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      Better pastures from biological approach
David Pugh, manager of “Nioka”, Holbrook, NSW. Southern NSW beef producer, David Pugh, claims his pastures are responding more vigorously after rain and cattle are growing faster after adopting a biological nutrition program two years ago. David manages the Holbrook region property “Nioka”, which is owned by Tim and Ariel Arnott, who bought the 1,050-hectare holding as a higher-rainfall addition to their Jerilderie-based Coolbaroo Pastoral Company. The property’s 650 to 700 mm annual rainfall and native and improved pastures allow it to carry about 400 Angus cows and replacements, with yearling steers turned off for the feedlot trade. David, who previously spread up to 120 kg/ha of single superphosphate over half of the property each year, said he had been looking for a more effective and environmentally-friendly method of pasture nutrition for some time. “There were no obvious problems but neither Tim nor I like artificial chemicals and we were looking for an alternative,” he said. The two men attended a number of biological farming seminars before asking BioAg to develop a tailored program for the property in 2006. After soil tests revealed calcium and phosphorus deficiencies and mild acidity, it was decided to treat half the property each year with 500 kg/ha of lime and 200 kg/ha of BioAgPhos. BioAgPhos is a reactive phosphate rock treated with a proprietary microbial culture to make it “biologically active”. About half of its 14% phosphorus content is available immediately for plant use, while the remainder is slowly digested by the micro-organisms and added to the nutrient reservoir in the soil. The improved soil microbial activity is also claimed to help unlock phosphorus, calcium and sulphur already in the soil, leading to long-term benefits in soil structure and fertility. David has already noticed a number of improvements in the 246 hectares of pastures that have been treated with BioAgPhos. “Every time we receive a bit of rain, we seem to get a much better response in the treated paddocks than in the others,” he said. “Because of the dry years, you’d think there’d still be some super in those other paddocks but obviously it isn’t being released. The treated pastures are a deeper green, sub-clover is reappearing and everything has thickened up. There appears to be more dry matter feed per hectare and less Paterson’s Curse. “The cattle seem to do a lot better on the BioAg country than on other paddocks. The calves are putting on weight quicker so they must be getting better nutrition out of the pasture.” Although it is still early days, David believes the biological nutrition program will improve soil health and enable him to run more cattle and turn off more kilograms of beef per hectare. “We hope to be able to get the cows and heifers back up to joining weight more quickly after calving and maintain body weights through the winter months without having to feed silage or hay,” he said. “We have been running the place at 75 percent of its carrying capacity through the drought so we won’t have to spend thousands of dollars re-establishing pastures after it rains.” To maintain the quality of the Angus herd, Mr Pugh buys in bulls from registered breeders, shopping locally if he can. “We look for medium frame, fleshy bulls good figures for calving ease, maternal traits, 600-day growth, marbling and eye muscle area,” he said. |
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