Ian Smith Onions Testimonial

Ian Smith is a farmer and contract grower for Harvest Moon. In August 2011, Ian won the prestigious “Excellence and Innovation in Agriculture award- more or less the Brownlow medal for farming rewarding his efforts and results using biological farming methods.

I have been Biologically Farming on my cropping property for 12 years, growing Carrots, Onions, Potatoes, Poppies and Wheat.

Though receiving good results with a balanced program, weather condition can prevail that may present the likelihood of a downy mildew event, so any natural product that can help improve disease resistance in my program is worth a trial.

I was introduced to CropBioLife halfway through the onion season and applied the product following the protocol supplied. Unsprayed control areas were left on every second spray run.

The first visual sign, in a matter of weeks, was a darker leaf colour. Closer examination revealed dark thick leaves and a thick strong neck on the onion. I continued with the spray protocol and avoided the use of synthetic fungicides even during periods of high presence. Strong winds occurred in early to mid-December and the CropBioLife-treated plants remained standing for a further two weeks, increasing bulb size.

It was a bad harvest with mid-January storms and 200mm of rain over a three-day period, and one could only expect the worst, the loss of the crop.

The harvest proceeded, and I achieved a 72.4% pack-out of export-quality onions, due to thick skins on the bulbs. A sample of onion bulbs was kept, and after 7 months from harvest, the bulbs in storage are still firm and present well.

With the good results achieved during the hard season, I have proceeded to use CropBiolife as a permanent part of my Biological cropping program.

Ian Smith
Biological Farmer

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Location: Mooreville, TAS, Australia

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