Mineral Boost - Adding to PKE

Mineral Boost is Fertco's new and innovative solution for farmers wanting to add macro-minerals to their PKE. Containing Calcium, Magnesium and Salt in granular form Mineral Boost over-comes not only the mineral deficiencies of PKE but also reduces dust, fuss and wastage. When farmers are ordering PKE they can simply ask their supplier to add Mineral Boost at 10%.

Mineral Boost is made up of 75% Calicum 15% Salt and 10% Magnesium

Mineral Boost was developed by Fertco with consultation with Dr Sue Macky.

Available with your bulk PKE from JSwap Stockfoods 0800 45792 and SourceNZ 0508 SourceNZ and available from your local RD1 store in 25kg bags

Dairy footprint smaller now than in the 1940s

 

With all the talk of carbon footprints these days it is interesting to note recent research from Cornell University has found that today's dairy farmers actually have a smaller "footprint" than their predecessors.

In the June 2009 edition of the university's Journal of Animal Science it states that the dairy genetics, nutrition, herd management and improved animal welfare over the past 60 years have resulted in a modern milk production system that has a smaller carbon footprint than mid-20th century farming practices.

"As U.S. and global populations continue to increase, it is critical to adopt management practices and technologies to produce sufficient high-quality food from a finite resource supply, while minimizing effects upon the environment," says Jude Capper, lead author and a recent Cornell post-doctoral researcher working with Dale E. Bauman, Cornell Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Animal Science.

The study, "The Environmental Impact of Dairy Production: 1944 compared with 2007," shows that the carbon footprint for a gallon of milk produced in 2007 was only 37 percent of that produced in 1944. Improved efficiency has enabled the U.S. dairy industry to produce 186 billion pounds of milk from 9.2 million cows in 2007, compared to only 117 billion pounds of milk from 25.6 million cows in 1944. This has resulted in a 41 percent decrease in the total carbon footprint for U.S. milk production.

Efficiency also resulted in reductions in resource use and waste output. Modern dairy systems only use 10 percent of the land, 23 percent of the feedstuffs and 35 percent of the water required to produce the same amount of milk in 1944. Similarly, 2007 dairy farming produced only 24 percent of the manure and 43 percent of the methane output per gallon of milk compared to farming in 1944.

Source: www.farmnews.co.nz

Palm kernel has become an important supplement – and is NOT an environmental monster

Fertco produces Mineral Boost – a product forming an important part of the Palm Kernel feed supplement programmes used by numerous farmers as a cost effective substitute when other feed lags.

Palm Kernel – a by product of Palm Oil production has come in for criticism…. much of it suspected to be unfounded and now demonstrably so.

Here is the summary. Email Brent Wheeler for the full article

Palm Oil – Let’s Inject Some Common Sense.

By Katherine Rich

20 November 2009

Reading headlines such as “Deadly Palm Oil In Your Trolley”, one could easily get the false impression that any New Zealand firm using palm oil is personally responsible for the demise of the orangutan and world’s rainforests.
The use of palm oil has been treated like an industry “dirty secret” - somewhere on the environmental nasties continuum between baby seal clubbing and ocelot farming.
The reality is quite different. Most palm oil is being farmed sustainably on tracts of land that have been dedicated to production for many decades, and rather than being a recent ingredient, palm oil has been used by humans for thousands of years.

Reacting to valid conservation concerns, many food producers are already joining initiatives such as the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil and purchasing sustainably-produced palm oil.

It’s time to inject some reason to this discussion because as the Auckland Zoo says, “not all palm oil is bad – if it is made from a non-destructive source, it's fine”.

AGM Reminder

Shareholders are reminded that the AGM pertaining to the 2008/09 year will be held on 18th December commencing at 11:00am. Your shareholder AGM pack will arrive by mail in the next few days.

Easier for Australian farmers than NZ... but still not good enough

Australian farmers expect to pay more for fertiliser unless they are excluded from the ETS indefinitely.

Right now even a partial exclusion would be a gain in N.Z.

Initial Fertco Blog Posting

This is the official blog of the niche New Zealand fertiliser company Fertco Limited.