Newsletters > Newsletter - September 2010
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Newsletter - September 2010Securing the future by putting the feel back into farming
The argument, in sport, against using technology that can aid close calls is that it reduces the human factor, an essential element without which sport would lose an essential dimension.
Umpires and referees develop a feel for the subtleties that cannot be anticipated by cameras and computers. A quiet word by an official to a player can defuse a potentially negative situation before it arises. Does the same argument apply in farming? Has technology in farming reduced a complex and multi-factored activity to a simplistic set of rules that has reduced many enterprises to financial paupery? Too often a farmer will talk about not having made a decision because they weren’t sure is it was the “right” one. In retrospect it would have provided the desired outcome but the opportunity had passed. Observant farmers and growers need to develop the confidence to act on their gut feel because more often than not that feel is absolutely correct. Even if the outcome of the decision is not what was desired an important learning situation has occurred. Really successful people know that the only wrong decision is no decision. As each farm is a unique operation, the best person to make decisions are those with ultimate responsibility for the success of the operation and the closer they are to the daily action the better the outcome. The most successful operators we work with are owner/operators that tap into the knowledge of a number of people with expertise in a variety of areas, but make their own decisions. The present usage of fertiliser nitrogen will change and as in other countries that have been down this track earlier it will be underpinned by legislation. In fact - legislation has just been passed to limit N leaching in parts of the Waikato Region and regulation for elsewhere will follow. Legislation in our view should be unnecessary. Education and an understanding of the pro’s and cons of fertiliser nitrogen usage should be sufficient to ensure sensible use of a valuable resource. There are however still those that believe that more fertiliser nitrogen grows more grass even when the evidence of decreasing pasture growth over the last twenty years is now becoming more widely accepted. The success of New Zealand farming is dependant on our ability to grow low cost highly nutritious pastures. Eco-Logic Soil Improvement programmes consistently out-perform fertiliser N driven programmes with more total DM grown containing more energy resulting in higher levels of animal production. Clover is the basis of our pastoral farming. Clover provides the following benefits:-
Our experience after ten years since the first sales of DoloZest is that clover flea and weevil are not a concern where soils are well structured and biologically active. Nor are beetles of any colour, or grass grub. They are always present however in such small numbers that their effect is minimal. Horticulture Reported benefits include:-
Macro pore space Macro pore space in soil is the pore space large enough for water to percolate freely through, and for the rapid interchange of gasses. A well-granulated soil has more total pore space and therefore drains more freely, however is able to retain more moisture than a compacted soil. The importance of this at present is that more free draining soils will warm more quickly and grow more feed of higher energy. As summer approaches more pasture growth can also be expected due to increased moisture holding capacity as well as the ability to access moisture from lower levels due to deeper root penetration. Feed grown on well-structured biologically active soil will always provide higher levels of animal production and ultimately ensure more robust human health. A single dressing of CalciZest applied at 400kg/ha along with, as required P, K, S, Co & Se, prior to November provides the following immediate benefits:-
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