Tasmania Branch

Tasmanian branch Annual Conference

 The Tasmanian branch held their 17^th Annual Conference on Friday 11^th July at Deloraine in northern Tasmania.  With a dusting of snow on the nearby mountains, about 100 delegates, including producers and industry representatives, braved the cold to attend the conference. 

With the theme ‘Feeding the Future: Soils, Pastures and People’, the conference focused on the current major issue for grassland farmers of rising fertiliser costs.

Fertiliser prices – global and local issues

David Ford, CEO of Impact Fertilisers Tasmania, outlined the following reasons for the recent surge in fertiliser prices:

·       the world’s population is growing at more than 1 million people per week,

·       based on annual consumption, world food stocks at their lowest levels in 30-40 years,

·       changing patterns of dietary consumption in developing countries have increased the demand for protein,

·       increased wheat/rice prices have increased the areas sown/planted to these crops, with corresponding increases in inputs,

·       three to four fold increases in the prices of fertiliser raw materials over the last 18 months,

·       the growing demand for bio-fuel crops, and

·       increased shipping costs.

Australia uses 5.7 million tons fertiliser annually, of which half is locally manufactured from mainly imported raw materials.  

Efficient use of fertilisers on-farm

Lisa Warn, a consultant from the Mackinnon Project, explained how farmers could not only reduce their costs, but help their farms recover from the effects of the drought, through greater fertiliser efficiency.  Soil tests are an essential first step to determine the current status of soils nutrient status, and should form the basis for your fertiliser decisions.  Lisa recommended that producers use the critical nutrient levels established by the ‘Better Fertiliser Decisions Project’ (www.asris.csiro.au) to decide if they should apply fertiliser or not, and if so, how much.

In brief, if the P, K and S soil test values are above the critical levels, there is an opportunity to skip fertiliser applications for one to two years without paying a major penalty in pasture yields.  If your soil K levels are above the critical level, you may not need to add potash unless you plan to make silage or cut hay, and then maintenance rates of K should be considered.  And an Olsen P soil test of 15 mg/kg gives 95% of the maximum pasture yield, while the critical value for the Colwell P test varies with soil type.

Alternative biological solutions

Bart Davidson from Bionutrient Solutions explained how we could improve the current energy efficiency in our farming systems and explored possible solutions better use of waste materials, soil microbes and catalysts, as well as a decentralization of our production systems.

Keeping your soils in good condition

Barry Rowe, a retired pasture agronomist from the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research, explained the importance of maintaining the pH of your soils to ensure their long term productivity.  Barry was involved in a 30-year lime trial conducted by the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture.  He explained that the use of lime, by increasing the soil’s pH, increases the availability of essential nutrients such as molybdenum, and decrease the effects of the toxic levels of aluminum and manganese that occur in strongly-acidic soils. 

Other key note speakers

Other talks at the conference included:

·       Adrian Dryden (Heritage Seeds, NSW), who spoke on the successful management of lucerne,

·       Ken Blowers (Bayer Crop Science, Melbourne) discussed the benefits of pasture seed coating,

and our farmer panel of

·       central committee member, Charlie Bruce from Kingston SE in SA, who gave a mainland farmer’s perspective of how he has dealt with the drought,

and Tasmanian farmers,

·       Stephen Creese and Richard Boland, who outlined their current and future plans for coping with and recovering from the dry conditions.

For more information, or to purchase a copy of Proceedings ($30), contact Sarah Campbell on 0417 574 307 or Sarah.Campbell@dpiw.tas.gov.au

Meander Bus Tour  24^th of February 2008

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