Wisdom of the ancients helping big potato processor player

When Yum Tasmanian Gourmet Potatoes founder Terrence Rattray started using manure that had been stuffed in cow horns and buried for six months as fertiliser for the soil on his farm in the North East, he says the benefits were immediate.

“It contains a lot of naturally occurring beneficial microbes and you could see the difference in the soil tilth,” Mr Rattray said.

 “The roots turned and went straight down instead of going in crazy patterns.”

The use of cow horn manure is an example of biodynamic farming, a practice established in 1924 by German philosopher Rudolf Steiner as a counter to the emergence of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides at the time.

Mr Rattray had initially been using manure from Bio-Dynamic Tasmania, but then switched to using BioFlora’s BD500 spray after being introduced to a sales representative from the American-owned company during his time farming in Bundaberg.

“The rep told me that they had a similar product, so we gave it a go,” he said.

“When you spray it on the fields, you notice a huge difference.

“You can just go out in the field and poke your hand in the ground, like you would with a shovel, and dig out a handful of soil – it’s in such good order.

“We’re finding that all the vegetables have a better flavour and are more nutrient-dense.”

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture soil science researcher and lecturer Bianca Das said that biodynamic farming lacked peer-reviewed academic knowledge.

“If it’s working for someone, that’s great, but I would always advise that you have a control -  something to compare baseline improvements to,” Dr Das said.

“We need a lot more people working in this space to validate the methods that explain how those products work.

“A lot of those methods aren’t very rigorous and there’s still a lot of debate over what those methods tell you.”

Dr Das said a lack of research funding was the likely reason why biodynamic farming knowledge was limited.

“A lot of the claims about biodynamic farming can be difficult to prove or disprove.

“That’s not to say that it’s a bad approach, but it’s just very difficult to explain why some of these methods work or not.

“Biodynamic farming works for some people and for others it doesn’t, which is fine.”

Agri-economist and vegetable grower Ali Dugand said she was introduced to BioFlora BD500 by Mr Rattray while working as crop production manager at Harvest Moon.

“Having worked in the agricultural sector in North West Tasmania for many years, I am aware of the pressure placed on producers to grow multiple crops in a very intense cropping system, often with short windows,” Ms Dugand said.

“Juggling their rotations to suit and secure contracts is very difficult.

“You can feel the difference when you walk on soil that has been treated with BD500.

“A shovel can be placed in the soil with ease and harvesting of root crops is easier, plus the crop is removed cleaner, is denser and tastes sweeter.”