In 2022 we worked with Terry, a Wheat Farmer based in Warracknabeal, Victoria, trialling our Liquid Microbe Agriculture mix with the Anti Snail, Slug and Grub mix add-on.

Terry was dealing with a few problems within the paddock at the time of treatment, including:

• Waterlogged soil

• Sandy soil

• Snails

• Lowered productivity compared to the rest of the farm.

Because of these issues, this paddock historically yielded approximately 1 ton less per hectare compared to Terry's best paddock. The crop % for the treated paddock was also historically much lower compared to his best paddock.

Terry changed crop types to scepter this season, so we cannot compare the exact numbers with the previous year. However, this paddock had historically been much less productive.

Application: As per our transitioning plan for crops, in the first year we halved the application of synthetic fertilisers whilst adding in our Liquid Microbe Agriculture Mix, resulting in the use of synthetic fertilisers being: 40kg per hectare of MOP & SOA (60% MOP 40% SOA).

We applied the mix once during germination, with the following results:

The scepter wheat crop yielded 1 ton per hectare more than it did historically with 9.8% protein - which matched his best-performing paddock this year treated with conventional applications. Resulting in 80 kg per hectare of MOP & SOA (60% MOP 40% SOA).

The result was an increase of approx 1 ton per hectare plus an increase in protein percentage by using fewer synthetic inputs and using Liquid Microbe Agriculture Mix instead.

As mentioned above, we don’t have exact numbers to compare this with as the specific crop had changed this season. But this is an overall increase in productivity considering how this paddock is made up of sandier soil, and also went through flooding and waterlogging while the other paddocks did not - Terry was very pleased with these results saying:

“I applied Microstart's Liquid Microbe Agriculture Mix to my least productive wheat (scepter) paddock in May 2022 which has very sandy soil and experienced flooding and waterlogging throughout the season.

Come harvest time in the following January the Microstart-treated paddock matched my most productive paddock (that didn't experience flooding and waterlogging) in terms of tonnes to the hectare (which historically yielded 1 ton/HA less) and crop protein percentage (9.8% protein).”

- Terry

This paddock had also experienced severe snail problems in the past, with our mix we were able to eliminate virtually all snails from his paddock, 100% naturally. Take a look for yourself:

Here’s what the crop looked like before application in December:

You can see the abundance of snails, and here's what it looked like 3 months and 10 months after the application in April:

You can especially see in the February photos how effective the mix was in eliminating all snails. Below we can also see images of the neighbouring paddock next door (treated conventionally) taken at the same time in February.

Here’s a side-by-side of how the soil looked before vs after, plus the neighbouring paddock after. Looking at this you can see the difference:

Terry was very impressed with these results around the snail issue saying himself:

“I applied Microstart's Smail, Slug & Grub Mix in April 2022; finding a single snail in the treated area was difficult by early July.

When we harvested in the following January we couldn't find a single one, while untreated crops were still heavily impacted.”

- Terry W

In summary, by using the mix with the snail, slug and grub add-on Terry was able to increase crop yield by approx 1 ton/HA, whilst increasing crop protein percentage and resolving his snail issue without any form of synthetic pest control (our snail mix [link] uses a specific combination of predatory fungi to infect and attack snails, slugs and grubs without harming worms or any other beneficial soil organisms/microbes.

He said that he plans to transition the rest of his cropping paddocks to primarily using our Liquid Microbe Agriculture mix in the future.