Matthew Zonderop
Waikato, New Zealand
This story was filmed in 2019 and reflects one farmer’s own experience with their Tow and Fert. Every farm is different, so please treat it as a story rather than a forecast for your place.
One pass instead of three, and no going back
Share milking 420 kiwicross cows across 140 hectares at the foothills of the Kaimai Ranges in Te Poi, Waikato, Matthew Zonderop first saw a Tow and Fert in action on a friend’s farm nearby, at an open day he’d been invited along to. He went home, did his own research, talked it over with his wife, and made the call to invest.
The shift from solid to foliar came down to two things for Matthew: getting nutrients onto the leaf instead of the soil, and the efficiency of doing it all in one pass. Where the old system meant spreading solid fert, then coming back separately for herbicide, then coming back again for a Gibberellic acid application, the Tow and Fert let him combine all three into a single run across the paddock.
That efficiency showed up most clearly through winter, when he could get fert on quickly with the one-pass system, adding Gibberellic acid and a sulfur-based product alongside it. Matthew puts a real improvement in his system over those colder months down to that.
We’ve seen that we’ve made savings of about 25% on the amount of product that we’ve used. But on the flip side, we’ve actually seen more grass growth because of that. So it’s been a real improvement on the system itself.
The machine stays on the tractor for nine months of the year, only coming off when it’s needed for mowing silage.
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On the animal side, Matthew points to a foliar spray of magnesium sulfate as one of the biggest changes he’s made.
One of the biggest improvements we’ve seen with our animals is we’ve reduced our number of down cows, because we’re able to apply a foliar spray of magnesium sulfate. That’s really helped our system with animal health. Because we’ve got the mag going onto the grass, which will stay in the grass system for about 90 days, we’ve seen that the animal appears to be a lot healthier than if we were to go around with the old bike spreader just dusting on mag and those sorts of things.
Adaptability is what sold him on the machine day to day.
We could be using a soluble fert one morning and then going back in the afternoon and cleaning out water troughs, and on the same day it’s got so many diverse options available to it. It was for us, it was just a no brainer.
Four years on, Matthew has no regrets, and if he were setting up the system again today, knowing what he knows now, he’d size up to a larger model.
There’s no going back. For those of you out there looking at buying a Tow and Fert, it’s a no brainer to go and get one. I definitely wouldn’t hesitate in recommending using a Tow and Fert on anyone’s operation, at any size.
