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Soil Health It's In Our Nature
For 30 years Omnia Specialities has been the Australian and global leader in the development and manufacture of speciality fertilisers and biostimulants including humates, fulvates and kelp products that improve crop health, yields and improve soil health in a sustainable and environmentally conscious way.
Australian agriculture is increasingly looking to harness the power of soil biology to improve the efficiency of and reduce environmental losses of fertilisers while improving carbon capture into the soil to leave it in a healthier condition for future generations says James Freemantle, Managing Director of Omnia Specialities Australia.
Since 1990, Omnia has produced high-quality humate based products and specialty fertilisers in Australia by extracting rich sources of humic acids from Leonardite in the Gippsland region of Victoria.
Humic acid occurs naturally in healthy soils that contain organic matter in levels which favour soil microbial activity. Humate is a soluble form of humic acid and has been widely tested and proven to improve the level of soil aggregates, giving a significant improvement in soil structure.
Soil nutrient and water holding capacity is increased with the use of humate. Acting much like a sponge, humate improves the efficiency of applied fertilisers and increases plant nutrient uptake. Increased root volume is commonly observed, leading to a more efficient foraging surface area for nutrients and water.
Freemantle says his team of dedicated agronomists work directly with distributors and growers to develop cropping programs that improve soil and plant health.
“Typically, once we are clear on the growers’ objectives, we undertake a series of soil tests and/or plant sap or tissue tests,” said Freemantle.
“We then recommend a nutrient strategy to achieve the grower’s objectives”.
Once the strategy is implemented, the Omnia team is directly available to evaluate results and fine-tune it through the growing season, using independent labs to analyse soil, sap or tissue samples matched with agronomic observation.
According to Fremantle however, humates alone are no magic wand and need to be part of a balanced plant nutrition program.
“Our team of specialist agronomists know how to use our products to leverage the fertiliser inputs to your cropping system, ensuring your crop gets maximum uptake when it is needed with a reduction in losses to the environment,” said Freemantle.
“We currently work with some of the nation's largest and most innovative growers, particularly in potatoes, almonds, walnuts, wine and table grapes and Macadamias”.
Working so closely with Australian growers has also led to the development of a range of innovative biostimulant products like the Bacstim range which is designed to deliver yield, quality and sustainability.
“The Bacstim range provides a source of beneficial bacteria to the soil which provide a plant with the opportunity to express its inherent natural resilience to diseases, pests and stress,” said Freemantle.
“The strains of bacteria are carefully selected to survive if the environmental conditions move outside of their comfort zone. They enter a spore form until conditions are suitable and they spring back into action.”
By using products like Mega-Kel-P which combine the power of humates with the biostimulant effect of kelps, fulvates, trace elements and macronutrients, Omnia provides customers with the confidence that using these products will provide a high return on the cost of applying the product.
Freemantle says that the lack of industry regulation in Australia on the humate market has seen a wide range of poor quality products become available from far too many suppliers.
Fortunately, many of Omnia’s products are approved as inputs for Organic production with NASAA, one of Australia’s leading organic certification organisations.
“As a grower looking for the benefits humates bring, the first thing is to make sure that the product you are considering buying contains the humate needed to do the job,” said Freemantle.
“Recent independent testing of various humate liquids, using the CDFA method of analysis, showed from between 27.8% w/v potassium humate to as little as 0.33%. Some products had less than 2% of the humate claimed on the label”.
In comparison, Omnia’s K-humate 26% liquid has been produced in the regional Victorian town of Morwell for over 25 years. Made from Australian Leonardite, K-humate has gained world-wide respect as a reliable and effective product.
“Healthy soil is key to improved plant health, resilience against biotic and abiotic stress and lastly, more sustainable farming practices. It’s important to know what you are really buying!” said Freemantle.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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