Randy Vanden Broek
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I’m looking to order this years seed for planting in April and thought I ‘d ask the group what people are looking to put in this year, and what has been successful or not worked?
I was looking at doing a custom mix again but the Bells Pollinator Mix in combination with the Premium Mix at a ratio of 1:2 looks like it might be a cheaper option.…
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Hello Brett. What is the aim of the planting? There would be different recommendations based on purpose. Are you doing a cover, improved annual based pasture or looking to establish permanent perennial based pasture?
It looks like you have a fairly good handle on what to use in covers. I would probably not add a perennial species to a cover…
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Happy new year to all
We brought the farm a Xmas present this year being a Tow and Fert 500 litre foliar spray trailer. Has a single spray nozzle that can handle up to 3mm particles with a 8-10m spray width.
It’s probably on the small side for us but will spray out the 500 litres across 2-3ha in about 20 minutes. I managed to get two loads out in…
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Will be interesting to see how the pasture responds. Let us know how it goes.
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Now I’m really jealous.. looks so much better than my sprayer!!
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Next update on irrigation paddocks that were seeded on 8 October with the Soilkee.
Best laid plans was to have the seed in at the start of October which should then have seen about 4 weeks of rain plus top up irrigation to get them established. Well last real rain was 3 October so has been irrigation only.
We have had a first graze but it’s all…
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Yes, pulling off a summer cover crop in this environment is proving to be very challenging, plus the soil disturbance one needs to carry out to deal with the existing stand of growth from the rainy season in order to successfully seed in spring.
No one is summer cropping the same species we use in summer cover crops in this area, for good…
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A few progress photos on the Johnson Su mix.
Has definitely compressed as it breaks down given it was all the way to the top of the cage when we started it on the 8 October.
It gets a daily 2 minutes of water at 6pm each day using the auto retic sprinklers.
Have added some worms to it a few weeks ago too to help with the process
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Some follow up photos post the Soilkee seeding.
No real rain post seeding 4 weeks ago so it has all been irrigation.
Competition is causing the expected challenges with some areas being hard to see any seed coming up at all. But other areas are relatively easy to see.
Jury’s still out on the benefit of the Soilkee. Spacing looks too wide to me,…
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I saw this pic on a facebook post from someone in Victoria – it looks similar into existing pasture.
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We have managed to source some cheaper seconds mulies for $2/kg – see photo. Much more cost effective!
So we have put 15 x 20kg boxes into a 1,000 litre pod to make a fish hydrolysate plus water, molasses and the base culture.
The ones that were made on farm with David Hardwick used a minced up burley block of Mulies which have gone well and…
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It’s all a bit fishy!😅
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A quick update – the fish bodies have all broken down with only the bones still around. Needs a stir every few weeks to help keep the process going which gets it bubbling again for a day or two. Smell wise it’s not sweet but it’s not like awful rotting fish either – just slightly unpleasant on the nose. Not to bad for 6 weeks of fermentation.
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A couple of photos of the humate and seaweed drums, plus a patch that got a heavy spray whilst we adjusted the spray unit. You can see a solid brown stain on the grass from the extract mix. Maybe we will see super bacteria, fungi and microbes in this area 😬.
Should say if you have a fine screen in the spray unit it will block it up straight…
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You are welcome Brett.. let’s hope the Johnson Su does it’s job!😁
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Managed to do a Johnson Su extract and spray it out over the weekend. Our extract method was to hose approximately 40kg through a screen so only the fine material was utilised <1mm at a guess. We then diluted this fine slurry material into about 900 litres of water and added in 20 litres of humate and 10 litres of seaweed (all I had left…
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Making the compost
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Awesome work!! You guys have definitely been busy 🙂
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Busy weekend, besides the seeding got a Johnson Su Compost Bioreactor going – made out of a couple of IBC’s..
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