Farmers cut costs using molasses, manure to brew fermented fertiliser
Molasses, milk and manure may sound like an unusual combination, but for farmer Louise Vuillerman, they make a cheap, sustainable way of fertilising crops.
Ms Vuillerman farms beef cattle in the picturesque town of Corner Inlet, at the gateway to Wilsons Promontory.
She is one of a growing number of farmers experimenting with biofertiliser, a type of fermented fertiliser used to make nutrients more available to soil and plants.
"The aim is to grow more grass and improve our soils, but to do it in an economical way," Ms Vuillerman said.
Biofert producer and consultant, Daniel Hodges, said the process of making biofertiliser was a lot like brewing beer.
"We're putting sugar, protein and a starter in a vessel to brew together," he said.
"In warm conditions it will brew very quickly and it's ready to go onto the paddock once it stops bubbling.
"That can take anywhere from a week to four weeks, depending on the weather."
Mr Hodges said farmers could customise their batch.
"You can do a broad-spectrum biofert which targets a little bit of everything, or you can make one that targets an individual element you're missing in your soil," he said.
"We do that by adding rock dust or seaweed or specific sulphates to boost the nutrient content of the biofert."
Carol and Brian Fitzpatrick started experimenting with biofertiliser five years ago, at their broadacre cropping operation at Waitchie in north-west Victoria.
"It was just trial and error at the beginning," Ms Fitzpatrick said.
"We started with two shuttles [containers] that didn't work, but another shuttle worked perfectly so we just went on from there."
The Fitzpatricks produced about 120,000 litres of biofertiliser for sowing this year, and about 100,000 litres more to apply as a spray.
"No other farmers in our general area are doing what we're doing," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
"For years we followed the simple recipe of applying fertiliser and waiting for it to rain.
"But because we're cutting back on synthetic fertilisers, it's a bit of an unknown as to whether it'll work in this area."
Mrs Fitzpatrick said they had noticed an improvement in their crops.
"We get good emergence of our seeds and they're still healthy after the first eight weeks, so that means our liquid inject biofert is pretty effective," she said.
"But we've only used a general recipe, so the next step is to figure out exactly what blends of biofert work on our farm."
Deniliquin-based regenerative farming consultant Luke Harrington said poor farmers in Latin America were the first to brew biofertiliser.
Mr Harrington said bioferts were becoming more popular in Australia as farmers looked for ways to cut the cost of farming.
"Some larger farms in WA and SA are using bioferts as the main input for their crops and pastures now," he said.
Mrs Fitzpatrick said it took time to make, blend and apply bioferts.
"And you can only really brew biofert in the warmer months," she said.
"So bioferts are a lot more cost-effective, but they do take time to produce."
Mr Fitzpatrick said he saw a potential market opportunity for farmers who used biofertilisers.
"So if we could get a premium for regeneratively-grown grain, for example, that might push more people into things like biofert," he said.
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