Fertilising differently for more soil life and healthy cows
Dairy farmer Alphons de Roy works together intensively with contract workers of Loonbedrijf De Schalm
Alphons de Roy is one of the dairy farmers in the pilot club of contract worker Karel Kennes. Since 2013 he outsources a large part of the activities for roughage cultivation to Mr Kennes. It means the dairy farmer from Alphen (N-Br) can focus fully on his 130 dairy cows and their corresponding calves. In this business, contract worker Karel Kennes was mainly concerned with improving soil fertility. The results are there to see. Mr De Roy says “We made massive progress on the land and in the sheds.”
Soil analysis with the Kinsey-Albrecht method and measuring soil compacting with a penetrometer were the basis for working and fertilising the plots. We tackled compacted soil with deep subsoiling and after the pilot the KAS fertilisers were fully replaced by N-xt Fertilizers' liquid fertilisers. Mr De Roy continues “In 2013 we carried out a pilot where we compared our traditional KAS fertilisation on pasture with the liquid fertilisers of N-xt fertilizers. We saw immediate results even in the first year. Grass fertilised with N-xt Fertilizers had better roots and the grass was stronger. During cutting the dm percentage was higher than in the pasture with normal fertilisation.” Reason enough for Messrs De Roy and Kennes to expand the pilots in 2014 and 2015 with different liquid fertilisers and to look at the quality of the roughage that was achieved. These experiments also demonstrated the best results for the N-xt fertilisers. Alphons De Roy comments “We noticed that the feed efficiency improved enormously. The animals make better use of the roughage and there is less manure in the pit. The quality of the manure is better too. The cows produce more milk with less power feed. The health of our stock has improved and our vet costs are lower. Just that more than makes up for the additional costs of the new fertilisation method.”
More soil life
On the land Mr De Roy notices that the fertilisers are doing their job properly. According to him soil life increased significantly over the past three years. “I notice it in the amount of crop remnants that are left in the grass. There used to be something like a layer of felt between the grass, but now there is nothing. The worms pull it into the soil where it is digested by fungi and other micro-organisms. We also suffer a lot less from weed growth and don't need to irrigate as often. It means our pasture will survive a few years longer.” According to Mr De Roy the cooperation with Mr Kennes exceeded his expectations. “On the one hand you give away control over your company. On the other I notice that new insights have optimised my entire business operations. It is just wonderful that you make such progress by working together and making things clear.”
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