Soil Health Innovation Tour

Biological farming practices including paramagnetics have given Wet Tropics farmers food for thought during a soil health innovation tour.

Farmers visited Victoria in early March and one stop-off was a sheep farm where pastures are being improved by applying a mixture of paramagnetic rock dust and home-brewed compost and fertiliser, leading to significant gains in soil health and stocking numbers.

Robbie and Thel Hodges started making their own compost 12 years ago, mostly from stable waste and poultry manure from nearby farms. They added bacteria and fungi, cultured in an aerated brewer, and say the soil started to function a lot better. The Hodges use minimal synthetic fertilisers and sow multiple varieties of perennial grasses into their pastures.

Seven years ago they started investigating paramagnetics for agriculture – the magnetic effects on soil fertility and the beneficial aspects of volcanic rock minerals for soils and plants. They began adding rock dust to their compost and ran trials in the vegetable patch. Now, whenever they spread any material on their pasture, like animal manures or lime, they add the paramagnetic rock dust.

The Hodges now use a four-in-one organic fertiliser mix – part rock dust, part pig or poultry manure, part fly ash from smelters and part compost. They also produce a liquid fertiliser by adding the four-in-one to a compost brewer and topping up with bacteria and fungi.

Mr Hodges said the results had been rewarding. “We could see that the conventional methods of farming were demanding more and more inputs to achieve a decent pasture,’’ he said.

“After 12 years of farming biologically we have had a 100 per cent increase in stock numbers, increases in the soil’s pH from 4.2 to 5.8 and increases in organic matter from 2.4 to 5.8 per cent.

“This method of farming is not just increasing production for us, it is restoring landscape function and appears to be increasing our resilience to climate variability. With an aim originally of lifting the nutrient content of our produce rather than quantity per hectare, we’ve in fact done both by focusing on specific minerals, soil testing and a whole array of management monitoring and fertility practices.”