Farming for the Future
Allowing the friendly micro-organisms to transform things and make them even better...
As nature intended.
I believe the time has come, where we need to consider focusing on improving productivity and sustainability within our farming systems.
If we collaborate and pool resources and knowledge, we can help create healthier communities by looking after our environment and rural sector at the same time.
Bit by bit we can all look to help implement change. And to do this I believe we need to start at the beginning, then scaffold our way to the top. In other words, in my opinion, the place to start is in our soil. If we commit to fostering practices that will improve the health of our soil and we make this the base of our focus, we will in turn improve the health of plants, animals and eventually ourselves for the future. We can all help to eliminate toxic and harmful practices if we pave a healthy and sustainable way forward - as nature intended.
If we think about making changes now with sustainable thinking and planning, this will roll on to our future generations. As I understand it from my own research, the changes needed have been tested and trialled and understood, but the hardest thing is implementation and faith in our Land as being the sole provider moving forward. With a helping hand we can give back to our earth, replace the life that has been depleted and reverse the negative affects we have had over time. I believe this will allow the soils to rejuvenate and repair at the rate our farms need to survive.
I believe if we don’t find ways to implement change or reverse the damage we have done, we will simply continue to see conception rates and stock quality declining and production costs rising. I have taken a step back - and looked at the entire structure and biological makeup of the farming industry - and have assessed things holistically. Once I did that, I could see organically our dependence on soil as a life source.
The importance of this astounded me and I can’t reiterate this enough. From this I derived that the bottom line is to learn from the past and strengthen the parts of our soil systems that were weak. I believe naturally you will then achieve improved plant and animal health. We have to ‘magnify’ specialist bacteria in our soils, in order to reduce fertiliser and Nitrogen.
The goal is to get it all functioning and working better than it ever has in the past. I do note though, the natural biology in the NZ system wasn’t working well enough to release Phosphorus and make enough Nitrogen, which is why fertiliser was used. I believe farmers won’t want to go back to the old days as they will go broke. It simply comes down to using products which are based on progress, not reverting to the past.
How do we do this you ask, well from my research I believe it’s simple. We reintroduce liquid bio-stimulants that kick start, boost and enhance soil biology to grow fantastic grass that animals ‘can’t get enough of’, whilst simultaneously tackling agricultural environmental issues getting in the way of farming. In turn this will naturally encourage good gut health for better performing lambs and calves.
If we make long term decisions carefully by selecting products that are proven to be effective and sustainable, I believe we will see immense change. We already have the information and evidence these days through research. The data being collected shows it is practical, economical and easy to use in conjunction with traditional systems, allowing you to transition through the change.
Nature is clever and the more we learn from this the better we understand how it can be encouraged to solve our common problems. We already know that nature is packed with its own systems to support plants and animals. Through research and simply understanding nature, science has learned that specific groups of beneficial micro-organisms when working together, grow better feed and rear better stock.
We’ve been researching, developing and refining these type of products for over 20 years. More importantly, they have also been tested, trialled and proven on local farms in our current conditions.
I believe it’s time to make some changes, have some faith and be brave to farm smarter and for the future - give back to our earth.
From what I have seen and researched, long term effects will repay you with reduced running costs, reduced workloads and substantially reduced environmental impact.
The research I have seen to date shows these kinds of results can only be obtained from microbes and the biochemical by-products they produce. It’s so much more powerful than chemistry.
At the end of the day, the results are priceless - staying ahead of government mandates and being able to better service debt, not to mention future proof your legacy.
Written by
Scott Hobson B.Agr.Sc
