Reducing fertiliser costs by learning how to create your own will be the focus of a three-day course being run from February 16-18 at Gary and Angela Spotswood’s operation at Mt Alma.
The hands-on course will teach participants the methods and processes used to make biofertiliser, and with registration numbers capped at 15 everyone will get a go.
Participants will learn how to brew biofertiliser, a ferment made from a Effective Microbes (EM) collected from the property added to water and enriched with foods to feed the biology and minerals for the biology to digest.
NQ Dry Tropics Project Officer Diana O’Donnell said the course is being held as part of the organisations Sustainable Soils for the Burdekin project.
“The project aims to encourage landholders to adopt land manage practice that will improve soil health resulting in reduced losses of nutrients, pesticides and sediment off the land while hopefully improving productivity,” Ms O’Donnell said.
RegenAG’s Kym Kruse is a leader in the field of regenerative agriculture, and has designed the course for commercial farmers.
Mr Kruse said the techniques used are based on the MasHumus methods developed in South America.
“It uses bones, rumen, grain husks and locally obtained beneficial microbial organisms to produce natural fertilisers that are highly available to the plant and help the soil,” he said.
“The final product becomes a solution that contains chelated minerals, bio-colloids, hormones, bio-catalysts, and micro-organisms.
“It can nourish, regenerate and activate life in the soil, it revitalises plants and stimulates their immune system against disease, fungi and insect attack.
“It can also be used as a substitute for expensive chemical and biological fertilisers.”
The Sustainable Soils for the Burdekin project is subsidising the cost of the course for local producers to $300 for the first person and $200 per second person from an enterprise.
For information email Diana O’Donnell on diana.odonnell@nqdrytropics.com.au. Registrations close on February 8.
