Farm Nutrient Advisory Ltd.

09/12/2025

Day one in the Land of the Long White Cloud. The cloud was indeed very long & very white as we crossed the Cook Straight ☁️

The MetService forecast of 25 degrees was somewhat ambitious, barely reaching the 20s which I am no longer acclimatised to after several weeks of >28 degree in Hawke’s Bay & regretted my summer attire! What I hear has been a very mediocre (absent) spring in South Canterbury has kept the pasture from really firing (unless you cheat & just pour endless amounts of N on ignoring the underlying cause).

Grass needs 6-8 hours a day of sunlight with good intensity to grow at maximum rates (combined with moisture) however this season has fallen short of those required hours of active photosynthesis making pasture growth slower than usual. Daily dry matter growth rates have shown positive correlation with the sunlight hours varying between 60-80Kg DM/Ha/day when overcast to 110Kg DM on days with good light intensity.

Clover is coping much better thanks to its large leaf area to capture what sun there is ☘️ The fodder beet crop is establishing well also - only 27Kg N at sowing & no phosphorus due to high soil P levels but plenty of salt, the often forgotten nutrient.

The girls 🐮 are all looking good, shiny & ‘round’. This herd have exceeded every previous year’s production consistently this season. The highest producing girls unsurprisingly have the higher rumination rates. We’ll explore possible reasons for those lower-end girls not ruminating quite as well.

Straw is offered adlib (something I nag all my clients to offer) which goes a long way in stimulating rumination, providing a conducive environment for the rumen microbes to work in, increasing feed conversion efficiency.

08/12/2025

A beautiful morning to fly. Heading to Canterbury, North to South (or rather South to North) for the week. Forecast isn’t looking quite as ridiculously hot as here in Hawke’s Bay but should be pretty nice nonetheless ☀️

03/12/2025

A good explanation here. Many often only think sulphur is the culprit when in fact it’s more likely a lack of fibre in many instances. In order to synthesise B vitamins such as B1 & B12 plus vitamin K, the rumen needs to ruminate & for that to happen effective fibre must be present. Lush growing pasture is NOT effective, ‘ruminating’ fibre.

Wobbly calves? It could be vitamin B1 deficiency – act fast! 🏃‍♀️

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) deficiency can cause polioencephalomalacia – which is a very fancy word, but essentially means swelling of the brain. This can show up about this time every season, and it’s something to watch out for.

This condition occurs when thiaminase enzymes in the rumen destroy vitamin B1, which is essential for normal brain and nerve function. Without enough B1, calves develop brain swelling and severe neurological symptoms. The problem is often triggered by sudden changes in feed quality or high sulphur levels in water or feed.

Early signs include calves looking wobbly, ‘stargazing’ with their heads up, isolating themselves, stopping eating and drinking, or hanging around water troughs. You might also notice ‘donut eyes’ which indicates brain swelling and dehydration. If untreated, symptoms progress to blindness, head pressing, circling, trembling, stiff legs, seizures, and eventually collapse or death. These signs can look a bit like pulpy kidney, listeria, or ryegrass staggers. Quick action is critical to turn the issue around!

The problem often appears in weaned calves during early summer, especially after moving from rougher pasture to lush, low-fibre paddocks. Fast weaning off milk and pellets, relocation stress or brassicas in the diet can also trigger it.

Prevention and early intervention is key! Take 10 minutes each day to observe calves for unusual behaviour. If you suspect B1 deficiency, act fast. Contact your vet for vitamin B1 injections and anti-inflammatory treatment—vitamin B12 will not fix the problem.

Vit B1 Prevention Checklist 📝

✅Transition calves slowly when changing feeds or weaning. You need to transition weaners if going onto very lush fresh pastures or any summer brassica crops.

✅Keep calf feed in the diet for 6+ weeks after weaning

✅Use a calf feed with good levels of B vitamins (Reliance, NRM and SealesWinslow Calf Max range have a good range of B group vitamins added)

✅Check water for high sulphur levels

✅Offer some dry long fibre alongside short, lush pastures

✅Observe calves daily for unusual behaviour

✅Monitor weight gains 2 weeks after weaning and every 4–6 weeks thereafter

✅If symptoms appear use electrolytes immediately - then call your vet for B1 injections and further help

26/11/2025

Busy start to this week, headed north to attend the NZ Association of Ruminant Nutritionists’ (NZARN) last conference for the year. Once again the NZARN organises had a stellar guest speaker with Dr Brian Sloan presenting on balancing (high) protein & amino acid profile in pasture based systems. Emphasis was put on the energy sources required for efficient protein utilisation, that is, carbohydrates i.e. starch, sugar & (effective) fibre.

As I’ve commented many, many times before, protein balance is an area that is poorly practiced in NZ with most diets/consultants concentrating on total ‘energy’ rather than the actual components that make up that energy.

The energy sources & proportion of each dictate how efficient that ‘energy’ is. Pushing ME up with more & more protein (high protein grass plus more protein in the shed 🤦‍♀️) is not going to meet rumen microbial energy requirements for maximum protein utilisation.

The higher the portion of ingested nitrogen & protein that is unable to be captured by rumen microbes, the higher the amount of dietary energy is wasted to detoxify & remove surplus N/protein.

Heading back home via Taihape for Molly the lab's 🐶 annual pats plus some soil & ☘️ samples while there. Clover was prolific including the steep faces which was great to see. Assessing its nutrient uptake & comparing to previous year's levels helps ensure liming (frequent is the key for both soil & animal health) & fertiliser regimes are achieving their objectives. Monitoring soil, plant & animal health is essential in developing effective & sustainable farm nutrient plans.

Molly found being my lab assistant for the day rather exhausting 💤

21/11/2025

A belated post from the other week’s trip to Waikato exploring works of art as much as the farms themselves & making friends with every doggo as I went.
Heading for a brief trip that way for a conference next week, hopefully it’s a bit drier!

21/11/2025

It’s interesting to hear being presented at this week’s Grassland’s conference is the fact there appears to be little correlation between Olsen P & lucerne yield.

The research back in the 90s showed very poor correlation between Olsen P & pasture yields so why on earth would we expect lucerne to be any different ⁉️
I find it astonishing how such a topic is presented as ‘new’ science in 2025, it serves as a prime example of NZ making little real progress in the realm of agricultural science.

The biggest failings in soil phosphorus interpretation that continue to this day:

👩‍🔬 Not recognising the actual methodology of the Olsen P (tested at pH 8.5) majorly impacts interpretation for our acidic soils.
Chemistry in basic solution behaves the complete opposite to acidic solution;

🧪 At a pH of 8.5, the Olsen P does not account for any phosphorus locked up by iron, manganese or iron due to these elements being less soluble in basic solution & therefore overestimates true plant availability at field pH;

🧪 With a pH of 8.5, the Olsen P does not account for the need for calcium to ‘unlock’ fixed phosphorus in acidic soils. In fact, at pH 8.5, calcium binds P (as opposed to ‘unbinding’ it) rendering it unavailable & thereby underestimates true plant availability at field pH;

🤯 No understanding that the Olsen P only measures a very small amount of actual plant-availability (1.4-6%);

👎 Not accounting for the larger portion of soil P or understanding it’s equilibrium with plant availability i.e. Total P – this removes the uncertainty behind some of the ‘seasonal’ fluctuations when based on plant-available tests only;

🌿 No herbage assessments to correlate with soil analysis, only ever yield driven ‘research’ with no recognition of other limiting variables, nutrient balance or interactions e.g. Ca, Mn, Fe.

So much of the ‘science’ is just a rework of previous studies with no true growth in knowledge or applied science approach. Frustrating when all the facts & science is already there, simply ignored.

12/11/2025

Out & about in Waipukurau & Porangahau this week for biannual testing. Very little soil moisture for this time of year so here’s hoping for a good bit of rain to set up the season.

Nice to see so many trees & native bush on each of these beautiful properties 🌳

29/10/2025

The last couple of week's farm visits have been in Wairoa, leaving at dawn 🌅 finishing on farm at dusk 🌄 doing our usual spring ☘️ clover testing to complement what changes we see in the soil & help devise sustainable fertiliser & lime plans. The latter makes up the backbone of how we get farm & stock health performing to their full potential.

📈 It’s also a good time to discuss liver results (I encourage farmers to get an understanding of where their average herd’s pre & post winter levels are, both vital for production efficiency) to determine an effective animal health strategy for optimal production.

Too many incorrectly assume (largely driven by poor advice) that giving a shot of Multimin once a year corrects deficiencies & is all that’s needed when actual fact, injectable forms are very short acting even for copper 📉

💉 The likes of selenium & zinc have to be provided either in the diet or a slow-release form due to no significant storage in the body (injectable effectiveness is gone by approximately two weeks for Se & Zn, 6-8 weeks for Cu).

Iodine, while the thyroid stores to convert to thyroid hormones, is still essential to have circulating through the blood for thyroid maintenance, embryo & foetal development & milk for the lambs & calves so they can make their own thyroid hormones. Oral iodine drenches have very limited effect on the foetus or lamb/calf due to it being largely taken up by the dam's thyroid thus removing it from circulation.

👩‍💻 These are all part of the regular conversations I have with farmers ensuring we are linking soil, plant & animal health as opposed to only focusing on one area with a 'silo', 'blinkers on' approach that is far too common amongst industry professionals & does not do our farmers or long term farming economy justice.

11/10/2025

Heading back to these beautiful farms plus a few others this coming week for another Waikato round to discuss annual fertiliser plans & reassess current cow diets now spring is well underway.

As pasture protein sky rockets, the last thing we need to do is add more protein in at the shed. If those milk urea’s are frequently exceeding 25mg/dl that is at the farmer’s (& cow’s) expense with it associated with “urea cost” - quite literally the dollar value lost due to the body using energy to convert excess N to urea i.e. to excrete the toxic ammonia circulating in the blood to prevent lethal accumulation. This cost can also be extended to the monetary impact of high MU on poor reproductive performance, immunity & ongoing lameness.

DairyNZ’s claim that MU in the 30s & even up to 40 is ‘normal’ & not an animal health risk is utterly wrong & an animal welfare issue. This claim does however support their fertiliser ‘cooperative’ friends' motive of selling more nitrogen though 💰 not to mention the vets at the bottom of the cliff 🚑💉
Quoting Dr Lean when he was discussing NZ dairy pitfalls on a recent trip, “it is typical, but NOT normal”.

No truly qualified (“true” being the operative word. Being a sales rep does not automatically grant you nutritionist qualification) would ever be satisfied with diets that maintain high MU.

Why lose money on urea cost by adding to an already excessive total dietary protein? Seems backwards doesn’t it? But we do backwards well down under!

29/09/2025

Heading back north to Taupo, Cambridge & Te Aroha in a couple of weeks for anyone interested in a catch up. Likely the last Waikato visit until next year with the rate time has flown by!

26/09/2025

The last half of this week’s farm visits as I headed back South to Canterbury before flying home 🛫

Met a new friend, lets call him Gus. Nothing like back scratches & a selfie with a cattle beast 📸 Probably a good thing I live on the other island or I would’ve bartered to bring him home as a new pet. I have nicely asked the farmer not to put him on the truck 🥺 (a good example why I don’t farm myself).

Flight #1 even had a quiz question relating to my Welsh home city 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 one of the few answers I knew given my lack of quizzing general knowledge.

Once again, very lucky with the beautiful weather while on my travels. It’s a pleasure & privilege being invited onto each & every farm I work with for which I’m always grateful 🙏

11/09/2025

Wow. Where to start while not saying rude words. There were no facts provided in this 'enlightenment' at all.

Mr Hoggard should have kindly added context to the highly questionable ESR review he's referring to. You know, like the fact Fonterra was a funding partner on the study which concluded water nitrates are no risk to public health in NZ. This follows Hoggard’s statement that we're "focused on outputs” as are Fonterra; the more nitrogen in, the more milk out. Not worrisome at all 🤨

To offer no acknowledgment whatsoever to the study by Chambers et al., (Otago) that does indeed show significant association, NOT funded by the dairy industry & NO ulterior motive, just true scientists wanting to do 'good science'. An actual scientific study that has been peer reviewed & published in international journals due to its validity & absence of conflict of interest unlike the ESR review.

Next, the comment about vegetables containing more nitrates 🙄 Most individuals who consider themselves expert enough to argue this also know that the level of vitamins & antioxidants in the vegetables block the biochemical production of nitrosamines that cause nitrates to become carcinogenic. Water nitrate intake does not have this luxury so the fact there’s ‘less nitrate’ in water is void & irrelevant. This must also have slipped Mr Hoggard's mind.

Another point forgotten, the fact the ESR study only applied to registered water sources, ignoring those water supplies commonly found in rural communities. Seems damn odd to not investigate water sources most likely to be affected 🤔 nothing to do with that commercial conflict of interest, I guess Fonterra’s funds just ran out before getting to investigate those high risk areas.

How many people truly realise the influence Fonterra, Ravensdown & Ballance all have in public & environmental health given all three companies fund ESR projects to research nitrates & greenhouse gases? The same projects that all essentially conclude ‘nothing to see here’ 🙈
No company with commercial interest, let alone those who are the cause of concern being investigated should legally be able to participate in any shape or form.

Then we come to the comment about how efficient free draining, stony irrigated land is at preventing nitrate leaching. I mean if the above points weren’t already enough ‘WTF moments’. Reality is, the irrigation has eliminated water as being the limiting factor but intensive farming goes beyond this & causes nitrogen to be the limiting factor instead with frequent inputs then applied to make up for the increased plant uptake plus the inevitable increased leaching. He makes no mention of winter N still common practice 🤬 or the excess rumen protein effect (too much protein in the grass because of too much nitrogen input makes it come out the back end in even more leaching susceptible form.

As for 'my farm only applies 110Kg N', if this is irrigated, then by all measures that is good going but if not, that says nothing other than the system is inefficient & needs unnecessary N to 'cover it up'.

What a huge disservice this government is to the people of NZ & our country's future including farmers (most just don't see it yet because it's easier not to).