Serving farmers to enhance profitability through restoring soil function
Growing independent, restorative and profitable farming systems
Independent. Restorative. Vital. Profitable.
Agrownomics delivers independent soil consultancy, one that puts control back into the farmer’s hands.
By building healthy soils, we further create thriving plants, animals and productive farming systems in the face of rising costs
Te toto o te tangata,
he kai; te oranga o tangata he whenua
“While food provides the blood in our veins, our health is drawn from the land. For us, we acknowledge that is is our responsibility to care and protect the land that sustains us”.
Our philosophy
It all starts with soil.
Soil is one of the world’s most valuable resources, the foundation for all life on land.
Farm performance & strength are a direct result of how the soil functions, its health and resilience.
When soil health is compromised, plants become stressed. Without balanced minerals and active biology, plants are more vulnerable to disease, pests, and drought. This stress, then flows through to livestock, affecting nutrition, immunity, and performance.
The food web is intrinsically connected. First soil, then plant, and animal health tends to follow, these are not separate. Simply put, they become a product of our management.
Independent advice that builds real outcomes
Our role is to provide sound, independent guidance that supports both production and bank balance.
We work with farmers to:
-
We measure soil function and plant health, link these to observations, then align against our expertise to determine what pieces are not in order, in surplus or in dire need of attention. This often depicts what levers have the biggest ROI.
Common issues surface as
Water not draining
Pasture production declining over time
Weed burden increasing
Pasture palatability issues
Clover not firing well
Poor conversion to milk
Metabolic issues in cows
The good news is, often these issues can be improved and in many cases completely resolved.
Pulling “big levers” has a positive production response.
-
Minerals have a significant role in how a soil cycles, breathes and digests. Soil is alive!
Traditional appoaches focusing on NPKS often overlook co-factors (macro and micro minerals), which are essential for nutrition and performance in soil, plants and animals.
Individual minerals have key roles to specific core functions both within soil & plant. When these are not available or there is a break-down in the delivery to the plant, it leads to increased pressure. The plant cannot obtain the support it requires to function to its potential.
When a plant is under pressure, it switches from thriving to surviving. In survival mode, we often observe decreased growth and increased susceptibility to disease & drought.
There are both synergistic and antagonistic mineral relationships, there is a priority order and understanding these relationships helps optimise not just growth but sustenance from within the pasture/crop to the animal.
-
Minerals are reliant on soil microbes to transport and deliver between soil and plant. When the biological health is poor, you can have an abundance of mineral in the soil and the plant can be starved.
Focusing energy on the underground livestock has a big role in building resilience and in many ways has some of the highest ROI.
Many farms have compaction issues & constipated soils. Fungi are responsible for soil structure, water movement and root depth beyond 75mm. This is essential for resilience and health in a farm system.
Worms are fantastic indicator species of microbial function. Even better, they can be assessed with the naked eye, needing no laboratory, expensive microscopes or specific training. For worms to thrive requires adequate food sources, air & mositure. These are the same requirements for most soil biology.
-
Organic Matter is the energy source in soil, containing both postive (+) and negative (-) charge, making it an excellent chelator/binder to minerals. Increasing OM increases your mineral and water storage capacity.
Organic Matter serves as the food source for microbes in periods the plant cannot maintain what the microbes require. Plants harvest sunlight and CO2, building organic matter in soil. Often we graze too soon, reducing OM reserves, starving biology, breaking the soil ecosystem and creating strong dependence on soluble fertiliser.
Plants harvest sunlight and CO2 to produce sugar, the energy source for all life in soil. When the plant sends more sugar to the soil than microbes need today, the surplus goes to building organic matter. This only happens when the plant has enough recovery time.
Ideally OM should be increasing over time, if this is not the case it is something to look into.
-
As a team, we have a deep focus on education. This starts, with “meeting the farmer where they are at” and walking the journey with them.
We utilise on-farm data and in-field tools alongside soil, sap and tissue tests to build a specific roadmap forward for your farm.
Farmers are supported to make confident and informed decisions to improve soil function and financial success.
-
When the natural system starts to thrive, stress decreases. There are less peaks and troughs in pasture growth, more nutrition offered within the grass and more resilience to adverse weather events like drought.
We believe most farmers wish to leave their land in a better state for future generations. Many need help in understanding how to do this, especially which pieces they can influence today for a positive future outcome.
We work across the major primary sectors:
Whether you’re growing pasture, winter crops, cereal crops, or table fruits, our team brings deep practical experience and the ability to translate complex science into clear, farmer-first language.
Understanding drives engagement. Engagement drives success.
Viticulture
Dairy
Sheep & Beef
Arable
A team approach, on and off farm
We have a team approach and are passionate that everyone pitches in and plays a part. Without engagement, there can be no improvement. We understand that each farm has different systems and we take pride in customising to meet the need.
We are passionate about doing the journey with our farmers. If you are not growing and learning, then we are simply not doing our job in making agriculture a viable future.
We are here for you and will enjoy a good laugh along the way!
Building healthy soils for a viable farming future
If farmers aren’t growing and learning, then agriculture doesn’t have a future. At Agrownomics, we’re here to support systems that are productive, regenerative, and profitable — for the long term.