Fertilizing winter cereal

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I try to drive “on the shoulders” of previous pass ruts to try to squeeze them back together but it’s a real mess in the wet holes. I should have put the terras on but the centre plates don’t fit this tractor. The terras fit the old David brown 1494 which is permanently fitted up with a front mounted seeder which I don’t want to lather up or rave off and on.
I need to get my act together for low ground pressure spreading but I have found with the terras or duals in the past that you suppress a wider strip of crop and end up with more greens at harvest.
If it would just dry up a but none of this would be a problem.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
What do you reckon the potash losses between September and March are?
I don’t know TBH. It’s probably advice a salesman gave grandad in 1978. But I could believe that on the sand they might be considerable. On the sand we struggle to get to index 1.2 ish whatever we do, though under consolidation and manganese deficiency surpasses everything. We have high phosphate.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
It was Howard Scorer, the BDR Grain merchants rep who set us down the spring potash and ammonium sulphate route. He wasn’t actually a fertiliser salesman but was the fount of knowledge here before rhe days of RB209 and actually we got good yields.
Our NMP consisted of Howard’s latest ideas written on the back of Uncle’s fag packet. Calibration involved trying an acre and seeing how much was left then adjusting it.
Now the NMP requires a “special adviser” a software suite and report that runs to 25 pages and costs the thick end of £500 all to give the same recommendations as good old Howard.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Ah well enough rain in the night to keep things sloppy. Carry on regardiess or leave it a bit? Some really heavy land to do next and it’s had nothing. Not rushing at it.
 

willyorkshire

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
East Yorkshire
The problem is they are much much more expensive than straights.
For sulphur I use Polysulphate which has a bit but not enough potash, so I also need MOP. Then a nitrogen source usually in 2 doses. Thats 4 times over.
In the good old days we just applied 2 bags per acre of 0 24 24 in the autumn and nitrate in the spring. Then it was decided that potash was better applied in the spring to avoid over winter losses. Then they closed the coal fired power stations and we needed to apply sulphur which was initially ammonium sulphate in feb which served two purposes - a shot of early N ahd sulphur. Then it got too expensive and we went to Polysulphate. The number of passes is ridiculous now really. I’m going over the same field three times in a day at the moment due to very limited weather opportunities to get anything on. Maybe it’ll force us down the compound or blend route. It’s not helping my arthritic joints either!
Blends wasteful particularly if VR spreading and VR reduces quantities significantly
 

Dbs32

Member
The problem is they are much much more expensive than straights.
For sulphur I use Polysulphate which has a bit but not enough potash, so I also need MOP. Then a nitrogen source usually in 2 doses. Thats 4 times over.
In the good old days we just applied 2 bags per acre of 0 24 24 in the autumn and nitrate in the spring. Then it was decided that potash was better applied in the spring to avoid over winter losses. Then they closed the coal fired power stations and we needed to apply sulphur which was initially ammonium sulphate in feb which served two purposes - a shot of early N ahd sulphur. Then it got too expensive and we went to Polysulphate. The number of passes is ridiculous now really. I’m going over the same field three times in a day at the moment due to very limited weather opportunities to get anything on. Maybe it’ll force us down the compound or blend route. It’s not helping my arthritic joints either!
Have you looked at Potash plus? We use that alongside NS liquid for two passes. Muck seems to keep the P levels up high enough
 

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Expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for farmers published

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Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer from July will give the sector a clear path forward and boost farm business resilience.

From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024

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Full details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been published by the...
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