Pasture Nutrition
AgriSea Pasture Nutrition is manufactured from a renewable New Zealand seaweed species (Ecklonia Radiata) which is believed to be the most beneficial for the land.
This product is batch-brewed naturally with selected herbs for a period of 50 days. Seaweed is a highly complex material and typically contains over 60 minerals and elements, 12 vitamins, 21 amino acids, simple and complex carbohydrates. There are significant levels of important micronutrients essential for plant and animal health in seaweed. AgriSea’s natural brewing process is unique, and does not use heat, chemicals, freezing or dehydration to ensure the sensitive natural hormones and micronutrients are not ‘de-natured’ during the process. The plant hormones – auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins are natural growth stimulants that assist with:
a) increased root mass production, reducing the impact of drought and accelerating nutrient uptake
b) develops a dense high quality sward without the rankness that nitrogen provides.
AgriSea Pasture Nutrition is an excellent complimentary mineral and trace element boost for grazing pasture. Foliar spraying of seaweed to pasture (when conditions are suitable) has been shown to be 95% efficient. Within one hour of spraying most of the nutrient has been translocated through the leaf into the plant.
AgriSea Pasture Nutrition delivers:
- a complete nutrient package
- significant increase in root mass development
- nutrient assistance to pastures under stress – droughts etc
- no chemical additives, no residues = no withholding periods
- nutrients translocated into the plant quickly and efficiently
- stock prefer seaweed treated pasture resulting in increased palatability.
Reference (1) Dane Hobbs, USA, – Masters Degree in Ruminant Nutrition
Reference (2) Seaweed and Plant Growth – Prof. T.L Senn – Clemson University, USA
Directions for use:
Dilution: 1:100
Application: 5L per hec
For best results apply:
- in the Spring and Autumn at beginning of growth flush
- when paddocks are shut up for hay to add density and dry matter
- to increase forage yield and quality
- in periods of low light to boost quality of feed (apply today for tomorrows feed).
“I sprayed it in front of the cows one year just before calving when they were getting bloat because the grass was frosted. The bloat just stopped,”
Paul Carswell, Dairy farmer.
Typical Analysis: AgriSea Seaweed (NZ species Ecklonia Radiata)
Minerals and Trace Elements
- Boron 3.7 ppm Iron 6ppm
- Calcium 80 ppm Phosphorous 35ppm
- Magnesium 70ppm Potassium 98ppm
- Manganese 0.58ppm Selenium 0.09 ppm
- Cobalt 12ppm Sodium 350 ppm
- Copper 26ppm Sulphur as Sulphate 175ppm
- Iodine 108 ppm Zinc 31ppm
- Nitrogen 0.04ppm Alginates 625 gm/kg
- Vitamins
- Vitamin A; B1; B2; B3; B5; C; E; Carotene; Choline: Pantoene
- Amino Acids
- Aspartate 5.171 Histidine 0.548
- Glutamate 0.747 Phenylalanine 0.717
- Asparagine 1.141
- Proline 0.683
- Glutamine 0.733 Alanine 3.974
- Serine 0.621 Arganine 0.583
* NB Ecklonia Radiata contains 20 of the known 21 amino acids however it is the vast range of complex elements contained in Seaweed that is the value – not the measure of individual constituents.
Soil test OK but…
no grass growth?
Dairy farmers are business people
and their business is growing grass. The quickest most visible result is from solids.
The chemical ‘magic in a bag’ goes straight to the plant and pumps it up for a short time. However, many farmers report, “My soil test looks good but there’s no grass growth”. In fact a large proportion of fertiliser ends up locked or leached and unavailable for plant use - it also negatively affects soil biology.
Routine chemical analysis of soil can indicate precisely only the total of an element; it cannot give us the availability of an element. Furthermore, the deficiency of one trace mineral may not always be corrected by the simple addition of this one micronutrient. The lack of one trace element may in fact be attributed to an excess of another. For example excess copper and zinc reduce iron availability. On pasture, an excess of molybdenum produces a copper deficiency. It is therefore sensible to provide the complex micronutrients contained in seaweed to unlock unbalanced soils and feed the biology, no amount of chemical fertiliser will do this. The biological life (stock) under the ground will take care of balancing the soil chemistry.
Feed the soil biology
The calls in the media for more sustainable farming strategies has high producing dairy farmers voluntarily seeking new ways of pasture management. Mark Shaw was the 2002 NZ Dairy Farmer of the year and has won international awards for Jersey genetics. Five years ago Mark trialled AgriSea NZ Seaweed Soil concentrate @ 5L per ha and 8 weeks later applied AgriSea NZ Seaweed Pasture concentrate @ 5L per ha on the worst 12 ha on the farm. Mark Shaw said,” A huge amount of feed is now produced on this area. This 12ha was only ever included in every second round for 3 days with the smaller herd. I am now getting 6 days grazing with 313 cows every round and the AgriSea paddocks are grazed in 16-18 day rounds instead of the normal 25-28 day rounds. The pasture in the AgriSea paddocks is growing 3-4 times faster than the rest of the farm. In spite of no urea during this trial milk production did not go down.” Keith says, “Mark’s results reflect the ability of seaweed to release locked up minerals and nutrients from the soil – farmers can expect to ‘mine’ the solids they have already spent good money on and increase their Economic Farm Surplus (EFS).” AgriSea seaweed SOIL product also increases root length and root mass therefore helps prevent panning and pasture holds better in the dry and recovers quicker after drought.
“Seaweed fed farms can expect a huge increase in biology - although worms are only the ‘elephants’ of the soil world they are a good ‘rough gauge’ of soil health – one farm recently went from 2 worms per spade spit to 72 worms per spade spit”
AgriSea support new seaweed treated farms by recording written measure-ments such as worm count, brix readings etc. prior to seaweed application. They re-measure 3x times per year so you can track increased health of your farm, your pasture, your cows and your return on investment.
Farmer comments….
“We have been using AgriSea Animal Nutrition for the past season. Last year and historically, this farm and herd has had a high SCC problem.
Near the end of last season our vet phoned to say we were one of his highest users of penicillin for mastitis.
This season we needed to target getting this down. We decided to give AgriSea Animal Nutrition a try, especially after we started the season with a handful of SCC demerits.
Bearing in mind there are a lot of variables that can influence the health and well being of animals we are convinced that AgriSea has had a major impact:
o On the reduction of our average SCC. We have treated only one cow with penicillin this year (that got rid of the last 3 tubes of penicillin). Consistently, since using AgriSea our SCC has been 150-200 below last year. Nil withholding is also a benefit as it eliminates the contamination risk.
o We have noticed a reduction in the number of lame cows
o We used no ciders this season and still had an improved pregnancy rate
o Our vet expenses have halved this year
o We are convinced using AgriSea has been very beneficial – we will continue to use next season and trust this will confirm our findings.
Next season will see us continue to use AgriSea and trust this will confirm our findings from this season.”
Graeme and Jocelyn Preest
Whatawhata Road
Hamilton
