Business Rural Autumn 2021

| 85 The right soil nutrients, little and of ten Sue Russell RURAL SERVICES » R & J Agri Spray R udi Woutersen and Jolanda Gouweleeuw arrived in New Zealand in 1995 and became dairy farmers. Today, the couple are based at Woodlands, just out of Invercargill. “We were contract milking and the last job we had, the farm had a lot of ragwort, so I decided to build a weedwiper truck and that really was the start of what grew into my full-time contracting job,” Rudi explains. Never really that fond of the traditional fertiliser regimes applied to farms, Rudi began to look at putting on urea in a liquid form. Rudi says results of applying urea this way were quite surprising and with a disposition that ‘wanted to do things differently from other people’, he set about really looking closely at how best to nurture the soil and pasture in ways that would work with nature and not interrupt it. “When you think about the way chemicals and elements are applied in large doses periodically, it shocks the soil, and acts as an inhibitor to the way the soil needs to naturally be. I wanted to find ways to improve soil quality with this in mind.” Driving his Tow & Fert business is also a desire to see significant costs wiped off the farmers ‘fert’ bill. R & J Agri Spray supply a service of regularly ap- plying a mix of traditional fertilisers, in fine particle form, over pasture after grazing. “Farmers these days are becoming nervous about the Nitrogen cap and they try to put on some biological products to offset this. What we have discovered is that by regularly spraying over the pasture, there’s a much greater uptake and benefit in terms of soil health.” Rudi’s ‘mix’ is a combination of biological, fish and essential nutrients – all the stuff, he says, grass needs. R & J Agri Spray visit a handful of dairy farmers weekly, following on behind the cows each week. One thing Rudi is very keen to see is some seri- ous trialling of his methods. “This method makes a lot of sense to me and it feels right, but I can’t back it up with research evidence and I find that very frustrating. I think the way it is currently structured it is very difficult to get a foot in the research door as an independent business doing things differently.” Rudi says he’s surprised that this simple, sound approach to caring for the soil isn’t something more farmers have looked at and really wants to provide them with the benefit of his first-hand experience in how readily pasture responds. Particularly for the dairy sector he says the key priority is to create the right balance of bacteria in the soil to grow healthy plants. Just like you feed a cow the right balance of nutrients to create a healthy rumen so she produces milk. Consistency is key! He believes it’s important to start feeding the soil with the right nutrients a little, more often rather than dumping massive amounts of fertilizers in one application. This way the soil creates healthy plants so cows can give farmers the very best production outcomes. “You could compare what we do a bit to putting pepper on your steak. The traditional way of ap- plication is like putting whole peppercorns on your steak. You get too much pepper in certain places but not enough in other areas. What we do is mix the fertiliser, keep it in suspension and apply it as a micro fine fertiliser which you could compare to fine grinding your peppercorns to flavour your steak more evenly.” Rudi hopes to offer farmers the opportunity to see the results of his fertilising process on a field day later in March. (Details will be on R&J Agri Spray’s Facebook page) “This will give them the chance to see what I mean and to talk about the benefits and savings that, using my spraying methods, brings.” Those wishing to contact Rudi for further information can do so by email or phone, r.j.agrispray@gmail.com or 027 453 2900. Photos: The Woodlands based R & J Agri Spray fleet. Rudi Woutersen and Jolanda Gouweleeuw. Fert Wholesale Direct Ltd Farmers, are you concerned about improving your fertiliser efficiency and environmental footprint? Then Fert Wholesale Direct Ltd can help, as we have helped R&J Agri Spray. The ONE System which through independent trials shows a doubling of response to N. And more recently, our Revolutionary Compound Urea/SOA product where every granule contains both forms of N. Contact Shane Harold on 021 0235 6491 or shane@fertwholesale.co.nz Proudly supports R&J Agri Spray Photo: R & J Agri Spray supply a service of regularly applying a mix of traditional fertilisers, in fine particle form, over pasture after grazing. Paul T Photography.