In the last two years the district's farmers have been getting around 0.5 tonnes/ha from their red soils that are particularly well suited to dryland broadacre cropping. With fertiliser prices doubling many have found the going hard.

Darren and Sandra Hewett farm 1000 hectares in Tottenham, with Darren supplementing the farm's income with a spray contracting business that keeps him very busy.

They take an integrated fertiliser approach on the farm to counter the drought, using RLF's BSN SuperStrike. 

They use it to supply early phosphorous and trace minerals to the young seedlings and then again at early tillering, combining a foliar containing more phosphorous and trace elements.

This lets him feed the crop according to the season while reducing granular inputs by increasing root growth. It's the key to better uptake of residual and applied nutrients in the soil.

Richard Stone, RLF's NSW operations and technical support manager, says that farmers need to be aware of residual phosphorous levels in the soil.

“farmers need to have a better understanding of what could be limiting the availability of Phosphorous before they make decisions on expensive granular inputs”, Mr Stone said.

Richard Stone can be contacted on 0429 459 208 for assistance with your fertiliser decisions.