February 14, 2013
United Fisheries introduces liquid fish fertilisers
United Fisheries recently launched two liquid fish fertilisers, and researchers at Lincoln University are working with fish silage in a NZD1.6 million (US$1.3 million) project in a 50-50 partnership with Seafood Innovation.
The biological and organic liquid fish fertilisers that are manufactured under the Bio Marinus brand are made in an enzymatic hydrolysis process by United Fisheries''s fish processing plant in Christchurch.
The company produces 600,000 tonnes of fish waste every year from the processing of one million tonnes of fish every year, and most of the waste had been used in energy-heavy fish meal, but United Fisheries founder Kypros Kotzikas believes these products can be better used being transformed into natural fertilisers for livestock, to replace chemical ones. He said initial sales to vineyards and farmers were positive and the next stage was to target dairy farmers especially and convince them of the benefits.
"My ambition is to get the fish industry and the dairy industry to work together and help each other to create an environment that produces products that people can eat without getting harmed," Kotzikas stated. "We know that by putting Bio Marinus into the soil we create a healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals and, hopefully, healthy people."
The liquid fish fertilisers are already being applied on farms in Canterbury, the West Coast, Central Otago and Southland. They work best and absorb the most nitrogen -- according to experiments at Springston and Greenpark dairy farms by Lincoln independent research company Land Research Services -- when 7.5 l was applied on pastures containing 18 kilogrammes of nitrogen to the hectare.
Studies have shown that the liquid fish fertilisers can enhance the health of soils and help reduce the leeching of nitrates, as plants more frequently used more nitrogen when Bio Marinus was combined with urea. Calcium and magnesium content in the grass was 10% higher than urea-only treatments.
Kotzikas told that there are even more benefits, although research has not yet proven them: plants coping better with disease, livestock releasing less methane via bloating and the products acting as a frost deterrent at vineyards when coated on grapevines.
Another plus is that dairy cows that consume the silage products yield milk with significantly increased omega-three levels. There are two years left of a study at Lincoln University on fish silage for feeding animals, such as dairy cows mostly in milking sheds, and probably combined with palm kernel. The trials may soon reach commercial farms.