Soil matters with Peter Burton of Functional Fertiliser Ltd

The European Union has just refused to grant Monsanto a new licence for glyphosate. Whichever side of the debate you’re on, it signals the start of a fundamental change in agriculture worldwide.

Sufficient people worldwide have taken action – via protests, petitions, and submissions –which will result in a seismic shift ­­­­­in farming practices. The desire by consumers to eat meat and vegetables grown from soils ‘uncontaminated’ by weedicides, pesticides, and heavy metal residues will continue to change the way food is produced.

Good enough to eat – clover contains three to four times the amount of calcium of grasses.

However, for a significant number of New Zealand pastoral farmers the glyphosate decision will change little of their present practices, as they already seldom use sprays designed to kill, weeds or pests.

These farmers work on the philosophy: ‘what grows is the result of the conditions created’ and manage their pastures to get the best performance and quality from them, on the basis that “if it’s eaten by an animal it’s not a weed”.

Fifty-year-old pasture

The first question asked by staff of this country’s largest farming organisation on a recent visit to one such farm was: ‘What’s the pasture renewal programme?’ The answer was: ‘There isn’t one’.

The pasture they were standing in at the time had grown more than 20 tonnes of dry matter in the previous 12 months, contained a wide variety of plants, and had not been renewed in the last 50 years.

New seed will have been sown at some time in that period, but it had never been sprayed out and re-grassed. Pastures on the property contain a wide variety of species including chicory, plantain, paspalum and cocksfoot. The dominant grass is high fertility rye, particularly during autumn and winter, with large-leafed long-stemmed clover present throughout the year.

The soil nutrient programme is based on the requirements for clover, and only a single application of less than 20kgN/ha is applied each year in autumn to boost ryegrass growth as the soil cools.

Calcium strength

Clover contains three to four times the amount of calcium of grasses. And for clover to thrive in a sward, a long strong stem is required Calcium provides the strength for clover to access sufficient sunlight to fix the necessary nitrogen.

The extra pasture grown in late-spring and summer allows the making of high quality hay from the genuine surplus. This easily covers the fact that, without regular nitrogen applications, in 2008/2009 measured pasture production compared with a conventional N nutrient programme farm, which showed 17 per cent less total growth in August/ October, but 74 per cent more in November/January.

Total pasture growth for that season was 25 per cent higher on the property using a CalciZest/DoloZest total nutrient programme.

In the intervening seven years the gap between the two farms has steadily widened, as the low N input property has sequestered carbon, developed humus, and further increased total pasture production.

The coming changes around glyphosate are driven by a fundamental shift in attitude away from battling the elements, fighting pests and diseases, animal ill-health, and environmental regulations, to one of unhurried relaxed observation, with an appreciation that the only option long-term is working with rather than against natural forces.

The change from a conventional nitrogen fertiliser dependent system to a sustainable regenerative one is remarkably easy to implement, and can be instigated this coming spring with no overall reduction in growth or production. For more information, call Peter on 0800 843 809