Gippsland producers focus on innovation

The conference toured local Bairnsdale farms where owners discussed management practices which had boosted production.

A presentation by grains farmers, Trevor and Toby Caithness, Bairnsdale, on the importance of improving soil fertility through adding trace elements was endorsed by guest speaker Mick Keogh, director of the Australian Farm Institute.

Sporadic rainfall, shallow and low fertility topsoils, with high sodium levels, low potash and low calcium had challenged the Caithness enterprise, until they began a longterm program adding calcium and trace elements to the soil.

It has enabled them to drive yields in their cropping program from two tonnes per hectare to five t/ha.

Mr Keogh said in Gippsland, where dryland broadacre farming on soils with poor fertility was normal practice, productivity increases were hard to achieve.

Forge Creek dairy farmer Mr Kennedy shared his experience on adding magnesium to his soil which "radically" increased milk production.

"I can't spend time worrying about the uncontrollable outside risks to our business – markets, rainfall and climate – that's time better spent on growing grass, on animal health and weight gain and on producing milk," Mr Kennedy said.

"With poor soil fertility and unreliable rainfall, getting calcium levels right for the soil pays off in animal health and production."

Using the Albrecht method, Mr Kennedy focussed on increasing magnesium levels in the soil and when his agronomist suggested adding more in Spring last year, he doubted the wisdom of the advice.

He said the property already boasted high magnesium levels in the soil and questioned the effectiveness of adding more.

"But we put it on the pasture when we were feeding two kilograms/cow of grain a day to calving cows and suddenly we were getting 50 litres/day/cow; a radical increase," Mr Kennedy said.

"We've discovered we can drive production higher by getting trace elements in the soil right."