“This RPR fertiliser is the gold standard – the real McCoy of RPR. Its natural phosphorus is not acidified before it is spread on to pasture.

“It is tested prior to loading in Peru and is above the minimum 10 per cent phosphorus and 30 per cent citric soluble criteria set for New Zealand RPR standards,” says Ron.

“The shipment has arrived at the perfect time for autumn top dressing applications.”

Because it is extracted from the ancient seabed in the Sechura region of Peru it also contains a lot of calcium, magnesium, sulphur and minor trace nutrients, which are all readily available to plants through the actions of soil life.

Although the Sechura is not altered in anyway, Kiwi Fertiliser does add Brimstone 90 – an elemental sulphur – before application to the product to increase phosphorus plant availability.

Chief Officer Sergey Balagin talks with Kiwi Fertiliser Company managing director Ron Mclean on-board the bulk cargo ship MV Lolland while fertiliser from Peru is discharged from the vessel. Photo: Chris Callinan.

Reduced leaching

“The RPR still has all of the colloidal clay attached to it.” Because it is a fine, sand-like substance, Ron says the risk of leaching into waterways is reduced by up to 80 to 90 per cent.

The MV.Lolland spent 22 days at sea to bring the product from Peru to Tauranga and the Sechura RPR was discharged in 26 hours from her holds by a giant grab that can hold the equivalent of a full truck-and-trailer load of materialinto the wharf hopper and from there into the trucks waiting below.

The shipment has replenish supplies into Kiwi Fertiliser’s stores in Te Teko, Te Awamutu, Marton and Havelock North. Supplies of high quality RPR fertiliser have been limited in New Zealand in recent months – and Ron says Kiwi Fertiliser is pleased to be able to source high quality Sechura for its clients throughout the North Island.

Soil audits

So strong is the demand, the first two unit loads were dispatched immediately to a hill country beef farm near Wellsford.

“This product is ideal for hill country sheep and beef farms, dairy farms particularly in the Waikato, and in fact any soils in which crops are grown and show the need for phosphate application,” says Ron.

“However, we only supply phosphate for soils which are shown, through our soil audits, to be lacking in P. Many soils in the Central Plateau regions of Putaruru, Tokoroa, Taupo, Broadlands, Rotorua and Tauranga retain a lot of phosphorus and show excessive P so they don’t need additional applications – but they do need other nutrients that are a higher priority and a better soil fertility investment than phosphorus.” Although the Sechura fertiliser was tested at its source, Kiwi Fertiliser has commissioned two further independent tests from laboratories in New Zealand and the United States so its clients can be assured of the exact percentage of P and other nutrients as well as citric and formic solubility tests.