viewpoint
January 2015
with John Barnes – Managing Director
We in the agricultural sector begin 2015 with a fresh set of challenges ahead of us; almost universally lower prices, but none more so than dairying. Our costings are going up with increased demands from the market and our government. All this is heading only one way and that is up.
I have experienced all of this before and it is really tough for our customers who are under immense pressure and I feel the pain. However, sympathy is one thing, but, it is solutions that farmers require from their suppliers in tough times and at Fertiliser New Zealand one of our stated objectives is Innovative Products for Sustainable Agriculture. Incidentally, history tells us that it is in the tough times that innovation is at its highest. Wikipedia explains that innovation is not invention or improvement; it is doing things differently. We find this an exciting challenge and it drives what we do.
I believe that we can grow more with less fertiliser than we are using now and we are going to have to, because phosphate, like oil and other minerals, is a finite resource and some mines only have another 300 years of useful life left in them.
So… in a period of depressed prices when every dollar counts it would seem to me to be a sensible time to look at innovative ways of cutting costs on fertiliser by talking to us. We have a track record of growing the production of our customers with less phosphate and nitrogen and we have been doing this for more than eleven years now. It is not magic but pure common sense and it is accomplished by using the right product at the right time. Our range of products is innovative and far less wasteful than what has been the norm in our industry. In times of financial stress one simply cannot afford to just keep chucking on excessive amounts of fertiliser and seeing 30% of it disappear down the drain – quite literally. Now is the time to do something different, and your fertiliser application is a good way to start.
Over many years I have listened carefully to farmers and read extensively on the subject of nutrients. I hate to say it but it seems to me that fashion has played a big part in what happens behind many farmers front gates leading to a fear of being different. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the farmers acting in this way, but we have our scientists aiding and abetting this behavior. Once, every farm was akin to a laboratory with all sorts of new and different ideas being tried. I believe that this willingness to look at new ideas which was most evident in our pioneers actually led to our unique and low cost farming systems. Now is a time to put aside the old prejudices and look at new options. The old debates about solid and liquid fertiliser applications, for instance, are in my view a case in point. Both should have their place in today’s farming systems as they do overseas. This goes for many new products coming on the market which are more effective and less damaging to the environment. All have a place and a use.
If we think that our environmentalists are tough on our industry then we should look to the issues that pertain in parts of Europe, in particular, but America as well. Those countries have to innovate almost continually because they are under huge scrutiny. It is mainly by consumers who are really genuinely concerned about what they are eating to start with, but also what they have seen happening to their environment. This is a portent of things to come in this country and unfortunately it is just another of those endless demands that are being placed on our shoulders. It comes as a consequence of us no longer feeding the hungry but selling our food to the increasingly discerning middle to upper classes in countries of great wealth. Our Ministry of Primary Industries will tell you from bitter experience that the food standards that the Chinese are now placing upon us are some of the most stringent in the world, so there is no getting away from it. What they demand of us is very different from that which they accept from their own producers. But the customer is always right, so they say!!! The only upside to this is that if we are careful with our farm inputs and we are cutting down on waste then we are also getting more efficient which is where we want to be heading.
I have always maintained that there can be a win win here if we work hard at it. We are going to have to target the needs of our pasture more effectively than we do now and by this I mean getting rid of the one size fits all mentality which has been so pervasive over the last ten or fifteen years. At Fertilizer New Zealand we supply both solid and liquid fertilisers and from time to time we are asked how this comes about. As I said earlier each has its place in our programmes at different times of the year and in different circumstances. Some farmers who have been applying hundreds of tonnes of solid fertiliser find it hard to get their heads around spraying smaller quantities of liquid to the leaves but each is effective in its right place. In fact when I am questioned on how a little bit of liquid can do any good I suggest to them that they should apply a really infinitesimal amount of Roundup in a tank and spray it around and see what happens. It works alright, and so does a leaf application of nutrients at the right time. In a rough way this illustrates where we are going to be headed in the future.
I have been a proponent of more careful and frugal use of phosphate and nitrogen for years but the issue of environmental care goes much further than that. As I have tried to demonstrate here there are other options that are more profitable than the blanket application of huge quantities of fertiliser.
I want to just present a couple of big picture issues to you for your consideration.
Ninety percent of the world’s phosphate rock reserves are located in just five countries. Those countries are Morocco, China, South Africa, Jordan and the United States of America. They reckon that America only has about twenty five years of supply left and consequently they import a lot from Morocco. Morocco controls about eighty five percent of the remaining rock reserves. However, many of Morocco’s mines are located in the Western Sahara which Morocco has occupied against international law. (Remember when we just used to dig up Guano and ship it here from our close Pacific neighbour, Nauru).
Despite the prevalence of phosphorous on our planet only a small percentage can be mined due to a variety of factors; physical, economic and legal. As many of you will know we even have a company being floated in New Zealand looking to mine the seabed near the Chatham Rise to harvest the phosphate there.
But what I am leading up to, as I am sure you can predict, is what the price of this phosphate will be? It is easy to forget that as recently as 2008 we had a price spike of eight hundred percent for phosphate rock and so when is the next price shock going to be? Hopefully well into the future but hope is not a bankable object in my experience.
Our conundrum is that, in my opinion, we are in fact banking on hope and at the same time ruining our environment by wasting a finite resource. We do not need to be this profligate with our future. Now is the time to be looking at new options and innovating. Even that great despoiler of our planet and the consumer of an unthinkable amount of oil… the motor car has been forced to change with hybrid and electric options now becoming common and affordable, thus ensuring a certain future as a result. Fracking and Shale oil have brought down the price of oil at least in the short term so we can now allocate its use to more productive enterprises than simply hauling us around.
In the fertiliser business there are not going to be any silver bullets that I can see on the immediate horizon but there are many new and innovative products that can and will change the way that we provide nutrients to our crops and pastures. But first we have to open our eyes to change and we need to very quickly move away from the unsophisticated way in which we have gone about feeding our plants. Over ten years have passed since an enlightened environmental commissioner penned a report saying that we must change before we seriously damage both our reputation and our environment. Since that time we have not changed anything. I am suggesting that the time to change is right now and the change will result in more money in the farmers pocket and a cleaner environment for everyone. This is what farmers tell me they want as custodians of the land, but only a small percentage have taken the vital steps to do anything about it.
Give Fertilizer New Zealand a call and our representative will call and discuss with you the benefits of our innovative products.
John Barnes
Managing Director
The Journey for Change
There are times when we know that there will be a need to do things differently, and usually there is an incentive for this change. But for most of us change is something that doesn’t come easily. The journey isn’t always easy but the longer it is left the harder it will be.
Sometimes it is the beginning which is the hardest. The catalyst often comes from some sort of outside pressure. One farmer approached us and asked why his soil test looked so good and yet why his pasture was underachieving. We took a herbage test to find that there were many elements which were very low. So it wasn’t about the amount of elements in the soil; it was about what was happening in the soil. This farmer also had a grass grub problem and pulling, which would suggest a shallow root system.
We were able to put a fertiliser plan into place which included a mix of products. The first was VitaLife to provide a range of microbes and fungi which help to create a stronger root system (which allows for a better nutrient delivery system to the plant), add carbon to the soil and provide a predator for the grass grubs. This was followed by an application of Actavize to provide instant elements to the plant via the leaf. This helped the pasture to recover and grow at optimum levels. We followed up by applying maintenance fertiliser as required, mostly at 250 Kg per Hectare.
Was it difficult to change the farm around? The farmer would say no. The most difficult bit was accepting that change had to happen; the rest was easy.
Did it cost him more than his existing fertiliser budget? Not much more in the first year, and no more if he took into consideration the cost of grass grub control, and the cost of supplementary feed as a result.
Overall it has been a good outcome and three years in he is now growing more grass at a lower cost than his neighbours.
This is what we can achieve for you. Give us a call now.