Georgie Galloway
Southland, New Zealand
Applying the fish fertiliser onto a kale crop with a Multi 1200 enables Georgie to minimise her tracks and the booms sit well above the bales of silage in the paddocks.
This story was filmed in 2021 and reflects one farmer’s own experience with their Tow and Fert. Every farm is different, so please treat it as a story rather than a forecast for your place.
Half a paddock of urea, and a different way of doing things
In 2015 Georgie Galloway joined Graham Marshall and his partner Gail as farm manager on their 160-hectare mixed farm just outside Invercargill. She had worked for Graham for some time, and taking on the role full time suited both of them.
Three years in, a March application of solid urea onto a kale crop started the change. Graham got halfway across a 5-hectare paddock and ran out. Georgie explains:
“Graham thought to himself ‘Yep, I’ll notice that in 2-3 months for sure.’ There should be a big deficit in crop growth (on one side of the paddock), and we thought that it would hurt our production.”
Georgie says that a few months later, the two halves of the paddock looked no different.
“So that was our main trigger for why we would look at something different.”
Shortly after, the team from FishIt got in touch, and the farm started applying FishIt through a Tow and Fert. Three years on, Georgie says:
“We have not put any Urea on our grass this season. We don’t need it. We are three years into our FishIt and Tow and Fert journey, and we are building up our soil health nicely.”
Pointing to the paddock she’s standing in, she runs through what goes on it:
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“This grass here has had three cuts of baleage off it and after each round of baleage we are putting on 30L of FishIt through the Tow and Fert.”
On the kale, she says:
“In the Kale paddocks we have put on 120kgs of Urea (in liquid form) total. In the past we would have put on three times that. Using FishIt with the Tow and Fert we have better pastures and better crops so all in all it has been a good business investment.”
On baleage, Georgie explains:
“Now we make about 3000 bales on the farm, before we had to buy in about 500 bales a season. Since we have had the Tow and Fert we haven’t had to buy in any bales and all of those 3000 bales go into the winter crop to feed the cows.”
If we didn’t have the Tow and Fert we couldn’t apply the FishIt.
Georgie Galloway, Southland
Looking back on the change, Georgie puts it like this:
“Obviously, it coincides with the change to FishIt, but if we didn’t have the Tow and Fert we couldn’t apply the FishIt. It has changed everything. The grass is so much healthier, the crops are better, and both the grass and kale hold on longer. We really rate it.”
And to other farmers weighing it up:
“Obviously we are not solely a dairy farm, but I think this is a no brainer investment.”
Georgie applies fertiliser and fish hydrolysate to the wintering block with a Tow and Fert.
