Better Soil Structure and Improved Herd Health
Product Range: MegaMin Extra Magnesium, MegaMin Extra Sulphur and NatraMin K-Phos
Region: Coraki, NSW
Results:
- Increased legumes
- Increased milk production
- Greater herd health and fertility
Milking 400-500 cows on low-lying, flood prone country at Coraki, presents its fair share of challenges. For Steve and Robyn Mathers and her son Brian, it’s all about improving production with a focus on balancing soil nutrition, cow nutrition and most importantly the bank balance. Several years ago we caught up with this dairy farming family who continue to increase productivity and pave the way in growing high-performance pastures.
NatraMin simply forms part of our fertiliser program. Our pastures are better, we’re running more cows and producing more milk. We see the difference and improvement in our pastures compared to other areas in our travels. NatraMin is applied once or twice a year depending on our priorities. Because we’re flood prone, and have a high water table, soil health and structure are an ongoing component of our farming”, says Robyn.
Our pastures are better, we’re running more cows and producing more milk.”
According to Steve, “Our herd health indicates the success of our soil management and since mixing our own feed rations we’ve incorporated MegaMin into our diets. MegaMin Extra Magnesium is added to our lactating cow ration and MegaMin Extra Sulphur is added to our calf rations. One thing a dairy can do is quickly measure a response by the litres in the vat. We’ve lifted our production by one third and fertility in our herd is exceptional”.
“At times our pasture growth has allowed us to reduce Nitrogen inputs but the noticeable response to NatraMin has been from our clover and chicory content which now dominates our pastures. We regularly soil test to monitor things and our soil pH consistently increases with NatraMin while Lime and Gypsum never turned our pH in the past.
We’re approaching 10 years with NatraMin rotating between the Potassium and Phosphorus blends as the base fertilisers to balance our inputs”, concludes Brian.
Working with farmers like the Mathers is what gives us the satisfaction in what we do. Helping farmers to help their soils and livestock is our passion and contribution towards Helping Australia Grow.
