Is This the Answer to NVZ?

Beef Farmer reports 2009

So far so good is Hampshire verdict on Nitrogen substitute, TwinN

Father and son pairing, Frank and Peter Momber of Hatchmoor Farm, Hawkley, in Hampshire have begun to use microbial nitrogen, instead of bagged fertiliser, as part of their ongoing efforts to reduce input costs and raise the efficiency of their all-grass, 135 hectare, wholly owned, enterprise. As a result they have knocked around £8,000 off this year's fertiliser bill, while grass yields continue to be well up to expectations - and they will continue to use the TwinN product, next year too. "So far, so good," explained Frank Member, "We' have still to discover how successful it will be in the long term but at present we were very happy with the way this cost reduction exercise is working out."

Stabilizer

The Mombers run a farm that focuses exclusively on beef from grass and at its core is a herd of 140, spring calving, Stabiliser cows. The bull calves are kept entire, finished indoors after weaning, and killed at an average of 340 kilos carcase weight at 11-13 months. Heifers not retained for breeding are finished at grass over their second summer and with the exception of the two or three stragglers they are all sold for slaughter before the end of autumn. "This means we carry most stock, around 420 head overall including calves at foot, over June and the first half of July, before everything thins back down to just 140 cows with calves, and around 30 replacement heifers, when we bring the stock indoors for winter," explained Mr Momber who has been the NBA's national vice-chairman for the last eight years. Central to this style of farm management is the farm's environmental qualification for both the Higher Entry Level Scheme (HELS) and the Entry Level Scheme (ELS) which currently add around £48,000 a year to annual income. Applications of microbial nitrogen like TwinN are exempted from the nitrogen use calculation.

To qualify for HELS the average stocking level must also remain below 1.61 LSUs per hectare which is one of the reasons male calves are finished indoors as young bulls instead of as steers at grass. The calving percentage is a calculation which lies at the core of the farm's efficiency strategy because the Mombers have long thought barren cows are too expensive to carry as passengers. In autumn 2007 some 143 females were put to the bull through AI and 141 calves were weaned from 140 cows in 2008. Last August 138 went to the bull and although two were lost there were two sets of twins. "The Rather Valley in Hampshire has a longstanding reputation for turning out good beef cattle off grass and we put our good calving performance down to there being no natural mineral deficiencies on the .farrn" said Mr Member. "The only winter feed is haylage and there are no supplements apart from a tonne of minerals each year over the herd as a whole and some rock salt licks."

Outdoors

The herd calves in mid May and the calves stay with their mothers until turnout the following April. All new season calves are born outdoors. The ani y animals kept inside over summer are the previous season's bull calves. They are finished on one tonne of bought-in cereal mix apiece and ad-lib haylage. "We run a completely closed herd with High Health Status. The only thing that comes through the gate is the semen because incoming disease is always expensive. We keep back, and fertility test, two or three of our young bulls as herd sweepers before they are sold on to local dairy farmers or slaughtered." "We aim to calve over the shortest possible period. Last year the whole herd, cows and replacements were inseminated after oestrus synchronisation and this May exactly . 82% calved in 20 days and all the stragglers calved within the next three weeks - which meant we calved the lot within 43 days. Any barren cows are put on a feeding diet over last weeks of winter and sent for slaughter at weaning. The young bulls invariably classify R4L Out of last year's crop just two classified U- and one was 0+. "We are still trying to find a way of getting a premium for our beef. Other farmers with Stabilisers in other locations have managed to do this but at the moment all our finished stock is still being offered as a purely commercial product," said Mr Member.

Grass management

All the cattle are housed over winter because the land is too wet and one of the cornerstones of grass management at Hatchmoor is the sheep that come in on tack to clean up the fields each September before departing at the end of January. "We manage pastures, not meadows, and have not re-seeded a new ley since '1990. We harrow the land very hard each spring and maintain a high clover content, through broadcasting clover seed followed by heavy rolling, on a rotational basis. Freshly re-vitalised pasture can be up to 60 per cent clover but in fields that are ready for the treatment can be down to just ten per cent," said Mr Member. /! Another recent grass management move has been to re-capitalise so we can spread our own yard manure instead of it being moved to a nearby market garden which mucked out, and did the transportation, themselves." "It was a convenient arrangement but in the end we decided too much nutrition was leaving the farm that was difficult to replace artificially and still keep within the restraints imposed by the Higher Entry Level Scheme."

"The new muck spreader cost £18,000 and on top of this was £12,000 for a concrete pad on which we store the muck we scrape out over winter. It helps that Peter and I can clear, and spread, the whole year's manure in four days using our existing tractor and load-all." They used to use 50/60 tonnes of nitrogen fertiliser bu t the huge price hike two years ago made the Members' eyes water and even though prices were easier last year at £214 a tonne the fertiliser bill was still £10,700. TwinN No bagged compound was purchased this spring and instead they bought 20 packs of TwinN. Although each pack was recommended to cover five hectares the boom spray applications were stretched to cover a little more so around 120 hectares was dressed with the remaining 15 hectares put aside to take slurry. "Last year we carried all our stock and cut 93 hectares to make 2,132 bales of haylage after applying compound. This year we cut 105 hectares and made 2,014 bales. This means we cut less grass but we will counter this slight reduction next spring by following the TwinN recommendation, and tickling up the pasture in very early spring with a light dressing of just 20 units of N per hectare before applying the microbial packs," said Mr Momber.

Convinced

"We are already convinced about the correctness of this move. We use the haylage aftermaths as clean grazing, at the beginning of August we had grass coming out of our ears, and see no need to apply any more TwinN this season. Its actual cost this spring has been £2,500 over 120 hectares and we have saved around £8,000 after using our own manure too." "We always thought that moving in an organic direction was a bit fanatical but our current grass management system leans heavily that way, is sustainable, and has a much reduced carbon footprint too." "We will not go completely organic because we like to reserve the right to inject cattle and spray dock leaves, which would otherwise overwhelm us, but we are both pleased with the way our grassland management is moving and agree that it is definitely a case of so far so good."

TwinN microbes are freeze dried so the pack is light and can be stored in a cupboard. It is a mix of nitrogen fixing endophytes which can convert atmospheric nitrogen both within the plant and around the root system. It is applied by spraying after being rehydrated with water. This means the microbes are inoculated into plants through the stomata, leaf abrasions and lateral root cracks.

Unlike compound fertiliser TwinN itself contains no nitrogen when it is applied which could make it useful for many farmers in NVZ's or in HELS. It is able to feed plants because the microbes take nitrogen out of the air and then transfer it to the plant .

Sadly Frank Momber died in the summer of 2009, his son Peter continues to run the family farm business.