Andrew Cleland – Dairy Farmer

Hamilton

Problem

Despite what we thought were reasonably high fertiliser inputs the performance of the farm was very poor. The pasture looked ‘run-out’ with very little clover. I decided to seek independent advice to solve the problem. Based on the visual symptoms of the pastures, and soil and pasture tests, Dr Edmeades identified that the soils were deficient in K and S. We had the fertiliser balance wrong – too much P and not sufficient K and S. Once this was solved the pasture have boomed into life which has been reflected in the vat.”

Outcome

Milk production has increased by 30% since 2004 and the fertiliser costs per unit production have declined from about $0.45 to $0.25/ kg MS produced. Based on today’s prices our income is up by $147,000 annually and fertiliser costs are down by $10,000.