FARMERS URGED TO EXERCISE CARE IN USE OF COBALT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 87, 18 January 1950, Page 4

FARMERS URGED TO EXERCISE CARE IN USE OF COBALT

*■ When experiments showed that bush sickness could be controlled by cobalt farmers in affected areas near the Bay of Plenty quickly adopted the practice, but many farmers apply more cobalt than is necessary without realising the waste involved, states the Department of Agriculture. Since topdressing with cobalt for bush sickness was first tried in 1936 the amount of cobaltised fertiliser used annually has steadily increased until in 1949 it reached the very high figure of 47,000 tons, which would be sufficient to correct cobalt deficiency in 940,000 acres of bush-sick pasture. No accurate records are available to the extent of cobalt-deficient pasture which is regularly topdressed, but it is very unlikely that it approaches this huge area. In other words there is evidence that cobalt is being wasted. Although there is no immediate shortage of cobalt, world supplies are not inexhaustible and the demands of industry and of agriculture in many countries are increasing rapidly. Moreover, most farmers even in these prosperous times are interested in economic efficiency and would not knowingly spend money from which they cannot expect returns. Until cobalt deficiency has been definitely diagnosed cobalt fertilisers should not be used, as in areas which are not deficient in cobalt' they possess no advantage over fertilisers which do not contain cobalt and they cost a good deal more.

If cobalt deficiency is suspected, the aid of officers of the Department of Agriculture should be enlisted in making a correct diagnosis.