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Farm Management Practices Challenged
Use of fertilizers may be severely limited in future or even banned, farmers
attending the Nelson monitor farm field day last week were warned.
Holistic Management® educator John King challenged their management practices
and said they needed to deal with the underling cause of problems.
Holistic planned grazing regenerated the soil unlike current rotational grazing
and set stocking practices, he said.
“It's going to be important for the future where fertiliser could be banned
the way it is being discussed in Northern Queensland to avoid damage to the
Great Barrier Reef.
It's same in the North Island lakes where overuse of fertiliser has led to
water quality degradation,”
“You don't cure a problem by dealing with the symptoms.” he said, likening
the issue to that of dealing with a headache by using painkillers.
“The pain (of the headache) is a symptom of your management. And it's
no different if you're dealing with agriculture, health or education.”
“A lot of issues in agriculture are a symptom, not the problem.”
For example, he questioned whether gorse invasion was a problem or merely
a symptom of land management.
“A species will only invade an area when conditions are right for it to establish
and thrive and only leave an area when the conditions prevent its reproduction.”
He says problem plants and diseases are usually the result of management
techniques, “like the recent pig disease in the North Island which is probably
a result of the environment that the pigs are growing in.”
He likens it to the bubonic plague in medieval Britain which was exacerbated
by living conditions at the time.
He said he was convinced that 90 percent of livestock health problems were
due to an imbalance between carbohydrate and protein.
Contrary to other farm advisors present at the field day, he says New Zealand
pastures are too high in available protein and nitrogen, adding that a nitrogen
excess weakens an animal's immune system.
New Zealand pastures were too high in clover at around 30 percent, giving
the animals excess protein.
“I’m not saying clover’s bad but if your looking for good growth you have
to have a balance between protein and carbohydrates.”
If lambs were scouring, chance were they had excess protein, “like driving
a car with the choke out.”
He suggested that contrary to expected farm practice at this time of year,
farmers should consider having straw in the paddocks to balance the animal’s
diet.
“What you see in your pasture is generally a reflection of your grazing management,”
he said.
He recommended that farmers should use animals to maintain mixes instead
of single species pastures, valuing the need for biodiversity but also soil
activity.
“Diverse pastures may not give higher productivity, but they do give greater
longevity.”
Timing of grazing is important to influence the survival and proportions
of pasture species.
Set stocking of pasture for extended periods only encourages stock to be
selective feeders, depleting the pasture mix of the species they most favoured.
This led to pasture degeneration like that illustrated in horse paddocks
around Nelson. It only took one animal to overgraze a paddock no matter
how large.
However, he also questioned the profitability of investment in pasture renovation
adding that while it might bring increased growth it may not equate to increased
profitability.
He said recent research in Australia had shown there is no relation between
pasture renovation and profitability over a five year period.
Instead of grazing pasture short he recommended leaving enough growth to
return some nutrients to the soil which does a faster job of building organic
matter than dung or urine alone.
Returning leaf matter also helps nutrient absorption and avoids leaching
He predicted that reducing fertiliser use and maintaining water quality will
be an important issue for New Zealand and Nelson in particular where tourism
is so important for the economy.
“There are already ways to deal with that and keep (farm) production up.”
This story has been reprinted with the kind permission of Jude Petheram and
The Nelson Mail.
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