8 April 2003 -- Farmers interested in soil health, aeration and getting the best out of their fertiliser will be both informed and entertained when they attend the Waituna Landcare Group field day on Thursday.

The focus of the Sustainable Land Management field day at the Kapuka South Community Centre will be "healthy soil" - how to tell and how to get it!

On the subject of soil health, Stan Winter, of Southern Chemical Consultants in Invercargill, will offer advice on the use of fertilisers and the benefits of aeration. This will be followed by a practical demonstration by James Engineering of Gore.

Des James will have both a mole plough and an aerator on site, which presents farmers with a perfect opportunity to see both implements in action and determine the benefits possible from their use.

Nick Round-Turner, of Crops for Southland, will give farmers an idea of the sort of information available to them - especially on local soils such as Tisbury, Mokotua and Otanomomo peats. He will also explain the physical and chemical characteristics of the soils and look at their suitability for different land uses, particularly in relation to their likelihood of compacting and their potential for leaching to ground water.

Still on the subject of soil health, the landcare group has asked Bala Tikkisetty, of Enviroment Southland, to demonstrate a simple technique, which will show the condition of the soil. Is it healthy?

In the afternoon, with the help of Curren's Creek, a set net and Eric Edwards, of DOC, the group will be able to give farmers an idea of what sorts, and numbers, of native fish are in the streams near Lake Waituna.

Following on from this, Landcare Group member Janice Kevern will demonstrate the use of a SHMAK kit (for monitoring the waterways) and Rodney Trainor of the Hokonui Runaka will describe how to assess the condition of a waterway and tell of his work from the Taeiri to Mataura.

While everyone is welcome the group asks that farmers planning to attend contact either Janice Kevern, (03) 239-5095 or Gay Munro, (03) 239-5827 for a timetable and for catering purposes as a light lunch is provided. The field day starts at 10.15am