Colm Cussen is a beef farmer from Broadford, Co. Limerick, who breeds and sells pedigree Simmental heifers and bulls.
Aside from farming, Colm is the managing director of his company, ABS Engineering Control Systems Ltd. in Co. Limerick, where ABS designs and installs building management systems for new and existing buildings.
Supporting cattle growth with excellent nutrition is essential to produce high-quality animals on Colm’s farm. For this, Colm works to take advantage of Ireland’s temperate climate and excellent grass growth to keep feed costs low.
However, when chemical fertiliser costs began to rise, it became expensive to keep grass growth plentiful.
As an alternative to chemical fertilisers, the Limerick man decided to enquire about Supersoil, a 100% organic fertiliser.
Supersoil
Last year, Colm heard about Supersoil and its benefits and so he decided to purchase the product and spread it on his land in February 2022.
One difference that Colm noticed on his land treated with Supersoil was the growth of mushrooms, which is associated with good soil health.
“I sprayed it in one field and we saw massive results in the colour of the grass and how thick the leaves were in the grass,” he said.
“We couldn’t get over the amount of mushrooms we saw too. We haven’t had mushrooms on this land in over 25 years if not more.”
Following an increase in grass growth and sward productivity, Colm decided to test the performance of Supersoil by setting up his own trial.
“We decided last year then that we were going to use Supersoil a bit more. We ploughed two fields last year, both were the same size and were right beside each other,” he explained.
“We ploughed them in September last year and we put Supersoil down in one of the fields, just as a trial to see how we’d get on.
“It wasn’t long after spraying that I could see there was a massive difference between both fields.
“We’d no lime, no fertiliser , no muck or anything like that at all on it,” confirmed Colm
Easy to apply
In the video above, Colm comments on Supersoil’s ease of use and how any sprayer can be used to apply the organic fertiliser.
He said: “We would have never sprayed anything on this land before we had a sprayer. The sprayer is a grand sprayer, there’s nothing fancy about it whatsoever.
“I filled the sprayer up with water, added the right amount of Supersoil that I needed and I literally just spread it on the fields myself.”
In addition to its ease of use, Colm commented on how his winter fodder cut from land treated with Supersoil was of high quality.
“We used Supersoil on two other fields that I cut for bales last year. You know, I was afraid in case they’d sink or they weren’t great but I opened them up this year and they’re fantastic.
“I was well impressed with them now. Nice dry, solid bales and the cows are mad for it. There’s no wastage whatsoever with the bales,” he said.
Organic fertiliser
Like others using Supersoil, Colm has been able to remove the need to spread chemical fertiliser on his land to promote grass growth.
“It’s doing some sort of, I won’t say magic, but it’s definitely doing something fantastic to the ground and I’m definitely going to use it for the rest of the year.
“Because of Supersoil, I’ve stopped using nitrogen or any chemical fertiliser like that. I only started with Supersoil last year in February and I was well impressed with what we came up with and stuff like that.
“This year I’m going to completely use Supersoil and my slurry on top of it, but I reckon it’ll be fantastic. The ground itself is even starting to look better,” Colm concluded.
For further information on Supersoil, click here.
