Humates trials show visible differences

Soil Foodweb's Cherryle Prew, of Roxburgh, uses a spadeful of soil to demonstrate soil biology...
Soil Foodweb's Cherryle Prew, of Roxburgh, uses a spadeful of soil to demonstrate soil biology during Southern Humates field day near Mataura recently. Photo from Southern Humates
About 100 farmers and consultants attended the Southern Humates field day on the Coker farm at near Mataura recently.

Southern Humates' operation manager Chris Nel said the field day on February 12 showcased the results of humate trials the company commissioned on the property.

''The field day was excellent and went well, and we had some wonderful responses,'' Mr Nel said.

''We invited people to see the results of the trial and visually look at the difference between them [trial blocks].''

In addition to viewing the trial results carried out by Agscience Ltd's scientist Dr Peter Espie, he and Cherryle Prew of Soil Food Web, Roxburgh, made presentations and consultant Jeff Broomfield discussed practical aspects of the addition of humates.

''Cherryle explained about soil biology and what is going on in the soil and Peter explained how we ran the trial and he interpreted the results.''

In addition to the control plot that had neither fertiliser nor humates, the other plots had consistent amounts of lime and urea added.

The plots then had varying quantities of humates applied and the dry matter was measured after mowing in November, December and January.

The trial was repeated five different times.

Mr Nel said the application of urea and lime raised total production to date by 37% and the addition of urea and 20% of the weight of urea in humates, raised it by 63%.

''The combination of the three was most effective.''

AgScience's report said the most cost-effective application was 12% humates with urea, at 17c per kg of dry matter.

Mr Nel said the use of humates was biological farming, as opposed to organic farming.

''We are promoting biological farming and we still need fertiliser.''

He said by using humates, less fertiliser was required, which meant there was less contamination, less leaching, and more benefits for the environment

They worked out the average cost benefit using humates, and for every 100kg of dry matter produced, they needed 43% less urea.

The trial is ongoing.

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