The Williams’ environmental award winning dairy farm in the Manawatu was experiencing problems with water ponding, shallow pasture roots, few earthworms and cow metabolic issues. Despite dramatic production increases from increased supplement use they had a poor return on investment.

After 18 months on an Abron programme, Jeff was amazed by the improvements. Soil drainage and friability have improved out of sight, earthworm numbers have increased from 4-6 per spade square to between 18 and 32, while pasture root depth has gone from 150mm to 300mm.

Jeff’s pasture now has far more substance and nutritional density. Brix levels have doubled and instead of getting four feeds per paddock, he’s now getting seven feeds. Animal health has also improved. “The vet says it’s the best cud chewing he’s ever seen. As a result of the improved pasture quality, we had no downer cows at calving, only two or three mild milk fevers instead of the normal thirty, and very little mastitis in the herd after calving.”

“My costs are going down all over the place - I’ve saved $25,000 on straw alone, no blanket Dry Cow therapy, less calf drenching and my Nitrogen fertiliser use has dropped from 120 units of N per year to only 50.8 units.

“This approach is amazing. It is stressless. Abron has made farming fun again… I love it!”

Jeff Williams