February 2015 – Edition #11
Tried and true versus something new As the saying goes, you can’t get something different if you keep doing what you’ve always done.
We’re hoping to see meaningful results by next spring and if things look promising we’ll continue the studies for another 12 months.”
For the past 50 years, farmers on King Island have relied on fertiliser to make the typically poor soils more productive. The fertiliser of choice has tended to be superphosphate.
“Once the trials are up and running we aim to have more field days during the year so people can see for themselves.”
“The trouble is, we’re just not getting the same results as we used to, by applying phosphorus,” said Rod Graham, Regional Landcare Facilitator, King Island. As the costs of fertiliser and freight increase there is additional pressure on farmers to get more bang for their buck. “We’ve just started a study to work out how to get the most value from fertilisers, and which fertilisers we might need to use. Because our soils get a lot of rainfall, many of the important elements are leached out. We want to see which elements might be added to increase our soil productivity.” Another part of Rod’s work is to see what sorts of microbiology is found in different soils across the island. “We know that healthy soils with a diverse range of microbes tend to be more fertile,” said Rod.
Rod Graham is King Island’s Regional Landcare Facilitator, overseeing the fertiliser effectiveness trials
For more information contact Rod Graham at NRM King Island: rod.graham@kingisland.net.au
“We’re using 25th anniversary Landcare grant funding to do a 12 month program of testing where we aim to replicate commercial growing conditions as closely as possible.
www.cradlecoastnrm.com This publication is supported by Cradle Coast NRM, with funding from the Australian Government