If soil fertiliser requirements was just about putting soil test numbers into a spread sheet that spat out a nutrient recommendation which was both effective and efficient, life would be very much simpler. There would be little if any discussion on the...

There are a number of certainties we all live by and right now the two that spring to mind are: future weather patterns cannot accurately be predicted, and dry spells are eventually followed by significant rain. A philosophy that we adopted years ago and...

Based on a payment of $6.00 per kg of Milk Solids, a 114ha dairy property producing close to 1,000kgMS/ha will receive a total of $668,040 income from milk alone. Unfortunately even at this payout a significant percentage of dairy farmers have expenses...

With the gap steadily closing between the cost of producing a kilogram of milk solids and the amount of money received the arrival of the clover root weevil this season is unwelcome. Healthy clover in a permanent clover rye grass pasture is capable of...

Jon Morgan in an article in The Dominion late last year claimed that nitrate nitrogen was the “elephant in the room” with regard to water quality.  It is and will remain so until it is recognised and accepted that excessive use of nitrogen fertiliser...

There is a widespread misconception that improving the quality of what we grow and produce from the land will result in lower volumes. This argument is used by supporters and users of conventional growing systems to justify a regime that increasingly...

We have spent the last twenty years focused on soil fertility particularly fertility under grazed pastures and there are still times when parts of the picture are cloudy, sometimes even decidedly murky. For an individual farmer or general farm consultant...

One of the functions of a healthy soil is the recycling of nutrient for plant uptake, and as soil becomes more efficient at holding onto nutrients the requirement for costly fertiliser input reduces. The ability of soils to retain applied nutrient is based...

I was approached recently by a dairy farming family passionate about their farm and dedicated to the dairy industry.  Their concern was the steadily escalating cost of producing milksolids and the rapidly declining amount paid for them. Specifically they...

We have always been keen to understand why it is that properties applying dolomite annually have so few calcium magnesium related metabolic disorders in spring and enjoy well above normal levels of production. Our experience leads us to the view that there...