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The Muster- Janine Easton: Bio Active Soils · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Shake it up.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Shake it up.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Shake it up.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: This is the muster on Hokunui. We're a way down
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: to Ararua next. We are catching up with Janine Easton
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: talking bioactive soils. Janine, good afternoon and welcome.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Now, Steve Ellison, we get him on the show regularly
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: talking about bioactive soils. You're based down, right down south. Firstly,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: tell us about your farming situation.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we milked 300 cows down in Ararua, quite
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of peat soils. Our growth is reasonably slow,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and we really felt that our organic matter was lacking. Basically,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: my husband's a truck driver, and he was driving around
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the place, and he could see a lot of really
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: good soils, and he thought, why is their graft looking
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: better than ours? So after a bit of investigation, my
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: husband came home and said, right, Janine, we need to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: try this bioactive. Only the problem was I are in
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: business with two of my brothers, and one of them's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: quite a sceptic. Basically, he's been using your general fruits
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: for some years. He's worked out the response rate he gets,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and he sort of thought this bioactive was a bit eerie-fairy,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: if that's the correct words to use. But after a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: bit of convincing, we tried it, and we've certainly seen
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a vast improvement in our grass quality and how it looks.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: So your husband's a truckie. He's driving around the province.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: He knows the lay of the land, some grasses. Not
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: all grasses are created equal, I suppose.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And I guess the grass, since you've been
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: using Bioactive, it just looks healthy. It's not as long,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: but it's dense. You know, it's a real healthy... um
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: high dry matter at the base sort of you know
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: just really solid grass.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Okay when you first started using the product did you
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: do like a trial period or how did you go.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: About it um i didn't personally i went all in
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and we just went right we're going to use it
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: on everything if we're going to do this we're going
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to do it but uh my brother the skeptic he
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: decided to use um half the on his farm and
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: half conventional and had a cup of tea with him
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: yesterday because obviously, you know, we debated about this for
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a bit and I was quite adamant and he was
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: quite anti. But he certainly admitted yesterday that the area
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of his farm that he's put the bioactive on is
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: by far healthier and greener looking and growing better grass
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: than what his conventional fertilizer is.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Were you just frustrated at the way your soil was
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: looking over the last couple of seasons and such? Was
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: that the catalyst?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely frustrated. Just trying to keep the grass quality
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: was difficult. My husband and I both work off-farm. We're
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: really busy, and we found the Bioactive really easy. It's
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: an easy product to manage. It's an easy routine to follow.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: It's all the same. They've got a product for when
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: we're putting in our new grass, a product for our crop.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: You know, they've got spring starts with a bit of
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: nitrogen in. You know, they've got everything that we need,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and it's just easy. And Steve is so easy to
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: work with. It's just a quick phone call. Everything's ordered.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I don't have to spend a whole lot of time
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: on it.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: How long have you been using it for now?
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So a couple of seasons now, and definitely, definitely stoked
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: with it.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: What about the cost of it? What's happened in that
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: side of things, Janine?
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Well, actually, it was interesting because when I did my
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: bioactive budget compared to my standard FERP budget, it came
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: in at $ 10, 000 cheaper. It's not just the price. It's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: also our nitrogen use is down. Now, don't get me wrong.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: The bioactive has nitrogen in it, but it's a natural nitrogen,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and you just don't need as much. So my annual
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: unit was down to about $ 80, 000. versus the usual 190.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: How is the season down there? From your situation, how's
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: it been? How have you found it?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Look, it's certainly been challenging. I guess from the mental
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: side of things, you know, the third season in a
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: row like this, the first season you go, oh, look,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: it'll be better next year. It's a one-off. The second
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: season you start to be a wee bit less optimistic.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: But the third season you're thinking... Is this the way
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: it is now? Are we going to be struggling every spring?
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: What are we going to do to improve things?
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: So are you looking at doing anything different on your
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: system as a result of this or it is what
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: it is? That's the season.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah well look we've certainly made some changes in the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: way of we put grain feeding in a couple years
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: ago we've got a barn that we carve in and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: we try and get the carvers out as soon as
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: possible and put the milkers in overnight just try and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: keep ground conditions good. You know, I thought, are we
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: calving too early? But I guess it's one of those
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: things of we move calving back. I don't think it's
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: going to be enough. I think we'd be calving right
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: in the middle of it. You really need to move
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: way back and then, you know, you don't suit the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: cycle of the milk tanker and the bobby calf truck
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and all that sort of, you know, every milker, every
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: farmer has to move back.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting times, Janine. Hey, thanks for catching up this
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: afternoon and enjoy the afternoon down there at our beautiful Awarua.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's lovely and sunny today, so I've certainly
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: been enjoying it.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Janine Easton, based down at Awarua, but talking about bioactive soils.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Steve Ellison and co. Up next, Richard Bull, talking Nightcaps
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Young Farmers. This is the muster.