title: The Occurrence and Causes of Pasture Pulling Under Dairy Farming on Pumice Soils

authors: Bagley, Emma Rosiland

subjects: Pasture pulling

abstract: The occurrence, and causes, of pasture pulling under dairy farming on Orthic Pumice Soils (Typic Udivitrands) in the central North Island of New Zealand was investigated. Pasture pulling occurs on Pumice Soils, where dairy cows pull clumps of pasture from the soil, thus diminishing pasture production. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence, and establish the causes, of pasture pulling under dairy farming on Orthic Pumice Soil in the Central North Island, New Zealand.

Fifteen paddocks containing pasture of differing ages were investigated at Pouakani dairy farm near Mangakino. Soil profile descriptions were undertaken, and samples were taken seasonally to monitor root depth and density, soil macrofauna, soil dry bulk density, and penetration resistance. Pasture pulling was monitored every 3 weeks by recording the number and size of pulls in a 4 m² quadrant at five points equally spaced along a transect in 15 paddocks.  

Pasture pulling was recorded in all paddocks and occurred throughout the year, but was most common during the late summer and autumn. Up to 80 % of the root biomass was in the 0-5 cm depth. The 5-10 cm depth generally showed increased compaction with higher soil dry bulk density and penetration resistance then the surface soil. Pastures in isolated clumps were more commonly pulled than more evenly spread pastures. There was an interaction between pasture age and size of pulls, with more medium and large sized pulls in the younger (1-3 year old) pastures.  Although anecdotal evidence reports worse pulling in younger pastures, we did not find strong evidence for that assertion.

Pasture pulling in 2014 at Pouakani dairy farm was not more obviously impacted by insects. Grass population numbers were uniformly low, and black beetle was rarely seen. 

Perennial ryegrass was dominant in all paddocks. The paddocks with older, more established pastures contained a higher proportion of other grass species and weeds. Only grass was pulled, other species such as clover, chicory and weeds were not pulled by grazing stock. A pasture pulling index, created to account for the size distribution of the pulls, was more effective at illustrating the seasonal trends associated with pasture pulling than the mean total pulls per quadrat.

Overall, the pasture pulling was not severe at Pouakani Dairy farms in 2014. This study has not discovered one sole cause of pasture pulling at Pouakani dairy farms, but has identified a number of soil characteristics that may be contributing, including; limited rooting depth, low root density in the 5-10 cm depth, increased compaction with depth, less cohesive soil when it has low moisture, and the incidence of pasture growing in clumps.

text: The Occurrence and Causes of Pasture Pulling Under Dairy Farming on Pumice Soils The occurrence, and causes, of pasture pulling under dairy farming on Orthic Pumice Soils (Typic Udivitrands) in the central North Island of New Zealand was investigated. Pasture pulling occurs on Pumice Soils, where dairy cows pull clumps of pasture from the soil, thus diminishing pasture production. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence, and establish the causes, of pasture pulling under dairy farming on Orthic Pumice Soil in the Central North Island, New Zealand.

Fifteen paddocks containing pasture of differing ages were investigated at Pouakani dairy farm near Mangakino. Soil profile descriptions were undertaken, and samples were taken seasonally to monitor root depth and density, soil macrofauna, soil dry bulk density, and penetration resistance. Pasture pulling was monitored every 3 weeks by recording the number and size of pulls in a 4 m² quadrant at five points equally spaced along a transect in 15 paddocks.  

Pasture pulling was recorded in all paddocks and occurred throughout the year, but was most common during the late summer and autumn. Up to 80 % of the root biomass was in the 0-5 cm depth. The 5-10 cm depth generally showed increased compaction with higher soil dry bulk density and penetration resistance then the surface soil. Pastures in isolated clumps were more commonly pulled than more evenly spread pastures. There was an interaction between pasture age and size of pulls, with more medium and large sized pulls in the younger (1-3 year old) pastures.  Although anecdotal evidence reports worse pulling in younger pastures, we did not find strong evidence for that assertion.

Pasture pulling in 2014 at Pouakani dairy farm was not more obviously impacted by insects. Grass population numbers were uniformly low, and black beetle was rarely seen. 

Perennial ryegrass was dominant in all paddocks. The paddocks with older, more established pastures contained a higher proportion of other grass species and weeds. Only grass was pulled, other species such as clover, chicory and weeds were not pulled by grazing stock. A pasture pulling index, created to account for the size distribution of the pulls, was more effective at illustrating the seasonal trends associated with pasture pulling than the mean total pulls per quadrat.

Overall, the pasture pulling was not severe at Pouakani Dairy farms in 2014. This study has not discovered one sole cause of pasture pulling at Pouakani dairy farms, but has identified a number of soil characteristics that may be contributing, including; limited rooting depth, low root density in the 5-10 cm depth, increased compaction with depth, less cohesive soil when it has low moisture, and the incidence of pasture growing in clumps.

year: 2015

title: Hindcasting water clarity from Landsat satellite images of unmonitored shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand

authors: Hicks, Brendan J.

subjects: Monitoring

abstract: Cost-effective monitoring is necessary for all investigations of lake ecosystem responses to perturbations and long-term change. Satellite imagery offers the opportunity to extend low-cost monitoring and to examine spatial and temporal variability in water clarity data. We have developed automated procedures using Landsat imagery to estimate total suspended sediments (TSS), turbidity (TURB) in nephlometric turbidity units (NTU) and Secchi disc transparency (SDT) in 34 shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand, over a 10-year time span. Fifty-three Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus images captured between January 2000 and March 2009 were used for the analysis, six of which were captured within 24 h of physical in situ measurements for each of 10 shallow lakes. This gave 32-36 usable data points for the regressions between surface reflectance signatures and in situ measurements, which yielded r (2) values ranging from 0.67 to 0.94 for the three water clarity variables. Using these regressions, a series of Arc Macro Language scripts were developed to automate image preparation and water clarity analysis. Minimum and maximum in situ measurements corresponding to the six images were 2 and 344 mg/L for TSS, 75 and 275 NTU for TURB, and 0.05 and 3.04 m for SDT. Remotely sensed water clarity estimates showed good agreement with temporal patterns and trends in monitored lakes and we have extended water clarity datasets to previously unmonitored lakes. High spatial variability of TSS and water clarity within some lakes was apparent, highlighting the importance of localised inputs and processes affecting lake clarity. Moreover, remote sensing can give a whole lake view of water quality, which is very difficult to achieve by in situ point measurements.

text: Hindcasting water clarity from Landsat satellite images of unmonitored shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand Cost-effective monitoring is necessary for all investigations of lake ecosystem responses to perturbations and long-term change. Satellite imagery offers the opportunity to extend low-cost monitoring and to examine spatial and temporal variability in water clarity data. We have developed automated procedures using Landsat imagery to estimate total suspended sediments (TSS), turbidity (TURB) in nephlometric turbidity units (NTU) and Secchi disc transparency (SDT) in 34 shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand, over a 10-year time span. Fifty-three Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus images captured between January 2000 and March 2009 were used for the analysis, six of which were captured within 24 h of physical in situ measurements for each of 10 shallow lakes. This gave 32-36 usable data points for the regressions between surface reflectance signatures and in situ measurements, which yielded r (2) values ranging from 0.67 to 0.94 for the three water clarity variables. Using these regressions, a series of Arc Macro Language scripts were developed to automate image preparation and water clarity analysis. Minimum and maximum in situ measurements corresponding to the six images were 2 and 344 mg/L for TSS, 75 and 275 NTU for TURB, and 0.05 and 3.04 m for SDT. Remotely sensed water clarity estimates showed good agreement with temporal patterns and trends in monitored lakes and we have extended water clarity datasets to previously unmonitored lakes. High spatial variability of TSS and water clarity within some lakes was apparent, highlighting the importance of localised inputs and processes affecting lake clarity. Moreover, remote sensing can give a whole lake view of water quality, which is very difficult to achieve by in situ point measurements.

year: 2013

title: Lost in translation or lack of nuance? Perception of (near-)synonymy of common te reo Māori loanwords in New Zealand English

authors: Pohl, Alexander

abstract: Ongoing contact between languages and their speakers inevitably leads to a flow of words being borrowed from one language into another. Research in the field of language contact has established and documented the kinds of borrowed words that stick in their recipient language (Haspelmath 2009; Winford 2010). However, one question that has received comparatively less attention is how a newly adopted loanword relates to the structure of the existing lexicon it enters. In recent years, language contact research has thus seen a paradigm shift towards an onomasiological perspective (see Anderson et al. 2017; Crombez et al. 2022; Zenner et al. 2023). Within this approach, most studies looking at lexical variation between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms employ corpus linguistics methods (e.g. Onysko & Winter-Froemel 2011; Soares da Silva 2013). However, there is variation in how these corpus studies have investigated loanword meanings, and, to our knowledge, there has been almost no experimental research focussed specifically on the relationship between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms to date. This project presents a large-scale experimental approach from a case-study examining Māori loanwords borrowed into New Zealand English (NZE). NZE presents an unusual language contact situation because it involves a dominant language (NZE) receiving an exceptionally high amount of lexical material (words and phrases) from an Indigenous language: Māori. Further adding to the uniqueness of this contact situation is the fact that only a fraction of the population (<10%) speaks Māori fluently (Statistics New Zealand 2019). Nonetheless, Māori loanwords are ubiquitous, salient, and probably still increasing within the NZE lexicon (Macalister 2007; Trye et al. 2019). One important dimension of this set of borrowings are their semantic characteristics, which straddle three main classes of words: flora and fauna (mānuka ‘tea tree’), material culture (maunga ‘mountain’) and social culture (mana ‘power’).  Here, we report on a Qualtrics experiment devised to probe the perceived relationship between 60 Māori loanwords and their NZE equivalents, as ascertained from published sources. The synonymy judgements were elicited for pairs (e.g. whānau – family) using an analogue slider (ranging from 0 = non-synonymous to 100 = fully synonymous). Data was collected using a three-tiered questionnaire: 1) assessing synonymy of loanwords; 2) eliciting strategies for semantic assessments; and 3) collating background information about participants. Following cleaning and exclusions, the dataset showed a skew towards female participants, and for this reason, we focus our statistical analysis on the core sample containing (n = 170) young women (18-24 years). The results of the synonymy judgements analysis consist of qualitative inspections of box plots in relation to the semantic characteristics of Māori words in question, as well as sociodemographic variables of interest, specifically: years lived in Aotearoa NZ, and a composite score capturing exposure to and attitude towards Māori (TRMO). Preliminary findings suggest that many people think Māori loanwords are (highly) synonymous with NZE lexical alternatives. Our regression analyses exhibit evidence that years lived in Aotearoa NZ (p = 0.0054) and TRMO (p = 8.26e-10) can predict knowledge of Māori words. No statistically significant evidence was found for any predictors regarding the scores of the synonymy judgements; instead, we found that the random effects account for most of the variation. This is indicative of idiosyncratic loanword behaviour, in line with situations where variation is in-flux. These findings will be complemented by qualitative analyses of comments provided by participants in the open answer section (2). The talk will conclude with a summary of contributions to the general understanding of loanword meanings and contact-induced lexical change.

text: Lost in translation or lack of nuance? Perception of (near-)synonymy of common te reo Māori loanwords in New Zealand English Ongoing contact between languages and their speakers inevitably leads to a flow of words being borrowed from one language into another. Research in the field of language contact has established and documented the kinds of borrowed words that stick in their recipient language (Haspelmath 2009; Winford 2010). However, one question that has received comparatively less attention is how a newly adopted loanword relates to the structure of the existing lexicon it enters. In recent years, language contact research has thus seen a paradigm shift towards an onomasiological perspective (see Anderson et al. 2017; Crombez et al. 2022; Zenner et al. 2023). Within this approach, most studies looking at lexical variation between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms employ corpus linguistics methods (e.g. Onysko & Winter-Froemel 2011; Soares da Silva 2013). However, there is variation in how these corpus studies have investigated loanword meanings, and, to our knowledge, there has been almost no experimental research focussed specifically on the relationship between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms to date. This project presents a large-scale experimental approach from a case-study examining Māori loanwords borrowed into New Zealand English (NZE). NZE presents an unusual language contact situation because it involves a dominant language (NZE) receiving an exceptionally high amount of lexical material (words and phrases) from an Indigenous language: Māori. Further adding to the uniqueness of this contact situation is the fact that only a fraction of the population (<10%) speaks Māori fluently (Statistics New Zealand 2019). Nonetheless, Māori loanwords are ubiquitous, salient, and probably still increasing within the NZE lexicon (Macalister 2007; Trye et al. 2019). One important dimension of this set of borrowings are their semantic characteristics, which straddle three main classes of words: flora and fauna (mānuka ‘tea tree’), material culture (maunga ‘mountain’) and social culture (mana ‘power’).  Here, we report on a Qualtrics experiment devised to probe the perceived relationship between 60 Māori loanwords and their NZE equivalents, as ascertained from published sources. The synonymy judgements were elicited for pairs (e.g. whānau – family) using an analogue slider (ranging from 0 = non-synonymous to 100 = fully synonymous). Data was collected using a three-tiered questionnaire: 1) assessing synonymy of loanwords; 2) eliciting strategies for semantic assessments; and 3) collating background information about participants. Following cleaning and exclusions, the dataset showed a skew towards female participants, and for this reason, we focus our statistical analysis on the core sample containing (n = 170) young women (18-24 years). The results of the synonymy judgements analysis consist of qualitative inspections of box plots in relation to the semantic characteristics of Māori words in question, as well as sociodemographic variables of interest, specifically: years lived in Aotearoa NZ, and a composite score capturing exposure to and attitude towards Māori (TRMO). Preliminary findings suggest that many people think Māori loanwords are (highly) synonymous with NZE lexical alternatives. Our regression analyses exhibit evidence that years lived in Aotearoa NZ (p = 0.0054) and TRMO (p = 8.26e-10) can predict knowledge of Māori words. No statistically significant evidence was found for any predictors regarding the scores of the synonymy judgements; instead, we found that the random effects account for most of the variation. This is indicative of idiosyncratic loanword behaviour, in line with situations where variation is in-flux. These findings will be complemented by qualitative analyses of comments provided by participants in the open answer section (2). The talk will conclude with a summary of contributions to the general understanding of loanword meanings and contact-induced lexical change.

year: 2024