May 2014
VIEWPOINT
with John Barnes, Managing Director – May 2014
Maori have a simple saying to emphasise what is important… “It is people, it is people!!” In the farming world I think that should be… “It is weather, it is weather!!!”
We have been thinking of our many friends in the West Coast region where there has been a once in three hundred year storm, and in Canterbury where it does not want to stop raining.
Weather events can make a mockery of any man-made plans and can decimate the most sophisticated financial model. Farmers know this and try as best as they can to be conservative with their projections and careful with their money. However when bad things happen it is only the inner strength and resilience that pulls farmers through. It is this quality that we admire so much in our clients and in their families and friends.
At Fertilizer New Zealand we also have our fair share of planning issues. A consignment of product ordered in autumn for spring application takes no account whatsoever of weather conditions that may prevail in six months time. I have tried to consult gurus and weather data many times over the years to no avail. Now the climate change scientists say that we are facing even more volatility and uncertainty than ever before. OH GREAT! …that is all we need!!
My bank, just like yours, asks me to predict a financial outcome which is hugely dependent on the weather and how wet… or how dry the land is going to be many months hence. However, we do it and put a smile on our faces and get out there and carry on which is exactly what our farmers will be doing, no matter what disaster has just been dished out to them.
One thing that we must do in spite of all the above, is nurture our land for the future. All our resources here at Fertilizer New Zealand are concentrated on that. We are constantly doing research and watching international trends which point to what may happen in the future.
The one issue that stands out in all of our research is the fact that our customers are becoming ever more demanding and they are demanding to know more and more about what happens on the land from which their food is produced. You can be assured that all of our products are sent out to you with the knowledge that they will pass any such scrutiny now or in the future. We are aware of the problems of cadmium. We are aware of the problems of excessive nitrates and we are aware of leaching issues. That is why we are careful to source only the best. We know that with all the other problems you face, the last thing you need is for your fertiliser programme to be questioned by the end customer and we know for sure that ours will not be.
We will keep our fingers crossed for fair weather over the heads of all of our clients.
A Note of Caution
Talking about weather… As winter approaches it will be important to limit the amount of potash applied. For some, especially in the North Island, calving is only weeks away. My concern is the amount of potash which has been applied late, due to the dry conditions. High potash levels and medium to low calcium and magnesium levels will lead to metabolic issues in the coming spring.
Farmers who rely on just chemical fertilisers are assuming the plants only need three basic elements. Those are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. This would be equivalent to saying we only need protein, carbohydrate and sugar to live. While this may be mostly true, these three will not provide the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy diet, nor will it create the enzymes and beneficial bacteria needed for our stomachs and other organs to function properly. We need more than this in our diet.
There are numerous things you can achieve with organically fed soils that cannot be with conventional N.P.K. fertilisers:
- Develop soil structure, tilth, lowering the potential for compaction.
- Better water retention and penetration.
- Retain nutrients in the form of stable humus.
- Search out and retrieve nutrients in the soil for plant growth.
- Decompose thatch and keep it from returning.
- Control the nitrogen supply to the plants according to their needs – through the carbon process.
- Modify the pH of the soil.
- Clean up chemical residues.
- Decompose plant residues and manure turning it into humus.
- Hold nitrogen in the soil.
- When synthetic fertilisers are used, none of this gets done. Soils need a balanced diet, just as humans do.
As I mentioned in last months column, good soils breathe…
Oxygen goes into and comes out of soil. The microbes in the soil form part of this process. In describing any process we can be as simple or as complicated as we like. I will try and make this description as simple as possible!
Only certain microbes are known to be able to fix nitrogen and make it available for use. Other living beings in the soil cannot perform this process. One of these microbe species is Azotobacter. These are free living microbes which grow well. They utilise atmospheric nitrogen gas for their cell protein synthesis. This cell protein is then mineralised in the soil after the death of Azotobacter cells, thereby contributing towards the nitrogen availability of plant crops.
With the price of nitrogen rising and the risk of nitrogen leaching, these microbes will not only provide nitrogen for free but also cut the leaching of nitrogen into our waterways. There are many strains of Azotobacter, just as there are various types of sheep or cattle. Some work better in certain conditions, but all do a really good job at providing nitrogen for free.
At Fertilizer New Zealand we have been culturing these microbes and many others for over 15 years. It is possible to introduce them back into the soil.
As we have mentioned, these microbes take nitrogen out of the atmosphere. We can conclude from this that they breathe. While it is possible to apply them in a liquid form, it is not the most desirable. We prefer to apply them in a carbon base which acts as a “home” for them while they are establishing themselves in your soil. Some companies now provide a variety of microbe solutions. Very few can produce a carbon base for these microbes.
In my opinion, the only way to successfully spread them is through a carbon base.