How UPTAKE has helped and benefitted other farmers
Grant Bishop
Hawkes Bay
“I have been a very long and loyal client of UPTAKE and I believe 100% in their philosophy. By developing a healthy and active soil profile, most essential nutrients will be transferred from the soil up into the plant and through to the animal.
Since using UPTAKE, I can firmly say that the quality and health of my plants and animals have increased and I am very happy with my animal performance and production. One of the greatest things I admire about UPTAKE is that everything they said would happen, has!”
Don Buchanan
Taumarunui
"In the 11 years I have been working with John Davis of “UPTAKE”, there has been a steady improvement in my stocks health, enabling me to attain the sort of performance I expect."
The improved nutrient balance of my pastures must have had some bearing on my repeated successes in the 'Steak of Origin' competition."
Peter Gaskin
Wairarapa
Bob Smith
“UPTAKE has provided us with a substantial increase in production and pasture quality. The stock evenly graze all our steep hill country and thick, strong pasture growth almost everywhere. The recommendations John has come up with for our farm increased our ability to develop and improve soils and pastures on our property"
We are very happy with the results.
Ian Gilmour
“ I had always understood that quality soil is the key to quality stock, mine are now easy care , and healthy!The fact is that a healthy soil needs many different nutrients to excel, not just one!!
Since 1996 and under the guideline and support of John and his team at UPTAKE, this has proven to be absolutely correct.”
Henry Collier
Wakarua
I have been asked to express my views on UPTAKE and their custom blends. I do so with a great deal of satisfaction because of the tremendous progress we have been able to make with our stock health here at Wakarua using their products. .
I feel that the benefit to farmers with a stock health problem using this product could be as great as a cure for Aids would be to humans! This could be regarded as an extravagant statement but I disagree. Aids is a deadly killer for humans that is well known, but equally, so is poor stock health for the farmer, especially sheep and beef in these very difficult times being experienced. If not corrected, it can well lead to financial failure. .
Here at Wakarua, we have had a long standing problem with poor stock performances for many frustrating years. During this time we have used all the usual investigative channels to try and establish the cause of the problems with virtually no success and it wasn’t until we learnt of UPTAKE and used their custom blend product that we started to make progress. Now after three years the change has been quite dramatic. No longer unthrifty, daggy and poor weight gain sheep. Now vastly improved lambing and calving percentages with 90% of our surplus lambs killing out over 16kg. Wool weights have also improved significantly. .
Altogether very satisfying and a distinct improvement in profitability.
I cannot speak highly enough of UPTAKE's advice and products and would recommend it to all farmers, especially those with a stock health problem.
Arjen and Esther Ritmeester
Tokoroa - Dairy Farm
When Esther and I first met John seven years ago, we had an Olsen P of 97, our pasture was open and thatching. We had compaction in our topsoil and there was poor worm and biological activity within the soil. Seven years later, John has helped us turn all those things around and we are very happy with the health of our soil and pasture. .
The animal health of our dairy cows has also improved dramatically since using UPTAKE. We now very rarely administer metabolic solutions as there is less need for it. Milk fever is a big issue and a huge cost to dairy farmers. Incidents of milk fever has dramatically been reduced.
Currently our annual production per cow is 430 kg MS, which is a huge increase from 340 kg MS per cow seven years ago – almost 100 kg MS per cow! Our farm is situated in Tokoroa consequently our 55 hectare milking platform ranges from flat to steep hill country, so it is really pleasing to have this production for the country we are on. .
The total annual milk production has also increased in the last seven years from 56 000 kg MS to 61 000 MS, which is very pleasing considering we decreased the stocking rate from 3.05 cows per Ha. to 2.7 cows per Ha. Through enhanced animal health and milk production, we feel this has had a great impact on our farm’s cost of production. .
In the 2009/2010 season, our costs were $3.06 kg MS (outside of debt servicing and owners income), which is the lowest it has been for many years even with a medium input system. .
It is very pleasing to see happy, healthy and content cows out in the paddock. This is very important to Esther and I because if they are happy, then we are happy.
Andrew Peters
Taihape - Deer/Sheep/Beef
Andrew and Pam run a 420 hectare Sheep / Beef / Deer breeding and fattening operation, 550m above sea level. Deer have always been regarded as strong healthy animals. Since domestication (farming them), deterioration in their health and strength has been observed in many cases. Deer had (in the wild) developed a natural ability to seek and feed on vegetation that gave them an adequate supply of nutrients for their well being, hence their browsing style of feeding. .
Once the animal was fenced (in a farm situation) its ability to browse became limited. The signs of deer craving nutrients from sources other than grass and clover become evident by events such as trees being ring barked, californian thistles being eaten, lichen being eaten off rocks etc. . Deer can be observed as good indicators of mineral deficiencies. The classic symptoms of poor thrift, weight loss, dull coat colour, scouring, sway back etc were appearing throughout the country. The deficiency observed by vets was mostly copper, which was addressed with the use of bullets administered orally. .
The problem with addressing nutrient imbalances orally and in an isolated manner is that it does not address the cause and other essential nutrients can be over looked or further suppressed. The requirement for deer goes beyond just copper or cobalt. Productive deer require nutrients such as selenium, zinc, calcium, magnesium, iodine etc to name a few. .
The answer to mineral deficiencies, excesses and imbalances lie in the soil and the plants that grow in that soil. Some plants have different nutrient strengths than others. To have a balanced pasture it is important to have a balanced state of soil fertility.
By applying UPTAKE Fertiliser with a plan for animal production in mind, balanced soil fertility can be achieved allowing stock to have a continual diet of essential nutrients. .
Deer grazing UPTAKE fertilised pastures do not display the classic symptoms of mineral deficiency described earlier. Their general health is good, their coat colour is dark and bright and they are content.
Our animals perform very well and the use of oral supplements has not been necessary in the deer grazing properly top dressed pastures. .
UPTAKE also recommends that we use granular fertiliser as an integral part of our fertiliser policy, even though they do not supply this product. “We like that.” .
Andrew has been using UPTAKE for over two decades.
