Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Farming for Profit initiative in South Canterbury held a Farming in the Future field day on Seaview Grange sheep and beef farm in Cave recently.
Farm manager Thomas Stocker, of Totara Valley, spoke at the event about being able to increase livestock numbers since he started working on the 320ha farm about four years ago.
The stocking rate was made possible by a lot of regrassing featuring faster growing varieties.
Compost had been used as a fertiliser on the farm for the past three years.
The compost was sourced from the Timaru District Council, which made it from material provided by kerbside bin services for garden and food waste.
A hope was the compost would improve soil health and improve its ability to retain moisture.
Gains from applying compost were slowly beginning to show, he said.
Consequently, they were investigating the most efficient amount of compost to apply per hectare to produce the same result as applying a maintenance rate of superphosphate fertiliser.
Minerals in the compost included high levels of phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium but it lacked sulphur.
The quality of the compost had improved over time.
"Our first lot of compost had steel, glass, plastic — you name it and it was in there."
Since the council opened its new organics processing facility, the compost was "100% clean".
Seaview Grange is owned by Canterbury Environmental Solutions founder Gary "Gutsy" Aitken.
