A young Queensland scientist has won a people's choice Fresh Science award for her groundbreaking research into keeping cow urine out of waterways.

Amanda Neilen discovered that if carbon was added to paddocks, it could reduce nitrogen run-off, fertilise pasture, and prevent the pollution of creeks, rivers and reefs.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 5 minutes 27 seconds 5 m Researcher Amanda Neilen and Maleny Dairies' Sonya Hopper discuss cow urine research. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols ) Download 2.5 MB

"Cow urine is a problem in waterways because it is readily available for algae," Ms Neilen said.

"Algae gobble it up and they can form into blooms, which means we can't swim in our waterways and also it costs more money to treat the water, so we really want to keep the food source for algae out.

"Your average cow can have up to five or six urination events a day, and each time a cow pees it can produce between half a litre to about two litres of liquid."

Amanda Neilen conducted her research over two years. ( Supplied: Fresh Science Awards )

Multiplied by 26.1 million cattle in Australia, it is estimated that between 65 to 312 million litres of cow urine enter our environment every day.

The PhD student at Griffith University's Australian Rivers Institute worked with farmers, environmentalists and other scientists during the two-year research project.

"I think from when I first started and suggested this topic to my supervisor, she found it instantly novel and funny and she said, 'Yes, you should look at what keeps cow piss out of waterways'," Ms Neilen said.

Australia has 2.8 million head of dairy cattle and 23.3 million beef cattle. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"I collected fresh cow urine from Maleny Dairies and I was able to apply this to different treatments, and look at the different pathways that kept urine in the soil and stopped it from leaching out of the soil.

"We did find that we could add carbon to the soil, which was a pretty novel and exciting finding, because the carbon was actually like a great food source for the microbes and made them start increasing their productivity.

"They were able to hold the nitrogen in the soil, which is what we wanted.

"Adding carbon to the soil made quite a big difference. For example, grass uptake reduced nitrogen leaching by 70 per cent."

Amanda Neilen says cow urine is high in nitrogen, which can wash into waterways. ( Supplied: Fresh Science Awards )

Useful way to reduce cattle waste

Ms Neilen said carbon could be readily purchased and easily applied to paddocks to capture urine as a productive, natural source of fertiliser.

She said adding carbon to nitrogen was like adding tomato sauce to hot chips.

"Nitrogen in cow urine is not the easiest of microbes to process, but when you put something they do like, such as biochar carbon, into the soil, they were able to gobble it up quickly," Ms Neilen said.

"This hadn't been looked at in this area before.

High levels of nitrogen water can lead to algal blooms and fish kills. ( Supplied: Fresh Science Awards )

"A lot of farmers are already considering how to reduce the impact of cattle waste, but we do need further research.

"There is high demand for beef and dairy products, so we need to be able to increase our stocking rate while still protecting the waters."

The research project was published in the international Journal of Environmental Management, and won the Queensland Fresh Science People's Award.

The award was part of a national competition aimed at helping early-career researchers share their stories of discovery.

Maleny Dairies' Sonya Hopper is adopting new practices to keep waterways cleaner. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Maleny Dairies considers use of carbon

Ms Neilen's enthusiastic approach to collecting samples for her field research proved novel for Sonya Hopper and the rest of the team at Maleny Dairies.

"She was very keen when a cow started to urinate, which we usually run away from, so that was quite funny," Ms Hopper said.

Drinking troughs and concrete creek crossings have been installed at the dairies to stop cows churning up the waterways.

"It's very important for us to protect our waterways and to keep our land clean," Ms Hopper said.

Maleny Dairies has installed concrete culverts at crossings to stop cows churning up the waterways. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"Having a natural thing like urine mixed with carbon to keep the nitrogen in the soil is very important for our grass growth, and the grass growth impacts the amount and the quality of milk that our cows produce.

"In the summertime the production of the cows goes up a lot, and that's only because of the grass growth."

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Maleny Dairies uses processed chook manure to fertilise its pastures, and before hearing of the results of the research, had not actively added carbon to their paddocks.

The Hoppers are now considering a trial of it.