There are common sense ways you can improve your farm performance using natural products to rejuvenate your soil, increase your productivity and profitability and improve animal health and the environmental performance of your farming system.
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A regular look at the issues facing farmers trying to look after their soil, their animals and their bottom line.
I learned first-hand how “traditional” fertiliser practices and farming systems can damage your soil health, productivity and profitability years ago when I unwittingly bought a
We are firm believers that Animal Health starts with developing and making available the goodness of the soil. But we have a couple of items in our toolbox that can support your farm’s animal health.
Salt has been used as a supplement in New Zealand for more than 150 years. Our Himalayan Rock Salt helps improve animal health and has the potential to boost productivity.
StockMate from Southern Humates is a supplement for animals to keep stock in good health, help in the prevention of disease and the treatment of sick animals.
The use (and overuse) of acid fertilisers can devastate soil health, locking farmers into an expensive cycle of adding unnecessary nutrients just to maintain production.
Bio-stimulants restore balance to the soil, enhancing its functioning. This helps increase plant growth by boosting the microbial population, improving the amount of plant-available nutrients and bringing back the clovers.
Other benefits include better nitrogen fixation and conversion of soil organic matter to humus, helping aeration, drainage and soil water holding capacity.
We supply two brands of fish hydrolysate Bio Marinus and BioSea, with organic options for farmers who require it.
We also offer EM, a sustainable microbial inoculant from EMNZ to help activate local and native micro-organisms that live in soil and water.
Natural phosphate fertilisers offer key advantages over other fertilisers, especially superphosphate. Instead of undermining soil biology they support better plant growth and improved animal health. When combined with important trace elements they help feed the soil food web (the biological driver of soil fertility), boost humates and improve soil cation exchange capacity and soil moisture retention.
Natural phosphate can also be applied a significantly reduced rates compared to superphosphate while providing an equivalent production response.
We sell CarboPhos, a finely ground fertiliser combined with a number of additives to produce a single application granulated product.
We are also resellers of the Viafos range of natural phosphate products which come in a range of formulations to suit specific local requirements.
Colin was born and raised on a farm in the Waitaki Valley at Duntroon and grew up working on different farms around the district before “graduating” to hay making and working as a shearer for more than half a decade
Matheson Agri Services started in Gore more than 20 years ago, providing Rock Salt to farmers looking to improve animal health.
Responding to demand from clients for natural fertiiser products, MAS began selling biological fertilisers and a natural phosphate product called CarboPhos.
These products were eventually supplemented with a range of Fish Hydrolysate products.
MAS now provides an expanded range of Animal Health products, Bio-Stimulants and Natural Fertilisers.
Based in Milton, the company has representation in Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast.
Matheson Agri Services © 2020 // Developed Locally by Source Development
The systems that have formed the bedrock of New Zealand farming have become an increasing liability as farmers face ever-increasing costs, intense pressure to improve their environment performance and an overwhelming range of solutions and choices.
Seems everyone is an expert and every product is the magic bullet that’s going to solve all your problems, increase your returns and restore your farm to a pristine environment.
Synthetic fertilisers and the intense use of biocides have become a burden, locking farmers into an endless cycle of increased inputs (usually inputs which are also increasing in costs) and degraded environment performance just to stay in the same place.
However, there is a way to move on from the farming methods which blow out your costs, reduce the effectiveness of your soil and impact on the health of your animals as well as undermining the environmental performance of your farm. More importantly there is an opportunity to future-proof your production as the winds of increased environmental demands and other pressures on your farming system continue to blow your way.
This doesn’t have to involve reducing your production or increasing your costs and risking the profitability and sustainability of your operation.
And it doesn’t mean making dramatic leaps into the world of Regenerative or Organic Farming.
There are lots of lessons to be learned from both of those approaches, the benefits of which can be accessed via gradual changes to your system without large disruption or adding to the ever increasing demands on your time and money.
At the centre of these changes is a need to further develop the understanding of how your soil works and embark on the path of improving the quality of you soil and adapting your faming systems to a more natural, efficient and environmentally approach – all without adding to your costs and risking your profitability.
There are many aspects to a productive agricultural soil
These include Soil Chemistry (parent material, pH, available nutrient, nutrient reserves), Soil Physics (Texture, structure, aeration, drainage, compaction) and Soil Biology (Bacteria, Fungi, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms)
These factors are influenced by climate and management.
Production will be limited by whichever factor is in the shortest supply or is most compromised.
Soil chemistry gets a lot of attention and we have become much more aware of the need to protect soil structure and avoid compaction, but often the role of soil biology is ignored.
The Matheson Agri approach is to focus on the soil, with a particular emphasis on soil biology. Also by reducing the use of “hard” acid-based fertilisers your can improve the performance of your soil an reduce your costs at the same time.
The two major elements to this process are the use of bio-stimulants in a variety of forms to bring your soil back to life and to use natural non-acidic phosphate fertilisers which are friendly to the all-important soil biology, alkaline not acid, citrate rather than water soluble and supply the majority of its phosphate over 12 months.
A bio-stimulant is not a fertiliser and is not intended to replace appropriate fertiliser inputs. Bio-stimulants act by increasing the growth of plants as a result of the effect that they have on the microbial population of the soil. Over time, improved biological activity results in an increase in plant available nutrient, improved nutrient access by plants, increased nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere, conversion of soil organic matter to humus, improved soil structure, aeration and drainage and improved water holding capacity of soils. Overseas research indicates that protein hydrolysates may also have a direct effect on plant growth by regulating plant enzyme systems.
There are other things you can do to support the improvement of the performance of your system such as increasing and improving the diversity of you pasture species and adapting your grazing regimes.
Matheson Agri can help you review your farming systems, make use of your soil tests and look for ways to embark on the road to healthier farming with the goal of increasing your production, reducing your costs and improving your animal health and environmental sustainability.
Colin was born and raised on a farm in the Waitaki Valley at Duntroon and grew up working on different farms around the district before “graduating” to hay making and working as a shearer for more than half a decade.
He worked on the family farm at Duntroon, a dry land North Otago farm with 227ha of fragile river flats. In an effort to move to a more benign farming environment he eventually made the move South to Waikaka where he ran sheep and beef on 160ha.
It was once he moved to this property that Colin became aware of issues arising from over-fertilisation and the land being out of balance.
This showed up particularly in the inability to fatten and grow out young stock when the grass was growing rapidly in the Summer. The issue was much more one of pasture quality than quantity. Breeding ewes showed up with severe dag problems after lambing and before January shearing.
Solutions to these issues proved elusive, especially in the face of often conflicting advice which amounted to little more that suggestions to throw money at the problem.
The advice from the fertiliser rep was to buy even more fertiliser, even though the farm soil tests did not support this. Colin began to suspect that the types and amounts of fertiliser being used on the property were the cause of the problems.
So began a move to more natural products to turn the farm around – the type of products which form the basis of those supplied by Matheson AgriServices (MAS) today. Associated with this move away from acid and chemical fertilisers, Colin began to investigate and implement changes to his farming system, including improved pasture species diversity and better grazing management practices.
At the same time he has increasingly focused on animal health as a central part of any successful farming system.
The journey to improve his own farm has turned into a business helping other farmers move to a more natural, sustainable farming style more friendly to the environment while maintaining productivity and profitability.
In 2009 Colin moved with his wife Joy to a 180ha property on Table Hill near Milton where he continues to “walk the talk” of improved farming practices while continuing to develop MAS based in his Milton yard.
Colin and Joy
If you would like to place an order, learn more information about our products and services or receive a free consultation, fill in the form below and we'll be in touch.
027 201 0484
colin@mathesonagri.co.nz
