We met Bernhard Keplinger at a free farmers' meeting at the Loidholdhof in Upper Austria. To be precise, we first met his wife Helene there, too. At a free farmers' meeting organized and initiated by Susanne and Marcel, the TerraFelix team "IF THE EARTH IS HAPPY, WE ARE TOO ." Mrs. Keplinger was there with a friend out of curiosity, and she was genuinely curious about the STEINKRAFT AM+Plus microorganisms produced at the Loidholdhof.
She has successfully passed on her enthusiasm to her husband. Bernhard has now gained some experience with STEINKRAFT products. We met him in person at the last Free Farmers' Meeting. There, he shared his experiences with us and other farmers.
What experiences have you had with AM PLUS microorganisms in the stable and in the manure?
"Originally, we started with common microorganisms. And when we sprayed them in the barn, we always got a cough. We didn't like that. We worked with those previous microorganisms for three years, and the manure didn't really change.
Then we discovered AM+PLUS, the microorganisms from STEINKRAFT , and since then the climate in the stable has improved enormously .
And now with the AM+PLUS, we're noticing a real difference. The smell of the manure is better, stirring is much easier, and we no longer have flies in the barn. This year, we had an almost tropical climate, and the neighboring farms couldn't get rid of the flies. We had almost none. Even the vet asked us what we were doing in the barn because he was so surprised that we didn't have any flies in the barn. And the vet costs have gone down a lot."
Where can rock flour and zeolite be used in the stable and in the field?
"Through the humus movement, we came to the rock flours, because the soil needs lime and calcium, and soil life is reactivated. And you can see that something is happening. Most notably in the grassland, where we apply the manure. I work with a disc spreader, and you can see exactly the difference in where the manure isn't reaching. I've added lime to the manure. But I'm going to switch to bedding lime and zeolite in the barn. That seems to be the easiest way and benefits the animals even in the barn."
Feed zeolite to dairy cows?
"I've also started feeding the animals zeolite. We market yogurt and curd directly, and everyone says the taste is unique; there's no better milk. We've been safe with the cell count for a long time now anyway, because we also work with homeopathy."
What does Steinkraft foliar fertilizer do?
No potato beetles and a very good potato harvest
"This year, we used GÜNKRAFT CALCIUM foliar fertilizer and AM+PLUS Active Microorganisms on the potatoes and did n't have any potato beetles . We planted 1/4 hectare of potatoes, and if we found 10-15 beetles, that was a lot. In previous years, we had a really large number of beetles. And this year, we had a very good potato harvest.
What fascinated me was when we walked through the row with the sprayer—after spraying—we saw that the plants had opened up so much that we couldn't even walk through. It's truly rewarding to see how quickly the plants respond and to see that the foliar fertilizer is doing them good."
Plants stay green much longer and no wireworms
"AND the plants stayed green much longer . We had green potato plants for 2-3 weeks longer than any of the surrounding farms. We also had zero wireworms . It should be added that we treated the potatoes with AM+ and zeolite right when we planted them. We also stored the potatoes in AM+ and zeolite. I learned that from old knowledge. My grandmother always used to store potatoes in rock flour. They really do last 3-4 weeks longer.
We got 5 tons of potatoes from 2000m² of field. We were really excited about that. We were also thrilled with the kohlrabi. We harvested football-sized potatoes that weren't woody.
Bernhard and Helene Keplinger, Bad Leonfelden, Upper Austria
