Advertiser content: For almost 20 years, Bill Munton has been selling sustainable, biological fertilisers.
As the owner/operator of TNN Australia, Mr Munton is as motivated as ever to see producers make the move to a more natural way of farming.
"I'm more passionate about it now than I was when I started, because I see the results every day," he said.
"My customers ring me and they tell me what has happened after using our products - things that surprise us.
"We've been able to help a lot of people survive the drought."
Mr Munton has watched family and friends become ill and pass away from various forms of cancer. It was one of the reasons behind the decision to explore chemical-free options for his own property.
"I found that most of the fertilisers being used in normal agriculture are acid salt fertilisers, and they contain a lot of detrimental things," he said.
"When you look at the ingredients in a lot of these things the sulphur component is sulphuric acid, car battery acid, that's not doing anybody any good."
The other reason Mr Munton felt compelled to use alternative products came when he noticed his vealers were not gaining as much weight as they should.
"I thought something was not right," he said.
"I went to the conventional agronomists and I just could not afford to do what they wanted me to do, I would have gone bankrupt trying to do it.
"So I started looking for alternative ways of doing things. I found the mineral supplement, and started using that."
According to Mr Munton, who is based in the Hunter Valley of NSW, he turned his farming operation around in the first 12-months of using the biological products.
"The cattle can convert their feed better and they experience higher fertility rates," he said. "Customers tell me they no longer get ticks, blokes with sheep don't get flystrike, pink eye has reduced significantly, three day sicknesses are almost non-existent - the list goes on."
Mr Munton said farmers who return to a natural way of operating, lower their costs and improve their yields.
"The quality of the fruit, vegetables, crops, cattle, sheep, alpacas - whatever you're growing - will be better," he said.
"About 85 per cent of anything that goes wrong with your health or your animals' health is down to nutrition. You fix the nutrition and you fix most of your problems."
TNN Australia products give producers a chance to farm sustainably, he said.
"That's the way it's got to be. More and more people are waking up to the fact that we can't continue to go the way [chemicals] we're going."
Mr Munton said people tend to forget the most important part of their farm is the soil.
"Everything stems from the soil. If you can get your soil healthy, everything will become a lot more profitable, and you will improve your own health as well," he said.
"A lot of farmers just do what their father or grandfather did. We find the majority of our customers are people who are mechanically minded and look to fix problems, they don't look to just cover things up, or just get that crop for this year, they look to improve their soil so their crops improve year-on-year, not deteriorate.
"When they do that, they end up using less fertiliser and getting better yields."
We find the majority of our customers are people who are mechanically minded and look to fix problems, they don't look to just cover things up.
- Bill Munton
TNN Australia offers a range of granular, solid and liquid fertilisers and animal minerals.
"None of our stuff is damaging in any way," Mr Munton said.
"We are of the belief, that if you use quality, organically sourced, not necessarily organically certified products, you will get a better result.
"To fix soil takes time, we have a range of mineral supplements for animals that contain 15 or more nutrients. Once you fix them, you see higher weight gains, higher fertility and less illness.
"It's inexpensive and doesn't take you much to get a fantastic result."
Mr Munton said the majority of TNN Australia products are sold by farmers.
"Farmers start to use it, they tend to find out just how good it is and if there's nobody else selling it in their area, we allow them to become resellers," he said.
"Some rural stores also stock it, including Norco, Landmark, GrazAg, Pursehouse Rural and Moses and Son Woolbrokers.
"I only put it into stores where the agronomists are open to seeing the results we get, practical and open-minded."
- Contact Bill via bill@tnnaustralia.com or 0407 252 318.