A significant fertiliser breakthrough?
Former ACT MP and Federated Farmers president Owen Jennings believes he's come across a new fertilising method in Australia that yields "outstanding results".
COMPANIES AND products certified to Fertmark standards are at an all-time high, but a standard for product spread quality remains elusive, says Fertiliser Quality Council chairman, Neil Barton.
“We continue to try to find a way to get the industry to put on an SGN rating,” he told Rural News.
Barton believes the lack of such a standard stems from a cost of product focus among pastoral farmers, most of whom use contractors to apply nutrients and are either unaware or undervalue the importance of even spread.
“All they’re concerned about is the cost of product applied.”
If more spreaders charged a premium to apply poor or hard to spread material, it would encourage more attention to be paid to product spreadability, and help persuade the major manufacturers that a standard is needed, he adds.
As for Fertmark, which sets nutrient content standards, 14 companies and 51 products are now certified.
“To farm in an environmentally friendly, sustainable way, farmers have to know exactly what they are putting on their land. With Fertmark products they can do just that.
“There is some angst around the use of fertilisers in general but research has shown that our production will drop by up to two thirds if we don’t use fertiliser. That would be catastrophic for the country.
“The issue is to decide what fertiliser to use and farmers should insist on a product with the Fertmark tick before they put anything on their land.”
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
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