Ron McLean: CEC-Based Soil Fertility Programs in New Zealand

Ron McLean is a New Zealand consultant and fertilizer supplier who is increasingly convinced of the truths underlying fertility management based on Albrecht’s CEC-based model as refined by Neal Kinsey. He will relay case reports of production and disease pressure changes as witnessed on a variety of farming operations: dairy farms, dairy goat farms, sheep and beef farms, and kiwi fruit orchards. He will show the huge impact seen by his clients after implementing a sound fertility program.

Ron McLean came to soils and fertilizers through the transportation industry, arranging for the import of fertilizing materials to his island home country. Starting by promoting calcium, a concept scoffed by the NPK-centered consultants, he moved deeper in understanding of soils. About 2001, after having listened to the so-called experts on soil fertility, he came across Acres U.S.A. on the Internet and began to study books teaching eco-agriculture, beginning with Eco-Farm. He soon made sense of what we now know as the Albrecht/Kinsey model of soil fertility. In 2004 Dr. Arden Andersen came to New Zealand to lecture on soil fertility. Through deeper interaction with eco-farming trainers and consultants his business evolved greatly. A close affiliation with Neal Kinsey brought a new level of results to grower clients. He serves as a manager with Golden Bay Dolomite and is general manager of Kiwi Fertiliser Company Limited.

Recorded at the 2014 Acres U.S.A. Conference, Columbus, Ohio, Friday, December 5, 2014.