Cattle Operations affected by Floods in eastern Australia

Cattle prices continue to increase as does demand against weak supply with apparent abundance of pasture

Grazed pasture vegetation requires a balance of essential soil nutrients incl macro cations in order to thrive. The current wet conditions impact soil health by leaching major soil nutrients (nitrogen) and cations (calcium, magnesium, and potassium) rendering them unavailable to the plant with increasing soil acidity which releases high soil levels of iron, aluminum and manganese.

The wet can produce an abundance of lower quality pasture lacking feed value .. it would be then tempting to apply chemical fertilisers to which may further reduce soil health by increasing acidity as they cycle in the soil. When a sustainable approach would be to use FertAg to address the acidity, arrest the increased free aluminium and iron in a non leaching way to provide greater soil health and plant nutritional feed value for the main spring growing season where Cattle require a consistent source of calcium and magnesium in their diet, with low magnesium in early spring from leached acidic soils can lead to grass tetany in cattle.

Ammonium phosphate fertilizers typically used to replenish soil phosphorus have increased in recent times to high levels in the region. North Queensland's mono-ammonium phosphate prices are listed at approximately $1200/ton and supplies are low. Using conventional phosphate fertilizers further increases soil acidity and are easily leached with the non water soluble component locked up, especially in acid soils with high rainfall.

Fertag 0-8-0 provides a sustainable solution perfect for acidic soil that does not increase soil acidity, does not readily leach and contains a great blend of phosphorus (8%), magnesium(10%), calcium (24%) and silicon (11%) to help restore the balance of nutrients and cations in the soil, unlock bound phosphorus and promote soil health and higher plant nutrition before the spring and in the future. Cattle grazers can effectively finish their cattle and calving cows with security against metabolic diseases in the spring.