during early and late lactation, with the aim of reducing methanogenesis and UN excretion, while maintaining milk production.
For the purpose and objective of this work, the mechanistic and dynamic dairy cow model, MINDY (Gregorini et al., 2013, 2015, in press) was used. 
The first modelling experiment evaluated the effect of altering herbage allowance (HA) on dry matter intake (DMI), milk solids (MS), UN, and CH₄ production. As expected, greater HA increased DMI and MS production at a diminishing rate. Increased HA heightened consumption of fermentable carbohydrates and N containing compounds, resulting in greater emissions of both CH₄ and UN. However, with increased HA the emission intensity (g kg MS⁻¹) and CH₄ yield (g CH₄ kgDM⁻¹) declined. The results from this experiment agree with other studies and was used as a basis to add additional strategic feeding management in the following experiments.
The second experiment examined altering the time of herbage allocation to reduce methanogenesis and UN excretion while maintaining MS production. The treatments were a factorial arrangement of HA (as the first experiment) and time of pasture allocation either after the morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) milking. The PM treatments on average had a greater DMI (1.9 and 1.7%) and MS yield (2.3 and 0.7%) as compared to AM, in EL and LL respectively. The PM treatments also produced 5.1 and 3.6% more CH4 and 4.7 and 7.8% less UN in EL and LL, respectively. Altering the time of HA is a simple and cost-effective management practice to reduce the environmental footprint of productive grazing dairy cows.
Finally, supplementation strategies were evaluated on top of experiment two’s treatments by the addition of either maize silage (MZ), maize grain (MG), or barley grain (BG) fed either prior to AM, PM, or each milking. When allocated BG, MZ, and MG in the PM rather than the AM cows respectively consumed 0.2, 8.9, and 1.2% more DM in EL and 4.0, 11.0, and 2.5% more DM in LL. Consequently, PM allocation of BG, MZ, and MG resulted in production of 0.2, 2.2, and 0.3 % more MS in EL, and 1.7, 3.6, and 1.0 % greater in LL. Similarly, the PM supplement allocation on average excreted less UN and emitted more CH₄. However, the weak positive relationship between CH₄ and UN indicates potential to simultaneously reduce their production by altering the time of herbage and supplement allocation. 
Grazing and feeding management tools are inexpensive and easily integrated into practice yet aid in reaching both mitigation and production goals. Further empirical research is required to understand their usage under competitive grazing and use in conjunction with other mitigation techniques.

year: 2018

title: Child poverty and media advocacy in aotearoa

authors: Barnett, Alison Reremoana

subjects: child poverty

abstract: New Zealand has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Research has shown that modern mass media provide a mediated cultural forum through which policy responses to child poverty are socially negotiated and from which public support for children in need is either cultivated or undermined. This thesis focuses on the role of media advocacy by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) who attempt to widen public debate and legitimate options for addressing child poverty. I investigate the case of the Government's Working for Families package and the controversy surrounding the media release of CPAG's negative evaluation of the package in the form of a research report Cut Price Kids. Attention is given to competing ideological frames underlying the Government's package, in the form of neo-liberal emphases on distinctions between  God's  and the  Devil's  poor. Attention is also given to CPAG's response, in the form of communitarian notions of collective responsibility for all families in need. Specifically, I analyse the role of the mass media in framing child poverty as a social issue across three levels of mass communication - production, representation, and reception. At the production level interviews were held with six journalists involved with reporting on Cut Price Kids and two members of CPAG. Fifteen Government and 5 CPAG press releases were also explored to document media production processes and restraints on public deliberations. In addition, the ideological stances influencing the framing of coverage were investigated. At the media representation level 21 press, seven radio, and five television items were analysed to establish the scope of public debate, whose perspectives were included, and the ways in which differing perspectives are combined. At the reception level four focus group discussions with lower socio-economic status (SES) parent groups, as well as follow-up photo-based interviews with eight participants were explored in order to document the role of media coverage in the lives of families with children living in poverty. Across levels, findings suggest that journalists are restrained by professional practices which maintain the importance of balance and detached objectivity, rather than interpretations of appropriate responses to child poverty. Tensions between the Government's emphasis on restricting support to families with parents in paid employment and CPAG's emphasis on the need to not discriminate against the children of out of work families framed coverage. The lower SES parents participating at the reception level challenged the restrained nature of coverage, which excluded people such as themselves, and openly questioned media characterisations of them as  bludgers  who are irresponsible parents. Overall, findings support the view that media are a key component of ongoing social dialogues through which public understandings of, and policy responses to, child poverty are constructed. Specifically, psychologists need to engage more with processes of symbolic power which shape the public construction of child poverty in a conservative manner that can lead to victim blaming, and restrains opportunities for addressing this pressing social concern.

text: Child poverty and media advocacy in aotearoa New Zealand has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Research has shown that modern mass media provide a mediated cultural forum through which policy responses to child poverty are socially negotiated and from which public support for children in need is either cultivated or undermined. This thesis focuses on the role of media advocacy by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) who attempt to widen public debate and legitimate options for addressing child poverty. I investigate the case of the Government's Working for Families package and the controversy surrounding the media release of CPAG's negative evaluation of the package in the form of a research report Cut Price Kids. Attention is given to competing ideological frames underlying the Government's package, in the form of neo-liberal emphases on distinctions between  God's  and the  Devil's  poor. Attention is also given to CPAG's response, in the form of communitarian notions of collective responsibility for all families in need. Specifically, I analyse the role of the mass media in framing child poverty as a social issue across three levels of mass communication - production, representation, and reception. At the production level interviews were held with six journalists involved with reporting on Cut Price Kids and two members of CPAG. Fifteen Government and 5 CPAG press releases were also explored to document media production processes and restraints on public deliberations. In addition, the ideological stances influencing the framing of coverage were investigated. At the media representation level 21 press, seven radio, and five television items were analysed to establish the scope of public debate, whose perspectives were included, and the ways in which differing perspectives are combined. At the reception level four focus group discussions with lower socio-economic status (SES) parent groups, as well as follow-up photo-based interviews with eight participants were explored in order to document the role of media coverage in the lives of families with children living in poverty. Across levels, findings suggest that journalists are restrained by professional practices which maintain the importance of balance and detached objectivity, rather than interpretations of appropriate responses to child poverty. Tensions between the Government's emphasis on restricting support to families with parents in paid employment and CPAG's emphasis on the need to not discriminate against the children of out of work families framed coverage. The lower SES parents participating at the reception level challenged the restrained nature of coverage, which excluded people such as themselves, and openly questioned media characterisations of them as  bludgers  who are irresponsible parents. Overall, findings support the view that media are a key component of ongoing social dialogues through which public understandings of, and policy responses to, child poverty are constructed. Specifically, psychologists need to engage more with processes of symbolic power which shape the public construction of child poverty in a conservative manner that can lead to victim blaming, and restrains opportunities for addressing this pressing social concern.

year: 2006

title: Interface of gender and culture

authors: Tamasese, Kiwi

subjects: Maori

abstract: I greet you in the soothing waters of the Pacific. The birth waters of Hawai’i to the North, island of the dream time, and Aotearoa, to the south. Papua New Guinea to the West and Marquesas to the East.  These islands are the gathering places of the world’s largest Continent, the Pacific. We of this continent know that her birth waters are our connection.  We also know that she is woman identified. It is no surprise therefore that from Hawai’i to the north to Aotearoa in the south the positioning of women in each of these societies bears a different story to that of the women of the continent of Europe.  This reality lived out in Hawai’i means women shared with men the ultimate leadership of peoples.  This location of women power is named Kuhinanui. Many remarkable women of Hawai’i occupied this position.  From times of peace throughout to the first clash with imposed new culture, women of Hawai’i led, bled, struggled, defied and kept the kukui of self belief burning. Genealogically Hawai’i is connected to her other sisters throughout the Pacific.  The story of Kuhinanui Liliuokalani is poignant.

text: Interface of gender and culture I greet you in the soothing waters of the Pacific. The birth waters of Hawai’i to the North, island of the dream time, and Aotearoa, to the south. Papua New Guinea to the West and Marquesas to the East.  These islands are the gathering places of the world’s largest Continent, the Pacific. We of this continent know that her birth waters are our connection.  We also know that she is woman identified. It is no surprise therefore that from Hawai’i to the north to Aotearoa in the south the positioning of women in each of these societies bears a different story to that of the women of the continent of Europe.  This reality lived out in Hawai’i means women shared with men the ultimate leadership of peoples.  This location of women power is named Kuhinanui. Many remarkable women of Hawai’i occupied this position.  From times of peace throughout to the first clash with imposed new culture, women of Hawai’i led, bled, struggled, defied and kept the kukui of self belief burning. Genealogically Hawai’i is connected to her other sisters throughout the Pacific.  The story of Kuhinanui Liliuokalani is poignant.

year: 1993