Doug & Caroline’s Farm
New Zealand
Doug and Caroline wanted to address some of the issues they knew would hold them back like the animal health and pasture issues that came with the the farm.
First Season
In the first season DCT introduced a program using Turbo N and Lazerhume to increase the efficiency of the natural farm system, focusing on balancing soil nutrient input to help open up the soil, increase the nutrient cycling into the plant and promote better biological activity.
Changes in the soil happened very quickly, an increase in worms, the roots growing downward and the soil was starting to smell like soil.
Doug’s comment was that most of the early changes were happening under the ground but he did feel that the grass was thickening up a bit and something that was very noticeable was that the cows seemed to lie down and chew their cud earlier.
The May herbage test, showed that more nutrients were now cycling into the leaf.
Turbo N is designed with ingredients to cycle the nutrients into the plant, grow better roots and better quality grass.
During dry periods, Doug noticed that his non- irrigated pasture stayed reasonably green compared to some neighbouring farms and after inspecting under the grass level into the soil they were surprised to find the root growth had changed from 50-100mm deep, down to 200mm, all this in just 6 months.
When the rain finally came Doug & Caroline were surprised at how quickly the grass recuperated, much quicker than neighbouring farms.
The first season production was on target but with a dryer than normal November and December they ended up at 96,000 milk solids but Doug could see that the grass production on the farm was improving, worm numbers were up and the animal health costs were starting to come down from $90 per cow.
In October not really expecting to see much visual change Doug did notice some improvement in the grass production but what surprised him the most was the number of dead grass grubs in the soil. The Turbo N product seemed to deal with the pests as well as help grass production and at a time when neighbouring farms were having major problems with grass grub, Doug and Caroline felt that they now had a complete solution to treat the grub and build good soils.
Second & Third Season
Doug & Caroline were now focused on a good second season, they brought in an advisor who with a nutrition background formulated a feed plan which included utilising home grown feed and grass utilisation.
This advisor started measuring the grass utilisation which showed that they were not only growing nutritional dense pasture but the cows were benefiting in good health and utilising it to a high percentage.
Animal Health 46% Reduction
The animal health cost dropped some in the first season but in the second season somatic cells were down at an average of 70,000 with very few cases of mastitis and less medication purchased.
Doug and Caroline really noticed it more in the second and third season; this was probably due to more focus on the finances and on efficiency.
They also noticed with their cows that there was practically no milk fever, there were no assisted calving with their cows which contributed to lower vet bills, cow’s hooves were stronger and with very little lameness so in turn animal health cost came down.
They have seen a considerable drop per cow from an average of $90 per cow to $48, which in turn was very noticeable in saving time and being able to concentrate on other jobs around the farm.
Doug and Caroline believe their animal health cost reduction was a combination of better quality nutrient feed and better management.
Doug sprays the Turbo N on himself.
Because the Turbo N mainly works through the soil so there is no urgency to get it on if rain is forecast.
Doug has established a pattern of spraying behind the cows every 2nd round first thing in the morning or last thing at night when it is a bit cooler, he sprays 5 ha per day, 3 applications per week.
Turbo N is different from other Nitrogen products, it holds onto the Nitrogen letting it get into the soil without gassing off and then keeping it in the root zone, with some of the Turbo N being taken up as a folia feed directly through the leaf.
What was evident in the soil test was the lower leaching.
The way Doug see’s it is that Turbo N is your low leach Nitrogen and also the activator for the solid fertiliser that is in your soil.
If you keep to the programme and get your solid fertiliser on, and also balancing the Calcium and Magnesium plus keep the other nutrients at the right level then this Turbo N product seems to activate it.
Doug has followed the changes in his soil and Herbage tests but what impresses him the most is the increase in milk solids and his cow condition.
“We had a field day put on by the Milk Company who were monitoring my farm, a nutritionist spoke about feed efficiency and how to keep production up without compromising the cow’s health.
Our nutritionist was happy with the amount of Nitrogen in our herbage as not only were we looking after the cows, we had decreased the wastage of Nitrogen going through the cows”
“The cows seem to be eating less but still very happy, production is also up which is the key. Dry matter growth with good nutrient value being more important than what the grass looks like, I guess at the end of the day if your soils are healthy and they grow quality pasture giving you healthy cows which produce more milk solids then the increased profit for less input is what I want to achieve”
“For us the consistency of this ideal situation would be the ultimate but the reality is that in our industry there are a number of variables that need to fall into place, Weather, floods, snow, drought plus all the issues that come with those situations, We feel Turbo N and the DCT Programme helped us through the ups and downs and grow pasture and crops that seemed to bounce back quicker”
In Conclusion
Approximately 55% less Nitrogen applied.
Applying 92 units of N per hectare in the Turbo N product growing approximately 10.5 tonne DM/ha.
Growing approximately 113 kg DM per unit of N compared to local conventional farms at approximately 45 kg DM per unit of N.
Grass production increased by around 10%
Utilisation increased because of a high nutrient value in the grass and with introducing feed inputs to balance the required energy when required we have increased the milk solid production in
Season one: 96,000 M/S
Season two: 109,000 M/S, 13.5% increase
Season three: 120,000 M/S, 10% increase.
Over all Animal health costs have dropped 47%
Profit from the extra milk solids plus the savings from the Animal health less the cost of extra feed inputs nets an increase of approximately 20%.