Growing pasture with biological matter and less nitrogen. By Hunter Calder, New Zealand Herald Local Focus Made with funding from NZ on Air. Darryl Oliver has been dairy farming in the Galatea Valley below the lush bush of the Urewera Ranges for the last 16...
By P.W. Burton If the chat amongst farmers is correct, and it almost always is, regulation is about to be imposed on dairy farmers, and a cornerstone of it will be a requirement for cow numbers to be reduced. The thinking is that cows are the primary producers of the...
P.W. Burton When farming I had a sneaking suspicion that much of the information received via main stream media, printed material only then, was an overly simplified version of reality. Since becoming immersed in the fertiliser industry and having access to research...
P.W. Burton Property markets react differently from region to region, however in our patch the rural real estate market is flat, with nothing much moving. Dairy farms are particularly slow to sell. Buyers are reluctant to reduce prices, potential purchasers are...
P.W.Burton The reason for excess Nitrate entering waterways and aquifers is that too much ‘bag N’ is being applied to pastures. The total amount being applied varies depending on the source with a figure of 750,000 tonne regularly appearing. Nitrogen is sold as...
P.W.Burton One well-known farm consultant derides any alternative to the superphosphate, muriate of potash, and urea driven soil fertility system as “flying in the face of sixty years of science”, with performance data being rejected as anecdotal. The value of soil...
P.W. Burton That New Zealand will shift from its present short-term focussed, carbon-depleting mainstream soil fertility model to a genuine sustainable carbon positive one, is a given. It will happen, the only questions are when, and what event will trigger...
By Tom Philpott Download this article as a PDF Just precisely what does all of that nitrogen fertilizer do to the soil? “Fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons.” –Dutch saying For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen does one good deed for...
P.W. Burton Doing stuff, particularly for practical people, is the easiest and most satisfying part of the farming process. It’s the planning bit that takes the real effort and in many instances planning is not well done, with the big picture always remaining...
P.W. Burton Climate change – whether or not you believe that it’s our fault, seems to be an oft quoted phrase at present. There are still those who might admit to the warming, but choose to see it as part of Earth’s long term variations, but we are, even today,...
