A new industry in Forbes has mastered the granulation process and is developing granules packed with locally sourced inputs specifically blended for our farming soils.
It's a little more than two years since the turning of the sod at Southern Cross Nutrients, in the industrial estate of the Newell Highway north of Forbes.
They're now in full production with a team of local staff, sourcing regional products.
Research and development has focussed on the granulation process, executive director Mark Pobje explains, so they can supply robust granules fine enough to go through an air seeder or spreader directly to where they're needed.
Having started with development of a carbon and compost-dominated granule, they're now also producing super fine lime granules made with ultra fine lime and gypsum granules not far away.
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Ultra fine ag lime has a neutralising value of 97 percent, and these granules won’t blow away, they are as dense as 1.6 tonne per cubic meter!
"There’s no losses, it’s a much finer lime," Mark said.
The granules they originally conceptualised are now available, and they're in paddocks around the region as they continue work to capture the data on their benefits to long-term soil health.
Southern Cross Nutrients products aren't designed to replace chemical fertilisers delivering Nitrogen, Phosphorus or Potassium (NPK) - but to complement current fertiliser programs, improve nutrient uptake and soil organic carbon.
"We want to combine four really well researched, and well-known inputs – compost, carbon, lime and bentonite – into one product that can co-apply all of those inputs easily and quickly and we’re building the data," Mr Pobje said. “And we won’t stop with the R&D to develop new compounds and blends to suit every grower.”
"We know that compost is really good, we know that lime’s really good, we know bentonite is really good and we know carbon is essential.
The complex relationships that occur between soil biota, nutrition and plant health in the soil are not well understood though. Southern Cross Nutrients current hypothesis is no different to most farmers and agronomists - soil is a living medium and the healthier it is, the healthier the plants growing in it are. The next step is to gain a greater understanding on how applying all of these soft, beneficial ingredients in one stable granule can influence soil health, crop health and ultimately increase yields and overall profitability.
That's the work they're doing now, partnering with independent local agronomists and universities, so that in future they'll be able to provide growers with a data set on exactly how the addition of organic granules can improve the efficiency much of their traditional fertiliser programs.
"We’ve got university research that’s measuring the reduction of nitrous oxide when the granules are co-applied with high nitrogen source synthetic fertilisers, which means more of the nitrogen is being used in the system," Mark said.
"The research is saying that the system is losing less nitrogen to the atmosphere, and this is being absorbed by the plant."
This research will also enable them to work with farmers and agronomists to produce granules packed with the nutrients to meet your needs.
"If a client has a particular need to swap gypsum for lime or something like that, we can tailor make a granule for them," Mark said, adding they can give longer-term price surety because they're based in regional NSW and sourcing everything here.
SCN granules are specifically manufactured to easily integrate with current farming operations - including air seeders and belt spreaders - and are available in two sizes.
Their standard granules are 3-5mm and their mini prill granules are 1-2mm.
They're also great for pasture improvement on grazing country.
"All of the granules are tough, durable and easy to apply in conventional farming equipment," Mark said. Early indications from field trials are showing exceptional results with lower input costs and higher yields. This data will provide growers with the confidence to apply granules to improve their farming systems and ultimately their bottom line.
Southern Cross Nutrients are currently seeking local participants to assist in commercial size paddock trials.
The compost-based granules can currently comply as an "organic fertiliser substitution” intervention within the greenhouse gas emissions programs recently launched across the Australian grains industry. Anyone interested, please contact us to explore if this may be beneficial for your production system.
