Darren Hislop – Dairy Farmer

Orini

The Problem

This farm was going backwards – the clover had all but disappeared, the pastures were brownish-yellow and we were using more and more fertiliser N. We thought that the problem was the clover flee and/or the root weevil killing the clover.

Dr Edmeades of agKnowledge inspected the pastures in 2005 and noted that they were very patchy – the urine patches were very prominent. He collected soil and clover-only samples a determined that the soils were deficient in K and Mo. He explained that this was the reason the clovers were not thriving.

Since correcting these problems the clover has returned and the pastures are much healthier and more productive. Our production has increased from about 85,000 kg MS/yr to just over 100,000 kg MS annually. Our fertiliser costs are now about $0.30/kg MS produced and we do not worry anymore about pasture pests like the flee and weevil.

The Outcome

Since the involvement of agKnowledge Ltd MS production has increased by about 18% and the maintenance fertiliser program is costing about $0.30 per kg MS produced.