November 2013
VIEWPOINT
with John Barnes, Managing Director – November 2013
There is no sign on the horizon that commodity prices will fall. If that were to happen I would suffer along with all of my colleagues who are part of the farming chain.
I sometimes worry about the rising base costs of our farming systems. A couple of articles I have read recently have brought this to mind once again. The first one was from a visiting Irish farmer with properties in New Zealand and the other was from a well known agronomist who was once again preaching on the God given benefits of the wonderful clover plant.
In my view both are correct and as the Irish gentleman said “we are giving up the huge cost advantages of grass fed animals far too easily and without enough thought or debate”. The other article goes without saying and is a hobby horse of mine and I will not traverse that subject further except to quote his figures. A kilogram of clover- rye grass dry matter costs 4-5cents. A kg of bagged N rye grass dry matter costs 10 – 12cents.
Back to the Irishman – as he puts it, nothing lasts forever and with cheap grain in the USA and a few other variables we could easily see a few cents come off beef, sheep and the golden dairy price. Can you remain profitable if this happens? According to him many of us could not. In fact another little piece of information that I have gathered up from Dairy NZ says that last year the profitability of the average dairy farmer declined due to rising feed costs.
So there you go. And as the old cop on TV used to say… Just be careful out there.
John Barnes
Mycorrhizal fungi are widespread in New Zealand’s native forests, native tussock, and agricultural and horticultural soils. They spread out into the soil, increasing the area of the host plant’s root system and stimulating soil phosphorus uptake. This improves clover growth at low to moderate soil-phosphorus levels and rye grass growth at high soil-nitrogen levels.
There is a best balance of micro-organisms for each type of plant. If it’s right, the plant lives at its healthiest, and often yields to higher levels. Some strains of these fungi are more efficient than others, and some soils contain only inefficient species. The introduction of the more efficient fungi to these soils will increase plant growth through enhanced uptake of phosphorus.
It’s easy to overlook microbes. They’re infinitesimal beings so tiny you need a high-powered microscope just to sight them. They are so numerous that a teaspoon of healthy soil contains more bacteria than there are people in the world. And our entire existence depends on these unseen earthlings.
Obviously, at Fertilizer New Zealand, we are aware of the crucial significance of microbes. We are not alone. Many scientists and soil specialists around the world are aware of how much we depend on these mites, even though it is believed that barely 6% of soil microbes have been discovered out of potentially 1.5 million species of fungi, 1 million species of nematode worms, and similar multitudes of bacteria.
Landcare Research scientist Graham Sparling sums up the essence of soil succinctly; soil is soil only if it has biological activity, otherwise it’s dead like moon dust – and we are lucky to have it in New Zealand. He is adamant humans have gone too far in their abuse of the soil that is their life-blood. “We think soil comes for free”, he says. “It’s our repository for waste, it cleans up our excess liquids, contains our contaminants, and we use it for sports fields, golf courses and cricket pitches. We do all that, and think soil is miraculously going to take it all. No”, he says, “New Zealanders habits are coming home to roost, as we tread down the same path as the Europeans and Americans – unless we take action.”
This is where Fertilizer New Zealand comes in. Our philosophy of restoring and maintaining nutrient balance in soils, and fostering microbe populations, is designed to slow down the degradation Sparling speaks of and to reverse the trend.
Pastoral Farming
As some of the older scientists can tell us, pastoral farming was about farming using mainly grass but supplementing when the grass was not quite able to fully feed the stock. Back then it was about clover and rye grass, and not just an assortment of grasses. The more recent generation is all about grass species, and apparently the clovers cause too many problems.
Just to remind us all, here is how clovers will help you farm better and without any problems whatsoever.
Clovers have about 50% more calcium than grasses and because calcium is King this will produce more milk and more bone. The advantage for the dairy farmer is obviously better milk production but also better bone structure for their herd. For the sheep and beef farmer it is again more milk for the lambs and calves which will in turn give the young stock a better bone frame which will help them to get better weight gains – leading to getting stock away at optimum weights sooner.
Clovers also provide nitrogen to the soil which will then release nitrogen to grow the rye grass at optimum levels without too much of the bagged nitrogen. Clovers usually have a better root system, and this will help them keep growing better into dry spells. In the right conditions, clovers will grow into the autumn longer and start up in the spring sooner. This will give farmers a longer growing season.
Clovers fix nitrogen with the aid of a clever little microbe called Rhizobia. This little being attaches itself to the root system of the clover plant. The hair root then reacts as it would to being invaded and curls up, which is then the start of the formation of a new clover node. Farmers can now tell easily how many Rhizobia microbes are in their soil by how many and how big the nodes are on their clovers.
Go back to the perceived problems with clover. The first problem is the clover root weevil. The problem with this creature is that he can multiply because he is allowed to – there are not enough predators to keep him in check. Why? The answer also lies in the soil. Some well-meaning bloke has sprayed a broad spectrum insecticide on to kill off a bug and accidentally knocked off all the good ones which lived on the weevils, thus keeping their numbers down. The solution is equally simple. Add back into the soil the beneficial microbes.
This is where our VITALIFE product fits in. VitaLife has a range of microbes (some older farmers will know it as inoculum) which have a variety of functions. Now, I don’t want to bore you with detail but here is just one more. VitaLife will help break down dung on the pasture. In most cases it does it very effectively. If more farmers were using VitaLife, there would be no need to introduce dung beetles into New Zealand.
Clovers, according to some, will kill cows. I remember this as a child growing up in rural New Zealand. Well, as always, there is an answer and, as usual, the answer is very simple. It does not need to be complicated. A herbage test from Hills Labs will tell us about the element ratios of the clover leaf. If this ratio is out, I will guarantee there will be sick or dead cows. Create the correct ratio and it is quite simple – you will lift production dramatically. Give us a call to find out how we can help you.
