Words by Richard Rennie
A Christchurch family fishing company has placed one foot in the sea and another on the land with their range of sustainable fish fertilisers that are bringing the ocean to the paddock across New Zealand and beyond.
The United Fisheries company is well into its second generation of family ownership in Christchurch, founded back in 1974 when fish and chip shop owner Kypros Kotzikas decided he needed a more secure, high-quality supply for his deep fried offerings.
Today the firm remains a strong family affair, employing his four sons and a grandson, covering the spectrum of fish products, from air freighted fresh exports to frozen, along with shares in a Bluff oyster enterprise and Marlborough based mussel farms.
But the family has had the vision and desire to make United a wholly sustainable venture, to include all aspects of company waste and product use.
Peter Gilmore’s role as “rural sales manager” may initially appear unexpected at a fisheries company.
But Peter’s presence highlights how strongly the company has pushed on with its sustainable vision over the past decade, with his role being focused on United’s fish fertiliser brand Bio Marinus.
The range of fish fertilisers first developed a decade ago when Kypros wanted to find a use for the fish company’s fish waste products and began investigating the opportunities for developing a fish fertiliser.
Today the Bio Marinus range of fertiliser can be found in use across the length of the country, from cropping farms in Southland to kiwifruit orchards in Northland.
“A couple of ideas came out of what could be done. One was a fish meal plant, but that involved a drying process, while the other was to develop a liquid fertiliser product,” says Peter.
In conjunction with Smitha James, a bio-technologist, they started developing a liquid fish fertiliser that had a patented hydrolysis technology behind it that ensures the fish waste when treated maintains a high level of nutrient quality in a form that is easily delivered on farm via soluble fertiliser spray systems.
Fish offal is channelled through a screw conveyor to a digestor tank where it is heated to 65C and hydrolysed (broken down) by plant enzymes to turn it into a liquid state.
A fine filter of 200 microns ensures the final liquid is capable of meeting the high, specific needs of modern soluble fertiliser applicators, and being applied through a conventional spray rig. An organic acid is added to stabilise the protein and oil rich liquid fertiliser before cooling and packing.
“The hydrolysis process has proven to be the most effective means of ensuring the nutrient levels contained within the fish are retained. Alternative methods can have lower nutrient and protein profiles because they are effectively using the liquid left over after fish meal solids are extracted, whereas this system uses all of the fish inputs,” says Smitha.
At about the same time the company commenced research on fish fertiliser’s value to farmers and orchardists. Anecdotally the value of fish fertiliser has been well known throughout the ages, with ancient crop growing tribes basing the earliest fertilisers around fish as a base.
Bio Marinus’s fertiliser treatment range includes a hydrolysed fish product and a biological one. Both have added seaweed humates, bacteria and mycorrhizae fungi. The company also produces “Fish Silage”, a fish-based feed additive for livestock.
Both products are also available as “JAS” Approved, or suitable for kiwifruit growers supplying crop to Japanese agricultural standards.
“Typically, we might find a farmer who is moving from a synthetic fertiliser programme to using some of our product may opt for the Biological product initially, just to charge the soil back up again with those valuable fungi and bacteria,” says Smitha.
Bio Marinus also produces “Fish Silage” made using the same hydrolysis process to provide a high-quality fish-based feed additive that can be added to dairy or meat producing animals’ diets.
United’s early small-scale studies done in conjunction with Lincoln University demonstrated the benefits of the fertiliser being developed by the company. The researchers concluded from the trials the application of the fish-based fertiliser delivered an increase in dry matter production when applied with liquid urea, despite the urea content being only two thirds of that in the urea-only treatments.
The pasture treated with the fish fertiliser also had a higher metabolisable energy value, while calcium and magnesium levels were also 10% higher in the treated pasture.
The research work also discovered another benefit of using Bio Marinus as stock feed additive in the form of the company’s “Fish Silage” product, delivered an elevation in valuable Omega 3 levels of milk and meat.
Omega 3 has been recognised for its positive benefits to heart health and blood pressure, and research work has highlighted New Zealand sourced red meat is already blessed with a good ratio of Omega 3 to saturated fatty acids.
The trial feeding the Bio Marinus fish silage compared favourably with research also done in the United States demonstrating that cattle fed diets with specialised Omega 3 supplements could have an elevated level of the fatty acid. Similarly, the Bio Marinus supplement supported this in the results.
The milk from a herd of dairy cows fed Bio Marinus had an increase in Omega 3 from three to ten times with the Fish Silage addition to their diet, with no sign of milk taint. When fed to milking sheep a similar trend was observed, presenting a valuable marketing option for the pasture-based milking systems.
Peter freely admits the early days were tough getting the Bio Marinus into a market dominated by conventional thinking and products when it came to farm fertiliser.
“But we have seen in the last three to four years, the market has really shifted, particularly here in Canterbury as a result of changes to nitrogen usage, shifts in fertiliser costs and farmer attitudes.”
He says more respected farmers have started to incorporate Bio Marinus into their fertiliser regime, often starting out with a relatively small quantity and increasing application rates as they noticed distinct improvements in both soil and plant health over time.
“And today we are seeing a lot more farmers applying fertilisers as liquids, making Bio Marinus an easy product to incorporate into your fertiliser treatment, even starting out at relatively low rates.”
Stu Pankhurst’s pathway to Bio Marinus is typical of this.
For Stu Bio Marinus fish fertiliser was not something he had a sudden conversion to, rather a slow evolution as he has adjusted the family’s cropping operation over the years to reduce its environmental footprint and go easier on the soils.
“Really, what we have done is move from being focused upon the crop, to focussing on the soil and soil health.”
Farming on light Lismore soil country west of Rolleston, he has always had to be conscious of preserving topsoil and minimising compaction.
“We started using Bio Marinus as a crop spray oil, it was a cheaper alternative to the conventional crop oils, but then we started seeing other benefits over time, plant health looked better, plants seemed more vigorous.”
The entire mixed cropping operation now runs on a liquid fertiliser programme, with both conventional fertiliser and Bio Marinus used together.
Stu doesn’t own a plough and a min-till approach dominates the cultivation, with direct drilling, and allowing straw to break down post-harvest, with molasses, Bio Marinus and liquid N mix applied to feed soil micro-organisms.
For the first time this year Stu is not using insecticide on crops, including brassica seed crops, and attributes better plant health and resilience to better disease and insect resistance.
“We really farm very differently now even compared to 10 years ago, it’s something not everyone outside of farming appreciates, I don’t think.”
Stu is using Bio Marinus in varying concentrations as a spray application, depending on what stage the crop is at, including 20litres a hectare when doing a crop breakdown.
“It’s been a gradual recognition for us, we have just built more and more into our fertility programme, and it’s gone well.”
Selwyn dairy farmers Mike and Georgia Dewhirst arrived in Canterbury from Northland in the early nineties and over time witnessed practices around nitrogen use ramping up, to the point 300kg of N a hectare was accepted.
But a decade ago the couple started reviewing their use of synthetic fertilisers on their 1850 cow operation and investigating alternatives as their sense of responsibility about farming alongside the Selwyn River grew.
After a disastrous over-application of compost, Mike decided to try Biomarinus fish fertiliser, the start of what he describes as an interesting journey and lesson in soil health.
“I needed to change the settings in my mind about using fertiliser like synthetic N to grow grass to giving support-food for soil biology, to multiply the biological workforce in the soil leading to increased grass production,” says Mike.
Opting for a “little often” application meant Mike switched to liquid foliar application across the farm, given the challenges of trying to apply solid fertiliser at much under 5kg per hectare.
After several years of applying Biomarinus, Mike and Georgia have noticed grass dry matter has increased by 35-40%, compared to 12-18% in the past, and regardless of the time of year.
“Grass length remained the same as other years by the plate meter, but cows were satisfied with less grass,” he says.
Topsoil depth has also increased, with roots growing down as much as a meter, greater soil friability and worm populations increasing from 2-3 worms per spade to 40-plus, with a notable reduction in grass grub and porina infestations.
There was also an increase in pasture volunteer species and pasture density.
For the Dewhirsts the move to alternative fertiliser is also to prove a point amid the growing call to reduce cows in the Selwyn catchment, and they intend to monitor results on a farm system that will tread more lightly on the environment to respond to that call.
“Our purpose is to produce independently verified information from our working model to disempower the voice and narrative arguing about ‘dirty dairying’”, says Mike.
Using Biomarinus has enabled the couple to impose some limitations on their operation, including no synthetic nitrogen use, no herbicides, or insecticides as per their policy for the past five years and no PKE, grain or supplement crops to be used.
Mike says the couple are looking forward to working with their sharemilker Andrew Lapping to monitor the outcomes which will be measured against cow numbers, farm working expenses, supplements, grass quality and nutrient applications.
With some farmers including Mike and Stu now having several years of Bio Marinus use under their belts, Peter is receiving more feedback on the longer-term cost benefits using the products is delivering.
“We have farmers reporting their crops are proving to be generally healthier and more robust, holding up well to disease and insects and meaning they are able to use significantly less herbicides, insecticides and pesticides on them.”
The ability to use significantly fewer synthetic products has a knock on effect, with less pesticides meaning more insect biodiversity in crops, and in turn more predator insects around to keep the numbers down on the ones having the impact on the crops.
“And in the past year with the cost of both fertilisers and sprays really surging, farmers are keen to consider other options that may be around. If they can cut down even one pass with the tractor, that is in itself a major savings these days. Ninety nine percent of farmers who try it will stick with it.”
Peter and Smitha are excited by the prospect of further research they are just about to embark on with Lincoln University. This involves building on earlier work started a decade ago that indicated methane reduction of almost a third occurred when the fish-based product was fed to sheep.
Using the latest methane measuring chambers, scientists will be able to determine the effect of including Fish Silage more accurately as a supplement, and how much the Bio Marinus product could play a role in the race to help reduce New Zealand farming’s emissions profile.
“Research does take a long time and is expensive, but we also find the best evidence lies with farmers who are using it and are happy to talk about the success they have enjoyed with it – there is nothing making them choose it, but they keep coming back to it,” says Peter.
The company has also developed a valuable human supplement market with the last remaining parts of the fish waste – the bones.
“We have got our process to a human-grade level now, with fish bones having a ratio of calcium to phosphorus that is ideal for human consumption. We have developed a large market in Asia and United States where our NutriZing supplement is doing well.”
For United Fisheries the ability to turn the company’s entire fish inputs into valuable, health-giving supplements either for people or for the soil has fulfilled Kypros Kotzikas’ vision to continue treading lightly on the planet while providing a valuable legacy for family, and job opportunities for his valued staff.