Kypros Kotzikas is the driving force behind Bio Marinus, a liquid fertiliser using offal from his fish processing factory.
United Fisheries is equipped to produce up to 20,000 litres of the fertiliser daily at its Christchurch plant but it’s running at 75% capacity, using three-quarters of its available offal.
It is a waste to turn the surplus offal into fishmeal because by-products like fish fertiliser can be worth more than raw fish, Kotzikas said.
Fish offal, usually dumped or turned into fishmeal, amounts to about a million tonnes of untapped product.
Blue mussels, a nuisance for the green mussel industry, can also be hydrolysed. The liquid fish or liquid mussels can then be used as a fertiliser or a silage for animal or aquaculture farm feed.
“As the demand for liquid fish fertiliser increases each year we estimate that within two or three years we will have to start looking to buy offal to meet the demand for liquid fish fertiliser or liquid fish silage,” Kotzikas said.
He is convinced that by feeding soil biology and adding the hydrolysed liquid fish with urea, dairy farmers can reduce their use of synthetic nitrogen by 80%.
But a lack of independent research into hydrolysed liquid fish is holding back sales, he said.
To turn the tide United Fisheries has asked state-owned Landcare Research to study the effects of hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser on forage quantity, quality and environmental benefits for grassland.
The proposed research is priced at $800,000 over three years or less than $1.4m over five years.
The Government will be asked to fund the research because it benefits the whole country, Kotzikas said.
The study already has support from Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel, who met Kotzikas to discuss it late last year. In a February 19 letter Dalziel said it seems to have enormous potential benefit to our region and to NZ Inc as well.
“I can say that nitrates are a real concern to both our city and region and a proposal such as this signals an opportunity to utilise the waste of one industry to support another industry while minimising nitrogen losses,” she said.
The proposal ought to be supported regionally and nationally.
“It is my intention to refer this matter to the Canterbury Mayoral Forum for their follow-up and consideration as I am sure they will be very interested in what is proposed,” Dalziel said.
Landcare Research hopes to work with Canterbury grassland soils that are representative of recent, widespread conversion from dryland farming to irrigated dairying.
Its proposal said DairyNZ’s recommended applications of urea to irrigated grassland are 100-150kg N/ha over five to 10 applications through the year, with higher amounts in spring when seasonal growing conditions are most favourable.
“It is important to note that the recommended commercial use of hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser is not intended to replace an equivalent amount of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser applied conventionally as urea,” it said.
The research would examine how much enzymatically hydrolysed liquid fish feeds soil biology, stimulates plant growth and improves nitrogen-use efficiency. Using four test plots it would measure responses to nitrogen supplied as urea and hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser.
There would be a variety of nitrogen treatments: 200kg N/ha/year as urea with no hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser; 120 litres of hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser with no urea, 120kg N/ha/year with 70 litres of hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser applied at intervals and 60kg N/ha/year as urea with 70 litres of hydrolysed liquid fish fertiliser applied at intervals.
The study would compare above-ground biomass, nitrogen-use efficiency, feed quality and availability of soil nitrogen as well as extractable soil carbon and soil carbon availability. The work would also gather new data on vertical profiles of rooting depth, water-holding capacity, soil hydrology and microbiological activity.
United Fisheries chief scientist Smitha James said it developed Bio Marinus after finding the right combination of enzymes to effectively break down raw fish protein like peptides and amino acids.
The product’s essential ingredients are stabilised in a dormant, steady state at the end of manufacturing, ready to be sold to farmers and home gardeners in either 10000 tanks or 200l, 20l and 5l drums.
The main customers are dairy and crop farmers, orchardists, vineyards and horticulturists. Most customers are biological farmers, including some organic-certified producers.
Lincoln University dairy nutrition expert Jim Gibbs said he worked with Kotzikas and Bio Marinus from the outset, studying its value as a ruminant animal feed for methane-reduction. It workes that way but he couldn’t vouch for it as a soil conditioner or a nitrogen supplement, he said.
Research by Land Research Services in 2012 showed a significant response for the nitrogen-alone and the combined Bio Marinus and nitrogen treatments compared to the control.
The study showed Bio Marinus works best in conjunction with urea and allows a lower rate of nitrogen to be applied for the same or better response over the higher rates of nitrogen alone.
Pasture quality for the Bio Marinus and nitrogen treatments is as high or higher than the nitrogen-only treatments.
In the combined Bio Marinus and nitrogen treatment results calcium levels and magnesium content were 10% higher than the nitrogen-only treatments, the study found.
