One of the best parts of our job is working with farmers and early in the year we were able to visit Andrew Gould a Farmer based in Rotherham, North Canterbury to look at his farm and in particular his Fodder Beet crops. In a big change from his previous management practice Andrew has changed from a conventional fertiliser regime with high P and N applications to a biological system through Soil Matters.
Soil Matters is a soil consultancy business based out of Canterbury but servicing NZ. They focus on utilising biological nutrients to enhance crop yields and animal performance. We have begun working with Soil Matters who now provide their customers with EM to further enhance the quality nutrient program they are implementing. Watch our interview with Soil Matters below.
The Fodder Beet paddocks which are irrigated, were soil tested then sown in late October with Viafos K+, Potash, Lime, Magnesium, Boron Salt and Zinc. Our dry product EM Fert Enhance was included in this fertiliser blend. In addition EM Ready to Use was sprayed on with his herbicide sprays to give the plants and soil a further boost and limit the damage of the sprays. As you can see form the photos the canopy has closed and the crop has taken off. “This crop has been grown to winter my stock and also for dairy support. At this stage the crop is look very healthy and has really shot up over the past 2-3 weeks, everything is looking really promising” Andrew said to EMNZ.
We will keep tabs on this crop and report back on yields in May/June. For more information on using EM on Arable crops visit our cropping section.
