Friday, March 29, 2024

Funding missed but study continues

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As Back Track Dairies’ baseline season drew to a close last month the farm’s owners Jeremy Casey and Kim Solly had no regrets. Last year they embarked on a study that’s putting part of their 1300-cow farm under the biological spotlight.
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They’re intent on carrying on despite a funding hurdle that’s meant they’ve missed out on money from the Ministry of Primary Industry’s Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF). The steering committee for the project is exploring other funding options and the study already has five-figure financial support from farmers and other interested parties.

DairyNZ is considering whether it will step up and help given it sees merit in the study and is concerned those running it could otherwise have to limit the amount and detail of analysis.

Its strategy and investment leader productivity Dr Bruce Thorrold said the SFF result was disappointing for the project. DairyNZ had previously agreed to co-fund the work on the basis of SFF approval but it is rethinking that proviso.

“It’s important these types of analysis are done well to enable meaningful comparisons,” he said.

“The project has merit and had it received the full funding sought, had the potential to provide a useful data set of two alternative systems.”

The Back Track study is a comparative farm study instigated by Jeremy and Kim to compare a biological approach to soil fertility with a conventional approach. 

The Mid-Canterbury farm is split into two units by a road, Back Track. Each has its own 54-bail farm dairy with automation and milk meters enabling factors such as production and animal health to be compared along with soil and plant parameters.

The cows will be wintered together but scientists will randomise two herds, allocating equivalent cows to each farm unit – either Waiora, the 210ha conventionally fertilised unit or Whakapono, the 155ha biological unit.

Although the cows will always come back together again during subsequent winters they’ll stay in their allocated herds for the next three seasons, over the course of the study.

The biological unit’s fertiliser advice is based on the Albrecht-Kinsey theory which focuses on creating a balance of the cations calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium.

The belief is that with the correct balance the soil biology and physical characteristics will be enhanced which will in turn help make nutrients more readily available for plants thereby improving their quality and improving animal health.

There are also claims that soil characteristics such as water holding capacity are improved.

The conventional unit’s fertiliser advice is carried out by Ballance Agri Nutrients.

Jeremy and Kim converted both units in 2012 and began using the two different approaches right from the outset so the biological unit has operated under the Albrecht-Kinsey theory since it became a dairy unit.

This season pasture covers have been recorded weekly, soil tests carried out using both Hills Laboratory and Perry Laboratories so that base saturation levels are provided for each unit, plant analysis and pasture quality assessments carried out and nutrient budgets done. Plant and Food has also carried out a base soils analysis looking at physical parameters and soil biology.

This year’s biological applications have included 200kg/ha of dolomite or calcium magnesium carbonate to provide calcium and magnesium to the soil. It’s a fundamental part of achieving the right cation balance according to the biological theory.

Guano phosphate has been used in place of conventional superphosphates but the biological approach still uses most other conventional fertilisers and urea is also applied.

“That surprises some people,” Jeremy said.

The approach at Back Track is about investigating the Albrecht-Kinsey theory not about using organic fertilisers or other brews such as humates which could cloud the study.

Tables one and two show what’s been applied this season and at focus days later this year the reasons for the two varying application approaches will be discussed.

For Jeremy and Kim taking the biological approach hasn’t come cheap. The conventional farm’s fertiliser spending has been about 44c/kg milksolids (MS) or $738/ha while the biological unit’s spending has been closer to 68c/kg MS or $1143/ha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNTflAWYbbI&feature=youtu.beJeremy said the push to get to an Albrecht-Kinsey excellence level as quickly as possible to allow for a robust comparison over the next three years is behind the expense to date. Other farmers adopting the theory usually take a slower approach.

Pasture cover records show an advantage in the biological unit towards the end of the season although no conclusions can yet be drawn from that.

The differences haven’t been analysed for significance and spring damage to centre pivots may have had a role to play as the damage was not uniform on both sides of the road.

Throughout much of the rest of the season the conventional area’s pasture covers were slightly higher but again no conclusions can yet be drawn.

“At this stage it’s just about what we’re observing,” Jeremy said.

The higher covers on Whakapono later in the season pushed annual pasture production on that unit to 16.8t drymatter (DM)/ha, close to 1t DM/ha more than Waiora.

The differences towards the end of the season meant stocking rates were lifted slightly where necessary on the biological farm but come spring Jeremy won’t have that option as cows will have to remain on their allocated unit. Any surpluses will have to be dealt with by making silage so that comparisons are again robust.

In total the cows will have been fed close to 900kg DM each of supplement on each farm with about half of that grain fed in the farm dairy and the rest pit silage and balage.

More was fed in spring this season than last due to porina damage on both units and damage to centre pivots.

Damaged paddocks on both units have been oversown with a ryegrass/white clover mix with added chicory and plantain and the pivots have all been repaired.

Over the winter analysis of the past season’s data will be carried out.

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