 |
|
|
|
|
 | Your pasture should be providing top quality feed for healthy animals and high production. Activating soil life and balancing soil minerals is the best way to increase pasture quality (see our page on healthy soil ).
Then increase its diversity by including herbs such as chicory, plantain, dandelion and red clover in your pasture mix. This will help to improve nutrition and worm control.
Planting as many trees and bushes as you can will increase cow productivity, providing shelter, shade and important nutrients, such as trace elements, sulphur, and also tannins which aid digestion and decrease intestinal parasites.
A further point to consider is the grass composition of your pasture. Many pastures are predominantly perennial ryegrass, which may contain phytotoxins and less beneficial minerals such as magnesium compared to some other grass species. Resowing with a mix of grass species and beneficial herbs such as plantain and chicory is likely to improve your animals’ health. A good pasture contains over 50 species of plants in and around it.
You can encourage more clover growth in the pasture by increasing the calcium activity with the biodynamic preparation 500 or products made from it by BdMax. These help stimulate soil micro-organisms and mobilize more nutrients for uptake by pasture plants and to grow leaf when dryer weather sets in and to build a strong varied pasture rich in trace elements. Clover is particularly important for providing magnesium to your cows.
Balancing the calcium, magnesium, potassium and nitrogen in your soil will also provide for the pasture to contain sufficient calcium and magnesium to reduce staggers and milk fever problems in the herd. If the soil is very acid you can apply lime, but only in small quantities at a time to reduce adverse effects on soil microorganisms. These measures increase the soils’ beneficial biology which responds to the plants’ nutrient needs.
Weed problems in the pasture indicate a mineral imbalance in the soil. Balance the soil minerals, including trace elements, and they are generally no longer a problem. This is why we suggest evaluation of the soil by the Albrecht system, which shows up imbalances.
We can also help you with using other biodynamic preparations such as the compost preparations and preparation 501 as well as products made from those preparations by BdMax.
Preparation 501 and some of these products are particularly helpful in a cold spring to increase phosphorus, magnesium, protein and sugar levels in the pasture and raise the temperature when it’s cold. Preparation 501 can also be applied to a hay crop before cutting to promote flowering and increase the hay quality.
The better the minerals and biology are balanced and active, the better the soluble solids level (Brix) of the crop plants/ pasture will be, so more sugars are exuded through the plant roots to feed the soil biology. The biology then feeds the plant as and when it needs nutrients. The more sugars there are in the upper part of the plant, the better the formulation of high quality complex proteins that improve flavour, production and health. All this adds up to better profit for YOU! |
|
|
|
| |
|