Posts by Farmer Green
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Nullify ? It's the media's hypothesis.
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When Good Fertiliser goes Bad:-
A Taranaki farming couple are "shellshocked" after 120 of their cows dropped dead one by one in their paddock.Around 20 vets who rushed to the Oeo farm of Chris and Catherine Cook on Tuesday could not save the animals, part of a herd of 600.
Mrs Cook's brother, John Murphy, speaking for the family, said the loss of the cows was a devastating blow.
"The farmer was out there topping up the water troughs and minutes later the cows were falling to the ground," he said.
It was heart-breaking for the Cooks.
"They're gutted. Massively tearful. In disbelief and shellshocked."
An investigation under way by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment should determine the cause of death, he said.
"They'll do all the tests and find out what happened and go from there, but until then it's all just speculation," he said.
He said the cows were worth around $400,000, and their deaths would probably mean around another $300,000 loss of profit for the season.
"Cows are just so important and so close to farmers. It's like losing a loved one. In this case it's like losing multiple loved ones," Mr Murphy said.
The vets were called immediately and arrived quickly.
"Just the massive scale of it, they all dropped everything and came straight out because they knew how serious it was."
He said the family wished to thank the vets who attended as well as Fonterra, Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ who had shown their support.
In May last year, the Taranaki Daily News reported the deaths of 35 cows from nitrate poisoning on a Tikorangi dairy farm. The cows died after eating new pasture on a cloudy day. Similar cases were reported in South Taranaki.
Three months ago Taranaki Veterinary Centre vet Stacey Bateman, of Manaia, warned a seminar that cows were at risk of the illness in spring if carbohydrates were introduced too quickly into their diet.
Nitrate poisoning occurred when nitrates in forage was converted to nitrite, which starved animals of oxygen, causing them to collapse and possibly die. Those who recovered were likely to abort if pregnant.
On cloudy days photosynthesis may not occur, so plants do not convert nitrogen in the soil into protein.
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Of course neither of us has mentioned the margin of uncertainty in these minute changes in temperature, but I’m sure that we both know the order of this uncertainty.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to SteveH,
Hell no. I was arguing that global warming in excess of 0.03 /decade was a good thing that I would like to see continue, and that we should hope to see rates of at least 0.07 /decade for two or three decades during the next warm phase of the PDO. But let’s just see what happens during the remainder of this current cool phase 1999-2030(approx). We still only have unequivocal data for such a short period ; less than one complete PDO(60 years). We cannot possibly be categorical about a disturbance in the long term trend with the available satellite data. Even 60 years is a mere instant.
The ongoing nature of the research is what makes the whole topic so interesting.
Not to mention the vital importance of getting it right.
When the GCMs are accurately predicting short-term (multi-decadal) trends then we might begin to have some confidence in them.
Still early days. -
Most of us have had enough of John Key's inanity by now , so in tribute to his passing Farmer Green offers :-
"flibbertigibberish"
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This one from the EPA was not such good news ; some of these phase-out times look way too long:-
Agrichemicals recommended to be phased out are:
Over a period of ten years: Diazinon, prothiophos
Over a period of five years: Fenamiphos, methamidophos
Over a period of three years: Dimethoate, fenitrothion, phorate, terbufos
Over a period of six months: Benomyl, carbaryl/maldison, carbosulfan, phoxim, pyrazophos (None of the agrichemicals in this group have ever been registered under the ACVM Act and been used in New Zealand). -
Farmer Green has received some mail :-
Participation in the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme
Dear Participant
Please see the attached letter in respect to your participation in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
It is important that you read this letter as you may need to respond.
A number of changes have been made to the ETS and as a result you may now be exempt from emissions obligations under the scheme.
YES!! -
Just to put some science around that , the acceptable level of E . coli for an infrequent swimming area (8 persons per thousand will experience an effect) is 576 cfu/100 ml on a single test.
The last test farmer green did on the Manawatu River in mid -summer showed 390 cfu/100 ml. -
Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Matthew Poole,
there’s only one cause of shit ending up in waterways
Yeah right , water fowl never shit in the water, and even if they accidentally did the shit would be free of coliforms , right?
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
Then put on your farm advisor hat and explain how do do it while maintaining a viable farm organism.
All manner of agricultural scientists will be hanging on your every word.