Located between Cork city and Cork airport is Pat Aherne, a homeopathic dairy farmer.
Pat, who took over his farm from his father in 2014, runs a spring-calving herd consisting of 90 dairy cows.
The farmer is extremely environmentally conscious, especially following drought-prone summers in recent years. Over the past years, he has been reducing his chemical input in all aspects of farming.
Pat wanted to encourage the growth of microbes in the soil so has turned to more organic methods of farming.
“I’m working with nature. As my father said, you need to take one step backwards in order to continue moving forwards.
“I haven’t been impressed with the amount of chemicals going into farming, in particular, chemical fertilisers and the effects of that on soil health and the environment,” he said.
As a result of Pat’s views on agriculture’s increased use of chemicals, he decided to use Supersoil, a 100% organic fertiliser, to promote sward productivity.
Organic fertiliser
In recent years, Pat has increased the diversity of the sward by incorporating various grasses, herbs, red clover and multi-species.
“I have recently started planting multi-species grasses. I was looking for something that could benefit the growth of these new crops. Basically the sward is plantain, red and white clover, herbs and a variety of grasses as well,” he said.
Pat heard about Supersoil from another farmer who told him about its performance, how it works and assured him that it worked very well for them.
“It literally is an army of microbes working in your soil, and it was a 1kg bag that would cover 10ac of ground.
“I was very sceptical on how a 1kg bag of fertiliser could actually cover 10ac of ground. I said, look, I’m open to this, I’m to give it a go and if it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work.”
Pat decided to take the risk and spread Supersoil at the beginning of March. He found that the spreading process for Supersoil was extremely simple with ordinary sprayer equipment required.
“On March 5, I had my contractor in. I just said here’s my kilo bag and I just want this put out on certain fields and he wanted to know if there was special nozzles, I said no, very ordinary nozzles, just go out, do the spraying, nothing fancy and that’s what he did,” confirmed Pat.
Commenting on the economical benefit of Supersoil, Pat said: “I’ve definitely made huge savings, I’ve used 50% less fertiliser this year with 40ac of my land not receiving any nitrogen this year.”
Weekly growth
Most importantly, Pat was amazed by the performance of Supersoil within a month of applying the product.
Discussing his sward’s growth, Pat said: “I have to say, the transformation was just unbelievable. The growth rate of this crop in the month of March was just phenomenal.
“Compared to ordinary grass fields that were getting chemical nitrogen were just not growing at all, this was growing at least an inch a week.
“Plants literally grew from about 2in in height to about 8in in height,” confirmed Pat.
Increased nutrient content
Another farmer who had used Supersoil advised Pat to dig up and inspect the root structure of his sward.
“I took out a spade to see how deep the roots had grown. The red clover, multi-species and even grass roots had grown at least 10in into the soil.
“This helped to break open the soil and allow it to aerate, which in turn helped the soil to absorb more water in a record-breaking autumn rainfall.
“I also heard at a soil science conference that if you leave the microbes to do their own work they will, in time, create more top soil.
“For every new inch of top soil created this will allow for an extra 60,500L of water to be absorbed per acre which can help in preventing rivers from bursting their banks,” said Pat.
Aside from growth, Pat described how his sward appeared healthier and rich in colour which meant the development of a nutrient-dense sward.
“The transformation was unbelievable. For early March, in cold weather, you could actually see the grass changing colour.
“This is good quality, green product for any animal to be eating a fantastic diet.
“It is literally a diet feeder in your field. Why have a machine when you can have nature doing the work for you?” he asked.
Organic fertiliser delivered to your door
A major benefit of Supersoil is its compact packaging which is delivered directly to your door once purchased.
“There was no issue with post or anything like that, I got next-day delivery and it arrived the next day,” said Pat.
“There’s plenty of other products out there but you have to buy it in bulk, but Supersoil comes in a small package and it’s very convenient.
“When you open it too, you don’t have to use it all in one go. What I did was I weighed out enough to cover 6ac, which is 600g, and then just wrapped it up tight and I’ll use the rest of it in the spring again.”
For more information on Supersoil, click here.
