64 | nzdairy Early adopters of alternative techniques Miah and Jenny Smith are early adopters of alternative techniques with a view to improving their soil and their business at Atiamuri in the Southern Waikato, and last season they added another low-cost pasture management tool to their artillery which is proving a valuable method of maintaining pasture quality. Miah and Jenny’s farm is a 260ha effective exforestry conversion which they purchased with Jenny’s father and uncle in 2011. It’s degenerated post-forest soil had very little topsoil and conventional application of fertiliser wasn’t making much difference. Miah eventually stumbled across biostimulant fertiliser AgriSea, thought it was worth a shot and after a two-year trial, the root depth had doubled in the trial paddock and after five years, the pH went from 5.4 to 6.2 with no lime. Miah and Jenny rolled out AgriSea across the whole farm, continually adding biology and reducing fertiliser. They have put in seven or eight different species of grasses and herbs, the diversity helping to activate essential bacteria and fungi and keep the soil working more efficiently. They have dropped their N use by 60%, and their animal health costs have dropped from $80 per cow to $27 per cow. Miah is now the AgriSea farm advisor on the Rere ki Uta, Rere ki Tai 10-farm testing project led by AgriSea New Zealand to determine whether farming methods that enhance the mana and mauri of the soil are more resilient, more profitable, more able to withstand environmental, societal and regulatory pressure, and healthier for all. “This project has been running for a year now and we’ve seen some farms reducing their nitrogen and gaining production efficiencies,” he says. “We’ve got the baseline soil testing and soil assessments and we’ll carry those on next season to see what’s changing in soil aggregates and compaction, and whether that’s getting better.” He says multi-species summer crops going into permanent multi-species pastures are bringing good results and requiring less sprays. At home on Wilith Farm, Miah and Jenny decided to have a go at deferred grazing last season. Instead of making silage and incurring the cost involved in that, they shut up a paddock Kelly Deeks Miah and Jenny’s farm is a 260ha effective ex-forestry conversion. DAIRY PEOPLE » Wilith Farm of surplus pasture which then went to seed. “We’re getting about 300kgs of seed then giving it a good two months rest while the plants get really big and the roots go right down as far as they can,” Miah says. “We then grazed it in February and the cows trampled all this mature seed into the ground, reseeding the paddock for us for free.” Great results with the soil and the tiller density “This project has been running for a year now and we’ve seen some farms reducing their nitrogen and gaining production efficiencies.” in last season’s deferred grazing paddock convinced Miah and Jenny to do the same in more paddocks this season, opting for more deferred grazing and less summer crop. “Dairy NZ trials have shown we should get the same amount of tonnage in the first year, then 15% to 20% more for the next three years. All we need to do is shut the gate and it doesn’t even cost anything.”
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