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How do I know my plantain is beneficial?

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  • Updated

OverseerFM has been updated to capture the diuretic response in animals as a result of consuming plantain. When plantain is entered as a part of a pasture mix in OverseerFM the model will derive the proportion of the diet plantain makes up for the enterprise and apply the response.

Most New Zealand research on plantain used the cultivars ‘Ceres Tonic’ (Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching) and AgriTonic (Greener Pastures). These are a relatively winter-active, prostrate, large- but narrow-leaved plantain type (Plantago lanceolata), with a coarse root structure1. Further characteristics of this type observed in various trials, relevant to the effects on nitrogen excretion in urine and therefore nitrate leaching risk, are its lower dry matter content, higher non-structural carbohydrate/nitrogen ratio and lower proportions of total nitrogen that are soluble and degradable compared with perennial ryegrass2.

  1. Stewart AV (1996) Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) – a potential pasture species. Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association 58: 77-86.
  2. Minnée E, Kuhn-Sherlock B, Pinxterhuis I and Chapman D (2019) Meta-analyses comparing the nutritional composition of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and plantain (Plantago lanceolata) pastures. Journal of New Zealand Grasslands 81: 117-123.

Research partners are currently seeking funding to enable a framework to be developed to assess the chemical profiles of other plant varieties to verify that they possess the attributes that result in N leaching reductions.

Overseer does not verify any product claims. Users will need to verify any product claims independently until such time as the industry has appropriate product labelling.