"Murphy's Law" in action -

"Murphy's Law - if anything can go wrong it will."

It's just about weaning time again, but it's also time to do some aerial topdressing (flying on fertiliser - superphosphate mixed with lime in this case) on the country we want to muster ewes and lambs off.  HHmmmmm see where this may be going!  Anyway it is too cloudy to muster first thing in the morning before the plane comes back from a job in Nelson, so we have to wait to get out on the hill.

Plane arrives and the cloud has risen high enough for the pilot to do the Spur (no mustering to be done up there), so the Boss announces we'll muster the Middle Stumps as the weather forecast is for low cloud and drizzle the next day and we should be able to get it done before the plane starts to spread fertiliser on the block - good in theory!!



Obliging pair setting off up the hill - note the height of the cloud



These two don't think they want to go up (this is the same day although the colour in the photos varies for some reason)



But now there are four they will move for me




The Boss is doing the other "beat" and you can see his mob stringing around the side of the hill - all going smoothly at this stage.



Then Murphy has a say!!  Pilot has finished the Spur (the hill in the background of this photo) and starts flying over our block.  Needless to say things ceased going quite so smoothly.  The planes are very noisy and fly quite low, so the sheep were not quite so co-operative about going through gates after this point.  However we did get them all down even though all the cattle decided they would come off their hill block down to the same gates as well.  With plane and dogs and people they were well and truly rattled, and hopefully nothing gate wise was damaged before the afternoon finished.





You can see the clouds of fert dropping and settling below the plane

 



Carting up the fertiliser the day before




Plane just landing and loader ready to fill it



The fert sits in the bin between the loader and plane

Plane almost in position for the hopper to be filled

Loader moving across to the plane



and filling through the top of the hopper.  This plane carries about 1 tonne per load




and the plane is off again

Fertiliser is essential on NZ soils as we are such a young country that we lack many minerals in our soil.  In our area Sulphur is very low, and to get optimum grass growth this has to be added to the phosphate.  Soil ph is also crucial, as if it gets too acidic it inhibits growth of certain plants.  Most of the desirable plants like a more alkaline soil, and although in the past we have flown straight lime onto our hill blocks it is very expensive, so this time have added lime to the super phosphate mix. 
We don't put high levels of fertiliser on as A) we want to minimise leaching of nutrients, and B)  you don't want to unbalance the soil elements  C)  it is too expensive to waste.

You have to be very careful what additives go into the Super as some tie up other soil elements.  For instance Molybdenum ties up the copper (which we are short of anyway) so we don't add that, although it is a cheaper way of boosting the plants that release nitrogen, thus giving you the same effect as lime, but for a fraction of the price.  Lime however is safer, although if you had high levels it can also tie up the copper too.  And lime is better for the soil structure and promotes earthworm activity which is highly desirable.  We get soil tests done every 3 years to check what is happening in the soil and adjust what goes on Fert wise accordingly.  Forage testing is also done as sometimes the soil has certain nutrient levels which are not taken up into the plants - complicated YES!  But we try our best to do no damage to the environment.

You can tell if animals have come off blocks that haven't had fert applied, they just do not do as well.  Unfortunately fert does promote weeds, so although there were very few thistles on this farm when we first came here 18 years ago, they are now an ongoing problem.  And the native matagouri just thrives on it., which can cause mustering problems as it becomes impassable, although sheep and dogs can make tracks underneath it, and it has long prickly spikes that fester badly in the skin.

AND MURPHY AGAIN - IT WAS  BEAUTIFUL  WITH PERFECT VISIBILITY THE NEXT DAY.