Robin Boom Agronomic Advisory Services

The easy contoured and soil fertility at optimum levels on Robin Broom’s property near Whatawhata, Hamilton, produced pre-Christmas lambs with a carcase weight of 22kg.

In July I sold my 7.68ha block of bare land near Whatawhata, Hamilton, and purchased 56.65ha at Taumarunui and in the process have gone from farming 30 ewes, four horses and about a dozen cattle to almost 400 ewes and 50 cattle.

The Whatawhata block was a mixture of flat and rolling land, which could all be driven over with a farm vehicle, whereas the Taumarunui farm has about 2.02ha of flat, 40.46ha of medium hill and 14.16ha of steep hill, which has a fair amount of blackberry and tutsan on it, and the amount of land that can be driven over is very limited.

Why I would take on a project like this at this stage in my life when I am busy enough in my consulting work is a question her indoors and other concerned relatives have posed to me on more than one occasion?

Proof of concept

Well the answer comes to ‘proof of concept’. It had annoyed me somewhat that the meat company I supplied my lambs to on my 19 acres, all 40-50 of them annually, did not recognise my achievement. I had consistently sold all of my lambs prior to Christmas averaging around 22kg carcase weight but I was not recognised as their top producer.

The livestock agent commented that my 40-50 lambs a year were not enough to be considered for the award, yet they did admit nobody else produced early lambs anywhere near my weights. But having easy contoured land where the soil fertility was at optimum levels and all of the trace elements were nicely in balance, and being far enough north so that lambing could begin in early July did give a huge advantage.

September lambs

Taking the same ewes to much colder Taumarunui this July did result in a quite a few dead newborn lambs, so putting rams out a couple of months later, so as to lamb in September, will be the plan from now on.

Robin Broom’s new farm at Taumarunui has medium and steep hill country and its soils are in need of attention.

The other challenge will be getting soil fertility up to speed with a 5.2 pH and Olsen P of 11, it is going to need at least five tonne/ha of lime and one tonne/ha of superphosphate equivalent during the next two-three years to get anywhere near where I would like to see things. Also, the nearest airstrip is 2km-3km away from the farm, so just the flying charge for the lime will be around $100/tonne let alone another $50/tonne for the product and cartage. So I can see myself spending more than $1000/ha during the next two to three years.

My ambition is to turn this block into a grass factory in three years, but whether I get to averaging 22kg lambs again, I think there is only a slim chance. For phosphorus I am applying 500kg/ha of imported high analysis dicalcium phosphate – with 18 per cent P – which is twice as concentrate as superphosphate and similar price per unit of P.

Optimise minerals

Cobalt and selenium have been mixed in and next time some boron, copper and zinc will also be added to the mix to optimise mineral levels in the pasture. Fox gloves and thistles abound on the property, and the blackberry will have to be sprayed and probably the tutsan will too. But I’ve been told by locals that if you get the soil fertility right, the tutsan will die out or get competed out. Time will tell.

Robin Boom, CPAg, member of the Institute of Professional Soil Scientists. Phone: 0274 448 764.