Anne-Marie Barrow

Farming naturally, on her own terms: Anne-Marie Barrow’s Tow and Fert story

For Anne-Marie Barrow and her husband, running a Black Angus stud at Mirboo North, farming naturally has always been the goal, and finding the right way to apply nutrients was part of getting there.

“We were quite keen to farm naturally, because we realized that if we could farm naturally and get our pastures healthier, it would also then have an effect on our animals.”

That thinking led them to look for a way to apply nutrients as a foliar spray, years before they found a machine that could actually do it.

“We started looking around many years ago for a product that would let us put on foliar sprays. But at the time, we couldn’t find anything in the market to suit what we wanted to do.”

The Tow and Fert wasn’t something a sales rep put in front of them. They found it themselves.

“One day we were surfing the website and we’re seeing this little Tow and Fert. So we thought, yep, that’s exactly what we were after.”

Since bringing the machine onto the farm, Anne-Marie says it’s given them the kind of control over application they’d been looking for all along.

“The product came here on the farm, and it’s pretty much lived up to expectations, and let us put on the fertiliser in a way that we wanted to.”

Rather than one or two large blanket applications a year, they now apply smaller amounts, timed to when the pasture can actually make use of them.

“We wanted to be able to put it on in smaller quantities, and to put it on when it suited us, rather than doing blanket applications a couple of times a year. So it’s actually going on to the pasture when the pasture’s at the stage that it needs it, and it can maximize it.”

Seaweed is part of their programme alongside fertiliser, one of the inputs they’ve been able to bring in through the same machine.

“We found that because the pastures are becoming healthier, and the animals are grazing pastures which are lush and healthier, with all the nutrients of the seaweed.”

Ease of use has also mattered on a working stud, where the machine needs to fit around a small team rather than demand specialist attention.

“The other thing we like about it is because it’s so easy to use from a labor point of view. Even our young apprentice, he can just hook it up and he can go out and he can apply it.”

Anne-Marie says having that flexibility has changed how they think about the farm’s programme more broadly.

“It’s actually made us become a bit more adventurous in thinking about how we can use it on the farm.”

Beyond the machine itself, she points to the support behind it as a big part of the experience.

“The service from Tow and Fert has actually exceeded our expectations. The backup service is excellent. Nothing seems to be too much bother. The guys are always there on the other end of the phone or on the other end of an email, and we’ve been extremely pleased.”

Her recommendation comes down to how adaptable the machine has been to their own way of farming.

“We would recommend it to anyone, because it’s such a versatile machine that you can basically use it how you need and when you need to, to suit your own program, and that’s the great thing about it.”