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HER MAGAZI
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NE –APRIL/MAY
2013 – Issue 136
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FACE OF NEW
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BEDDINGFIELD
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Sherry Elton
www.thecroft.net.nz
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ne.co.nz
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***
PENDENCE
SUCCESS & INDE
THE CHANGING
"We began to think about how we treated the land and the animals
in our care when we were first time dairy farmers with 120 cows on a
very small farm in Clevedon.
We learnt the dairy business by going to discussion groups and talking
to a couple of conventional farmers.
We did everything we were told to do. We drenched our calves every
six weeks, we used urea to get the grass growing faster, we used copper
bullets, bloat capsules, super phosphate, increased out stocking rate,
bought in feed and grew turnips. It was very expensive! We lost cows
to everything, including nitrate poisoning, bloat and failure to thrive.
Then we started to think.
Bit by bit we left behind the conventional advice. We stopped
drenching our calves and instead, moved them on to fresh grass every
three days ahead of the cows. After a couple of months of this, the vet
said we had the best calves he'd seen.
We stopped using urea and super and started using rock phosphate,
seaweed meal to feed the soil bugs, humates and trace minerals.
We started shutting up paddocks and using standing hay. The most iPad
profitable season we had was the year we sold all our replacements and
downsized by 20 percent. All of a sudden there were no hungry cows,
no bought in supplements, no vet bills and no stress on the animals,
the land or us."
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Issue 136 l April/
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TOO BIG
TOO FAST
FROM
LEARNING TAKES
OTHERS MIS
T US!"- DAME JENNY
L STORIES ABOU
& MEANINGFU
INSPIRATIONAL
INFORMATIVE,
"HER DELIVERS
INCL GST
SHIPLEY, DNZM
photo: Lydia Hudgens
Good reasons
1. To look after the soil micro-organisms, which are the drivers
of good soil, good plant health and therefore good human
health.
2. It enables you to continue to grow crops and animals in a
sustainable fashion without depleting the soil life.
3. Keeping the integrity of the earth intact.
4. To minimise the toxic load of the food we eat.
5. To keep the groundwater and waterways clean.
6. Using natural minerals in a form that feeds the soil allows
the correct pathways to be followed for the uptake of the
minerals.
7. Organic growing enhances the mineral content of the crops
and animals due to taking more care to add trace minerals
and ground rock dust instead of acidic manufactured
chemical fertilisers.
8. Animals are reared more naturally.
9. Less intensive farming leads to less stress on the land, plants,
animals and us.
10. Working in harmony with nature is good for the soul.
And finally, the food tastes so much better with its full mineral
complement!
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