Discover three testimonies of ireland's farmers
Marcel Mezy discovered BACTÉRIOLIT in the 1980s. His aim was to find an alternative to mineral fertilisation and to increase the soil fertility. Sustainability, increased profitability and autonomy are in the foreground.
Up to today, SOBAC has retained its medium-sized and family-run character.
During the last years, SOBAC has been awarded with numerous prizes for sustainable agriculture. SOBAC products are applied worldwide on a wide variety of soils and crops.
Numerous articles and testimonials from users are published in the press worldwide. The main aim, when spreading BACTÉRIOSOL or manure with BACTÉRIOLIT in the fields, is to produce humus in the soil.
We have over 28,000 strains of microorganisms in our products, who are participating in all the processes, which are running in the soil and their work is to improve them.
There are some fixing N and C from the air, transforming them in organic matter. You can store 5t carbon and 250kg nitrogen per ha and per year (= 2 t C/ac/year and 101 kg N/ac/year). Some microorganisms make mineral nutrients available in the soil, like P and K, so that the plant can feed on them during the whole growing period.
Some other transform the raw organic matter into evolved humus, which increases the soil porosity.
The crops have a deeper root development, bringing a better uptake of water and elements and a replacement of mineral fertilisers.
The yields are stable or often increased with a better quality, especially more dry matter, energy and protein in grass. Concentrated feed can be reduced and the vet costs too.
‘I REDUCED MY NITROGEN BY 30%’
JOHN MURPHY, KILDINAN, CO CORK
I came back to farm the land in 2013, a 48ac farm. We farm 45 acres, and the other three acres are habitat. We have a dairy enterprise and we have alternative enterprises on the farm. I am a silage contractor and my wife runs a pre-school.
I have a degree in rural resource management, so I am a little bit different from a lot of other farmers in that I did not get a straight agricultural education. My education was a lot more about land management, managing habitats and reducing habitats’ losses.
When I came home to farm, one of my priorities was to farm as sustainably as I could while also being profi table. At the time, I could see the writing on the wall with the way water quality was reducing and the way the EU was thinking about things and the way greenhouse gas emissions were going that there were going to be changes in the way farming was conducted.
I wanted to be ahead of the game and SOBAC was a company that got me interested as it allowed me to reduce my chemical inputs. I started using SOBAC's Bacteriosol to see if I could reduce my chemical inputs.
I am not an organic farmer. I am a conventional farmer who wanted to try to see if I could farm more environmentally friendly conventionally. I have been very happy with Sobac so far. Last October was the third time that I had spread BACTÉRIOSOL on the farm, and I had one paddock that has had it for four years.
I reduced my nitrogen usage by 30%. While I used to spread 30 units of nitrogen every three weeks, I now spread 20 units every three weeks and I did not see any fall-off in grass growth. I have fi elds here near the house that are hard to manage as the water well
is there and I cannot spread any slurry there and the fi eld was on its knees. I had a guy out here digging worms and
we could not fi nd any worms. Three years later, the big difference is we are finding loads of worms.
The cows are grazing the fi elds way tighter than before and they are cleaning out the docks as the docks are getting weaker. The cows will not eat the docks if they go to the seed stage, but they never get far. The grass is uniform and whether it is in at the ditch or the middle of the fi eld the cows graze it the same.
The cows are more content in the fi eld and they lie down earlier in the fi eld. We have farm walks here and, in the past, the cows would get up but now they do not get up they are very content. I have three years in a row spreading the pellets (BACTÉRIOSOL) so next year we will put the powder (BACTÉRIOLIT) in the slurry instead and it is cheaper.
Since using Sobac, we have more root tillers. The number of worms has increased, and the pan is gone.
Some of my fi elds have not been reseeded in 10 years and some of them have not seen lime in 10 years but now they have all been top-seeded. I would recommend trying Sobac and I know other farmers trying it and are very happy with it as well.
Since using Sobac, we have more root tillers. The number of worms has increased, and the pan is gone. Some of my fi elds have not been reseeded in 10 years and some of them have not seen lime in 10 years but now they have all been top-seeded. I would recommend trying Sobac and I know other farmers trying it and are very happy with it as well.
COMPARISON :
There is no harm in trying it in a small area and comparing the results. I am very much focused on the health of the farm; the health of the animals and I am also in an environmental group. There are 40 farmers in the valley that are in the group and there is a signifi cant amount of us discussing SOBAC.
We are farmers who are interested in managing the land sustainably and creating habitats and getting a better reputation for agriculture. Products like Sobac have a place in that programme.
The barley on the right received no SOBAC. The barley on the left received SOBAC and has an improved root structure.
A new layer of humus has developed with SOBAC.
‘OUR SILAGE DMD IS THE HIGHEST WE EVER HAD’
BRIAN BUCKLEY GLENVILLE, CO CORK
We farm over 200 acres and put out one pallet of Bacteriosol in one part of the farm and then we progressed to two pallets. We were happy with the results and did the whole farm last year. We are using the product for four years now and are happy.
Glenville and found it very informative, so we tried Sobac and we pulled back on the fertiliser by about 30%, even on the silage ground, and spread no chemical P or K. Our silage is better quality and it is testing a lot better. We had 78 dry matter in the silage which is the highest we ever had – less waste and it smelled nice.
It was the first year that we used Sobac on the silage ground. We have less fertiliser being spread and the roots of the grass are growing deeper and it is not as compact as it was before. We have less fertiliser going out on the milking platform and have noticed that we have reduced the sod pull signifi cantly. We do three-hour grazings, and it helps.
RECOMMEND
We started slowly with Sobac and we would recommend it. On our reseeded urea and no Ps or Ks or 18:6:12.
The grass grew fast and you could not pull the grass out of the ground. When you do the pluck test 3cm to 4cm there is less sod pull.
We use the powder in the slurry and the smell is gone and it is easier to agitate. The cows graze out the paddocks and the last time we soil-tested, Sobac had maintained the soil indexes.
The PH of the soil seems to be maintaining and we have not put out any lime. The silage was the main way in which we saw that it is working as you can get results from it straight away. They are grazing it out better and we are stitching in grass seed and getting good growth. We thought the protein went up when the cows went down there. We treated one side of the passage one year and did not do the other and you could see the difference plain as day. It was the easiest way of getting started. We pulled back the nitrogen and it did not affect the growth of it.
NO CHEMICAL P,K,LIME AND REDUCED NITROGEN USAGE FOR SEVEN YEARS
– DAMIEN HAVERTY, EYRECOURT, CO GALWAY
Damien is a dairy farmer in Eyrecourt, Co Galway, milking 115 cows. He has been using Bacterisol on his farm for seven years. He decided to use the SOBAC range as he felt that it was time for a new direction for producing grass and milk on his farm.
He said it is not a quick-fi x if there is a low soil index but after two years of applying the SOBAC range, the soil has been given a new
lease of life.
The grass now has a rich green colour throughout the year and there is no grass loss over the winter as the root system
has moved down to the slightly warmer temperatures for the winter months. The land has become much more free-draining so the heavy rain is able to move down through the soil structure, meaning there is less fl ooding on his farm.
Cow health has improved because he has been able to produce ample DM over the growing season. Grass utilisation is excellent, reducing the need for topping, which is one less job. Damien is delighted that he made the switch now, with the price of fertiliser this year.
YIELDS UP, FUNGICIDES USAGE DOWN
– MERVYN HAYES, NENAGH, CO TIPPERARY
Mervyn has been growing crops for a number of years and felt he was not getting the yields he had been targeting. It was time to try something new, so Sobac’s Bacterisol was applied to the winter wheat ground as a trial. To his surprise, the yields
improved in year one. Now in its sixth year on the same ground, the wheat has been performing very well. In the last two years, nitrogen usage has been reduced and herbicides and fungicides have also been reduced with no loss of yield.
These changes have made a big difference to margins on these crops. It is hoped to grow some fodder beet this year with BACTÉRIOSOL again to help margins and provide some energy crops to local dairy farmers.