Vaughn, I'll be on the next 'free'plane! When I mentioned your e-mails to my
wife, she felt certain that you had been here. Is that possible? Impressive
yield and quality data, but I doubt we're far apart--certainly not on
quality, and our yield figures are based on a grazing season that at best,
lasts from May to early November. During that grazing period, my 'cute'
little Jerseys have been measured to consume 120# of grass as fed/day, and
produce an average of 58#/cow of milk/day. Vaughn, our countrys have a lot
to share in dairy farming information. Let's find a way to expedite that
process. Dick Conklin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leon" <leon@wave.co.nz>
To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>; "Graze-l" <graze-l@taranaki.ac.nz>
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 8:03 AM
Subject: [Graze-l] Fertilisers.
> New Zealand is a new country geologically. Most was pushed up out of
> the sea with volcanic layers thrown on top. Some of the ash is pumice
> (light sand). Very, very few soils are alluvial.
>
> Also our rainfall is comparatively high, but does vary from 12 to 200
> inches pa with most dairying areas getting 40 inches or more by rain
> or irrigation, so leaching is high.
>
> Also the rainfall and fertilisers give high pasture yields of 15 to
> 18 tons DM/a pa of top quality feed (mostly perennial ryegrass and
> clovers) which means a lot of milk, meat and/or wool is going off the
> farm and on 99% of farms no concentrates or other feed is bought in.
> In Northern Hemisphere bought feed is substantial which brings
> fertility on to the farm.
>
> Northern Hemisphere soils are far better than those in NZ, but most
> Northern Hemisphere pastures produce less animal products/acre.
>
> Also NZ land is expensive (US$2,000/a) so it pays to feed it to
> achieve high production.
>
> A 300 acre farm can milk 400 Jerseys with no bought feed and give two
> workers a living, although the predicted lower payouts for milk mean
> that the owner may have to milk the 400 on their own. Some owners or
> sharemilkers now milk 300 on their own and do most of the farm work.
> The agricultural infrastructure in NZ is excellent so contractors of
> all kinds (hay, silage, draining, hedge cutting, shearing, fertiliser
> spreading) and relief milkers are available.
>
> Trace elements, except for cobalt, are not expensive per acre.
> Amounts usually required of selenium, copper, salt, boron cost only
> about US$2/a pa.
>
> In the Northern Hemisphere you usually feed concentrates with
> minerals added. We sometimes feed soluble minerals through an inline
> water dispenser, but most add it to the fertiliser.
>
> If Northern Hemisphere farmers added the low trace elements to
> fertilisers their animals would be a lot healthier. I've seen arched
> back cows from low selenium, heifers licking each other madly to try
> and get salt, weak calves and lambs dying at birth from low minerals
> (mostly selenium), etc.
>
> I've also been consulting in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and
> many Northern Hemisphere countries and seen the pathetic farming
> methods such as one man herding a flock of 50 sheep all day. Here one
> man farms 2,000 sheep. Five men shearing 13 sheep a day. Here one can
> shear 400 in a nine hour a day.
>
> I could go on.
>
> Come down and have a look.
>
>
> At 9:23 PM +0000 14/3/04, Richard and Carol Conklin wrote:
> >Vaughn, I received a startling message last Spring from a US State
> >Dept. project office asking me to go to a country in southeast
> >Europe, formerly part of the USSR, and help their farmers. I visited
> >about half the country, and on two locations, set up 1hectre
> >fertilized pasture test spots. Nation-wide excitement! Pictures,
> >yield measurements, milk production improvement on holsteins that
> >weighed about 800#. I'm told they will all be fertilizing their
> >pasture this year. And that's in the face of the fact that there was
> >only one brand of fertilizer available, 13-16-16, and for the tests
> >was applied at 50#/ acre, on acreage that held only native species.
> >Why are your needs in NZ so complex?
> >Dick Conklin
> >Amity Farm
> >Ft.Ann,NY
>
>
> --
> Vaughan Jones
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>
