March 2013
VIEWPOINT
with John Barnes, Managing Director – March 2013
The Urban Rural Divide
With lack of rain, seemingly endless sun and many rural areas classified as drought areas we have a classic New Zealand contradiction. Great for the beach where many can enjoy settled weather and excellent boating conditions, but disastrous for our farmers where much of our export revenue comes from.
A salary earner in a city and especially a big city can just kick back and enjoy it without too much of a guilt complex spoiling the fun. The country cousins are a fair distance away so they will not hear the sheer joy in your voice as you look forward to another week of Aussie style weather.
However a drought will take many hundreds of millions of dollars out of the economy in lost earnings and unlike Aussie where they dig exports out of arid ground we rely on a high rainfall to produce the food that we are famous for.
We at Fertilizer New Zealand are as close as one can be to farmers without actually being one. Our hearts go out to the struggling families on the land who in spite of having less income because of adverse weather conditions are nevertheless forced to spend more money on buying in cattle feed of one description or another.
As the rains return to the parched regions of our country and we enjoy the autumn of growth, we will once again pick ourselves up and continue to be the #1 earner for New Zealand.
Zinc
This column is too short to give all the details required for a full study. I have many books detailing trials on Zinc both here in NZ and from Overseas. Here is a short summary;
The higher the phosphate levels in the soils the higher the zinc levels need to be. Phosphorus can limit the uptake of Zinc.
Trials conducted on (NZ Journal of Experimental Agriculture 7 (1979) 135-9) Waitohi silt loam near Pleasant Point and reported in 1979 show good responses to applying 10kg ZnSO4/Ha applied as a foliar spray.
Within 2 weeks of spraying with Zinc the paddock had made a good recovery with plants changing from yellow/brown to shiny green.
Zinc levels in herbage test less than +/- 16ppm in spring can be associated with pasture ill thrift.
Even though herbage tests show reasonable levels of Zinc, it still could mean levels are not adequate for the animals feeding on the pasture. Small deficiencies in animal diets can lead to ill thrift in the animals. This has shown up as loss of appetite, rough coat and lack of weight gain.
To lift Zinc in pasture use our Actavize liquid fish fertiliser product it contains Zinc along with many of the other essential trace elements.
For further information contact us on 0800 337 869.
Dig For Success
The best way of checking what is happening on your farm is taking a spade and have a farm dig.
The checkpoints to look for are;
- Moisture levels – how far has the recent rain soaked in?
- What is the state of the pasture?
- Check the crown of the plant for signs of life
- Check the root system – is it alive?
- Some badly affected pasture may require rejuvenating
- One option could be to put in a quick growing crop like barley or oats
Moving On With Autumn
It is really interesting to see how farmers come out of tough times. Most reach for the nitrogen not realising the soil never sleeps.
While we are all worrying about when it is going to rain, the soil is busy getting ready for when it does rain without us even realising it.
It keeps on getting Nitrogen and Phosphate in big enough quantities ready for the AUTUMN FLUSH.
We all know about the spring and autumn flush, so what happens?
The soils are meant to have a breather, much like us. But we are intent on working them 24/7, that is if they stop we punish them. This is not sustainable, so how do we look after them?
The Fertilizer New Zealand way is;
- Keep our soils fully fed, but not over fed, that leads to pollution.
- Revive soil health… keep the immune system working well, we do this through our bio systems.
This will lead to a profitable and environmentally friendly system.
But back to autumn…
While we have been watching the weather forecast for rain, the soils have been storing up nitrogen waiting for the moment when it can grow as much grass as it possibly can in the shortest amount of time. It is up to us to harvest this pasture for the animals which will give us the profit we are looking for.
So if there is nitrogen just sitting there waiting for the right moment why are we about to get out the spreader to put on the white stuff???
It makes far more sense to apply a tonic to the plant that will aid it to its full potential, not give what it already has plenty of!!!
If it was me I would be quite frustrated, what I would be looking for is what I didn’t have, trace elements which are lacking in our soils, something to build up the root systems which have taken such a hiding during the dry spell, organic matter, to build up the water holding capacity…. but not more N.
There is something else happening down under the soil that is unseen except in extreme cases it is obvious from the surface – a poor root structure.
This is seen as pulling and there will be a fair amount of this over the coming months. The pasture plants are literally pulled out of the ground by the grazing animals.
This is an absolute shame because a perfectly good plant has been destroyed.
The answer to pulling is a strong root system and this is built because of a strong biological soil, leading to a good feeding root system. Because the feeding ability of a plant using a solid fertiliser programme comes from the roots of the plant. The bigger the root system the more fertiliser the plant can take up.
There is no point at all in having an Olsen P of 50 if there is limited root structure. This is the very reason farmers are telling me their pasture has run out, when in fact all that had happened was a weak root structure.
If you would like more information on this give us a call, or click onto VitaLife and or Actavise on our website or call us on 0800 337 869.