Staff profile:
https://researchers.lincoln.ac.nz/alistair.black
Position:
Senior Lecturer – Department of Agricultural Sciences, Agriculture & Life Sciences Faculty, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.
Email: Alistair.Black@lincoln.ac.nz
Work phone: (+64) 03 423 0694
My research quantifies pasture and forage crop responses to environment and management factors to provide agronomic solutions for on-farm problems.
My main focus has been on dryland pasture research including defining the agronomic requirements of Caucasian clover, Russell lupin and other legumes to increase their use on rainfed farms in summer dry regions of New Zealand. Pasture mixture optimisation, rhizobia symbiosis, ryegrass endophytes and annual forage crops are also part of my research activity.
My international research has included an MBIE-funded project in collaboration with Qinghai University, China, to investigate grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. My European collaborations are linked to an EU COST Action Initiative to ‘quantify forage yield and quality advantages of multi-species swards’, which I was involved in while working for Teagasc Grange Beef Research Centre, Ireland, prior to 2010.
I work closely with industry and farmers in New Zealand.
Key publications
- Nguyen TD, Andrews M, Ley TWS, Dash D, Petterson M, Weir BS, Morton JD, Black AD, Lucas RJ. 2019. Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum) specific rhizobia persist in low and high fertility soils in the South Island of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research.
- Bariroh NR, Bryant RH, Black AD. 2018. Plantain silage quality under variable management practices. Journal of New Zealand Grasslands 80: 119-124.
- Black AD, Anderson S, Dalgety SK. 2017. Identification of pasture mixtures that maximise dry matter yield. Journal of New Zealand Grasslands 79: 103-110.
