44
February 2014
NORTHERN FARMING LIFESTYLES
LIVESTOCK
Proof is in the paddock
by Cynthia Matthews
The New Zealand company Agrisea will be exhibiting at the Northland Field Days for the fifth time this year. Agrisea is experiencing rapid growth due to demand for its seaweed based products — soil conditioner, foliar spray and animal health tonics. The family owned company is based in Paeroa and
Gisborne and employs 30 staff. Around 30 families harvest brown kelp which is cold brew fermented. Customers come from all over the country and while 95% of them are conventional farmers, others
The Dempsters’ Otonga farm
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are wine and kiwifruit growers, horse breeders, gardeners and smaller land block owners. In Northland Barry and Lorraine Dempster are Agrisea users. They run sheep and dairy heifers. Earlier in his farm life Barry had sheep in poor condition. “Nothing I did made the difference. I added the seaweed with drenching and they picked up.” Fast forward to ten years ago, when after a brief stint herd testing Barry and Lorraine returned to farming at Otonga near Hikurangi, buying an 80ha block in gorse and pine. (Their new farm overlooks where Barry was raised.) He slashed the gorse, fenced the block into paddocks and enclosed the bush. Barry says the breaking down gorse added nitrogen to the soil. He limed, manured and then applied the soil conditioner. After four years he is making baleage from this same land. “It was a gradual change, but then it took off.” Barry first saw improvement in his calves. They require no worm drenching and have no bloat. “We start them on baleage and they do much better on it.” The calves can be bred when they’re a year old.
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Barry and Lorraine Dempster
Despite the last dry weeks the Dempsters’ calves are doing well. The pasture is full of chicory, plantain and clover. “It’s not too rich for them, has the trace elements, and is easier on their rumens,” Barry explains. He has already taken hay off the flats this summer. “The pasture, particularly the paspalum, has more resilience in drought and the depth of the soil’s fertility increases — and the grass grows deeper. The clover roots lengthen too, helping fix natural nitrogen.” The farm is Hikurangi pipe clay and the high earthworm count he attributes to the soil conditioner which helps release nutrients for pasture growth. “The results are lowered costs — not only in animal health but in buying in feed or supplements.”
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