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“Abron have provided me with practical solutions to managing soil health and improving overall farm performance. We are seeing measurable gains each year on-farm without increasing farm fertiliser spend. Abron are a keymember of our ‘Farm Business Team’.”
Bruce Wilton, Waikato
“We chose Abron out of a host of fertiliser suppliers because they had a simple and effective, well-recorded fertiliser regime”
Willy Leferink, Canterbury
The Abron 6-step system
to building resilience into your farm
Initial visit Farm discovery day
To gain an in-depth understanding of your farming operation including soil and herbage tests and a visual soil and pasture assessment.
Prepare a farm nutrition plan
You’ll receive a comprehensive report that details soil fertility, soil health, and provides recommendations for optimal production of nutrient-dense pasture and crops.
Apply appropriate amounts of the foundation minerals N, P, K, S, Mg, Ca and Na
To correct nutrient deficiencies and maintain soil fertility for optimal production of nutrient-dense pasture and crops.
Supply trace elements
Supplied in plant-available forms and an important aspect of building healthy
soil with optimal production potential.
Stimulate biological activity and build humus
Enhancing your microbial workforce is key to unlocking your soils potential.
Monitor and fine tune
Abron Soil Nutrition Consultants use proven testing procedures to measure
progress, adjusting your programme according to results achieved on your farm.
It is important to ensure that the plant has the correct balance of macro and micro nutrients to support not only optimal dry matter production but quality pasture production too.
Maximising the chemical, physical, and biological attributes of the soil results in optimal mineral uptake into the plant. Many treat the soil as little more than a medium to hold plant roots and it is this lack of understanding that has led to increasingly inefficient and expensive fertiliser practices. Understanding how your soil functions and what gains can be made from capitalising on natural processes in the soil will lead to greater outputs from fertiliser inputs. The first step required for efficient management of our soil resource is to complete soil tests. Soil tests are used to determine the quantity or relative concentrations of nutrients. We use this information to correct nutrient deficiencies and maintain soil fertility for optimum production. An Abron fertiliser programme will provide the sufficient macro nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, magnesium, calcium and sodium.
The foundation minerals and trace elements
Calcium
- Should be the most dominant cation in the soil
- Considered the trucker of all minerals
- Involved in many mineral relationships in the soil
- Improves soil structure, plant health, root development and enhances microbial activity
Magnesium
- Is essential for photosynthesis and energy transfer in the plant
Potassium
- Involved in the uptake of other soluble nutrients (eg. N and the other cations)
- Involved in the regulation of around 50 enzymes in a plant
- Facilitates the movement of sugar and starches
- Important in sizing up fruit and grain
Phosphorus
- Essential for root and shoot growth, pollination and seed formation
- Plays a vital part in photosynthesis
- Plant available P is often the pasture production limiting factor
Nitrogen
- Used by plants to synthesise amino acids which in turn form proteins
- Vital component in chlorophyll, which is required for photosynthesis
Sulphur
- Essential component for the formation of true proteins, and of vitamins and chlorophyll
- Availability for maximum pasture production is often an issue in colder months
Sodium
- Involved in osmotic (water movement) and ionic balance in plants
Addition of trace elements in a plant available form is also an important component in building an efficient, mineralised soil.
Boron
- Required for the uptake and efficient use of calcium in the plant
- Essential for cell division and development of the roots and shoots
- Affects pollination and promotes flowering
- Required for the movement of sugars within the plant
Cobalt
- Essential catalyst for nitrogen fixation in legumes
- Required for synthesis of vitamin b12 in animals
- Important for fertility in stock
Copper
- Plays an essential role in chlorophyll production, proteins, sugar synthesis and root metabolism
Selenium
- Deficiency can depress conception rates, lamb and calf survival and growth rates
Manganese
- Critical for seed germination
- Important for nitrogen metabolism
Zinc
- Essential for phosphorus uptake
- Regulates plant sugar levels
- Critical for the uptake of moisture
Molybdenum
- Essential for the rhizobia bacteria on legumes
- Required for efficient nitrogen fixation
Your soil is the engine of your farm
Your soil is the engine of your farm. It powers your farm through pasture and animal production. The microbe work force that surrounds the roots maintains the engine and ensures peak performance. Under-performing soil running at say, 50% of its potential, uses a lot of fuel (fertiliser) and under-delivers on its potential horse power.
Above ground is the sugar factory. Plants use the energy from sunlight plus CO2 from the air and nutrition from below ground to produce sugar through the process of photosynthesis.
Below ground is the engine powering the sugar factory. If it is operating below its potential, then output from the sugar factory will be down.
“For starters, our input costs have dropped dramatically. We completely stopped applying nitrogen four years ago and there has been no negative change to pasture growth – we know this as we monitor closely using FARMAX on a monthly basis.”
Andrew Russell, Tuna Nui Station
What key performance indicators would we see with the engine running at 50%
- Increasing nitrogen use with declining pasture production
- Less than 10% clover
- Poor summer resilience to dry conditions
- Pasture pulling
- Open pasture sward
- Low earthworm numbers
- Water ponding on soil surface after rain
- Low brix
- Low VSA score
What key performance indicators would we see with the engine running at 100%
- Low nitrogen use with increasing pasture production
- High clover %
- Good drought tolerance, responds quickly after rain
- No pasture pulling
- Dense pasture sward
- High earthworm numbers
- No water ponding on soil surface after rain
- High brix
- High VSA score
The microbe workforce:
Each gram of soil contains millions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and EARTHworms
This soil foodweb plays a big role in:
- Acquisition of nutrients and water
- Production of antibiotics to deter pathogens and toxins to deter pests
- Production of hormones and other compounds to spur growth
- Development and maintenance of good soil structure
Mycorrhizal fungi
- Act as a surrogate root system and delivers nutrients and water to the plant
Earthworms
- High populations indicate healthy soil
- Increase nutrient availability
- Improve the production and diversity of microbes
- Promote soil structure improvements
Rhizobia bacteria
- Inhabit nodules on the roots of legumes
- Convert N gas to plant-available forms of nitrogen
- Lots of pink nodules on clover indicate good N fixing activity