With cost pressures across all aspects of dairy farm expenditure putting budgets under close scrutiny, more farmers are holding back on one of the biggest ticket items; fertiliser.

However, anyone farming in the late eighties will know that eliminating applications altogether can set soil fertility back significantly. So these people are looking at alternatives to enhance the fertility, past good years have accumulated in their ‘soil bank.'
Rorisons RMD, a third generation family lime business, is able to meet that need to enhance soil fertility with its premium Lime-Mag lime-serpentine blend from the North Island's only commercially quarried serpentine seam.
The combination of two high grade minerals also includes a range of trace elements that help lift soil performance, pasture quality and aid stock health.
'We are seeing more farmers and fertiliser consultants taking a hard look at where they can optimise the fertility they have. LimeMag provides a means of bringing pH levels up, increasing the availability of existing soil nutrients, while the magnesium and trace elements also present are seeing improvements in pasture quality,” says managing director Mike Rorison.
Sourced from the company's quarry in Aria, LimeMag contains the highest quality lime available at 95-98 per cent, while the adjacent serpentine seam is 23 per cent magnesium.
Easily absorbed and rapidly taken up by pasture, the presence of magnesium is a valuable addition to the feed intake of lactating dairy cows, where magnesium demands will outstrip magnesium available in soils.
Plant uptake of magnesium can be reduced by low soil magnesium levels, so LimeMag provides a valuable boost for pasture and crop growth over the high demand period of spring time. Research has shown low levels of magnesium application over the past 30 years has seen soil Mg levels drop, particularly on lighter volcanic soils. Increased potash levels can also worsen Mg soil deficiencies.
Lifting pH levels in soils by as little as 0.5 of a pH point can free up 20-25kg of nitrogen per hectare in acidic soils.
Rorisons RMD has also worked closely with the agricultural aviation industry to develop a lime product that is safer for aerial spreading.
Quality and safety have been ensured by setting standards around aerial lime production and storage. Working closely with farmers, RMD have also encouraged good storage once delivered to properties.
'Rorisons have produced a lime well suited to safe aerial application, and our pilots are very happy with it,” says Graeme Martin, NZAAA vice president.
With LimeMag available in a range of lime:magnesium ratios from 9:1 lime to magnesium to 1:1, farmers and fertiliser consultants are also able to tailor their blends by having other minerals added.
Rorisons RMD also enjoys strong relationships with fertiliser consultants and works alongside many to provide blends specific to their clients' requirements.
Greater interest from farmers keen to capitalise on the higher premiums of organic production means Rorisons RMD has attained full BioGro and Asure certification for its LimeMag and Lime products. With RMD's custom blends farmers and growers can obtain a tailored blend of minerals and soil conditioners to enhance the performance of their system.
'This gives us the ability to offer a very specific level of product, backed by a high level of personal service that farmers and consultants enjoy when dealing with a family owned business,” says Mike.