Financial value of FYM

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I've always thought slurry spread onto chopped straw would be a good idea, and less risk of importing blackgrass etc.

Everything baled here though, most of it put through the pigs and back out as muck.
Ottomh there is about 7kg/t each of p&k, so roughly 3 quid of k & £4.50 of P. N is negligible, but lots of trace elements.
I charge my pig enterprise straw at what I could sell it at, (this year £55/t ex field) and sell the arable the muck at £8/t.
From an arable perspective, I count the om/soil conditioning element as equivalent to the cost of spreading the muck.
Muck is one thing that does more than it says on the tin - benefits last more than one season and it provides more than it's nutritional value.
Also seen more benefit from not ploughing it down, in spuds and cereals.

This. Very much this (y)

Is that the value of the available nutrients?
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
This. Very much this (y)

Is that the value of the available nutrients?

It's using figures from lab analysis of the muck, so maybe not strictly 100% available. However, increasing soil indices, slowly increasing yields while applying less fert tells us it's not far off.
Drought resilience this last harvest between our mucked ground and that we combine that hasn't seen muck in 30yrs tells it's own story - our wheat average yield was 50% higher.
 

phil the cat

Member
Mixed Farmer
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You'd be better off selling the straw and buying bagged products back.

Can't see price of straw dropping again.

Know what you are saying and when you factor in straw at say £45/acre in the swath it comes to £87/acre.

Really the advantage for us is that you can hopefully get it to your harder to reach fields. Chicken muck has to come on the day they are mucking out and Sewrage cake needs 8 wheeler access. We’re looking at it as it’s on the doorstep of some Arable land 5 miles from our cattle so not very convenient to use our own muck

If you can work with the cattle farmer and muck out on a dry day to suit both of you that’s where the extra cost is justified perhaps?
 

jonnyjon

Member
Not at any cost! Ask a grower who has imported blackgrass seed
Doesn't change the fact that you can't put a monetary value on fym especially, and if your asking, you have not grasped that concept. Blackgrass is a result of degenerative farming practices
 

juke

Member
Location
DURHAM
Doesn't change the fact that you can't put a monetary value on fym especially, and if your asking, you have not grasped that concept. Blackgrass is a result of degenerative farming practices

I quite agree alot of arable problems are caused by degenerative practises that favour chemical and machinery companies.

I think what brisel is getting at here is that it could be quite easy to import black grass seeds or other troublesome weeds in fym when perhaps the source doesnt have full traceability
 
Very simple, sell your straw to the man with the muck then you know there is no nasties in it because you were the one that grew it. Tell him you will take the volume of muck back as required. I know straw is very valuable so deduct the value of the manure from it.

I have known people direct drill oilseed rape and then spread well rotted FYM on it. Keeps the pigeons away.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Very simple, sell your straw to the man with the muck then you know there is no nasties in it because you were the one that grew it. Tell him you will take the volume of muck back as required. I know straw is very valuable so deduct the value of the manure from it.

I have known people direct drill oilseed rape and then spread well rotted FYM on it. Keeps the pigeons away.

Perhaps the arable man should pay for the livestock man to add silage, concentrates and process it through a cow with all the hard work and heartache that goes with it!


Tongue in cheek of course;)
 
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Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
This is where straw for muck works - assuming all straw from one farm .
i do sum here & its doing the land no end of good
An Acre of Straw for a 14t trailer load of muck.
If the straw is thinner which is was in 2018 then poss 1.5acres.
i did knock a fair few off my 2018 total & straw lad was happy enuff.
You have to be fair, both want the materials.
no BG neither...
I use Henmuck also at much lesser rate per acre but it has its own set of benefits, dont treat the same ground every year tho.
It strips the ground so be carefull.
5th year in with cattle muck roughly 800/1000/1200t each year it varies.
but by the end of 2020 i'll have applied some to most of the arable ground
Then just target the poorer ground more so then after.
Whole place Zone Sampled every 4years & just redone in 2018, all things rising thankfully.
 

Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
all none Livestock places will be lacking in OM at sum point, there was nothing spread here for over 25yrs...
you could see the ground was getting hungry & its looking lots better now even after my few years of doing things
my own way. No Grass in my rotation neither so you have to put something back if its in continuous cereals even tho
i have quite a varied cropping plan.
 

benny6910

Member
Arable Farmer
Perhaps the arable man should pay for the livestock man to add silage, concentrates and process it through a cow with all the hard work and heartache that goes with it!


Tongue in cheek of course;)

Maybe the stock farmer could charge extra for the tyres, string and 10 foot gates as well that I used to find in the fym when I swapped straw for muck.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Maybe the stock farmer could charge extra for the tyres, string and 10 foot gates as well that I used to find in the fym when I swapped straw for muck.

Well that does depend what s hole the fym comes from, I wouldn’t ever send that sort of embarrassing rubbish out the gate tbh.

Although I was jesting there is a little forgetfulness when it comes to these swaps. All that is talked about is npk values etc where as we all know the dung comes back with a fair bit of added value for the crop grower. Would be interesting to dig a little deeper into the true value of fym.

We all get along though and why rock the boat, my neighbour is very good to me and I do my best to ensure our purchase of straw from him doesn’t cause any grief compaction wise or get in the way of his farming operation. Just don’t forget producing this ‘black gold’ isn’t always as simple as it seems during the shooting season.
 
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Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Well that does depend what s hole the fym comes from, I wouldn’t ever send that sort of embarrassing rubbish out the gate tbh.

Although I was jesting there is a little forgetfulness when it comes to these swaps. All that is talked about is npk values etc where as we all know the dung comes back with a fair bit of added value for the crop grower. Would be interesting to dig a little deeper into the true value of fym.

We all get along though and why rock the boat, my neighbour is very good to me and I do my best to ensure our purchase of straw from him doesn’t cause any grief compaction wise or get in the way of his farming operation. Just don’t forget producing this ‘black gold’ isn’t always as simple as it seems during the shooting season.

The hard bit is quantifying that extra benefit over and above the NPK value. We all know that exists and the TFF members using manures regularly are getting better crop yields than those who don't. For bagged nitrogen you put X in and get Y out. Lots of trials data to prove it too. For muck it is not so absolute. If anyone knows of any published work that does put values on organic matter beyond NPK I'd like to see it. @Feldspar ?

For straw the values are in the market place - it's easy enough to know what it is worth to bale or get it delivered by a merchant. I see little wrong with a muck for straw agreement where both parties are happy that they get something out of the deal.
 
The hard bit is quantifying that extra benefit over and above the NPK value. We all know that exists and the TFF members using manures regularly are getting better crop yields than those who don't. For bagged nitrogen you put X in and get Y out. Lots of trials data to prove it too. For muck it is not so absolute. If anyone knows of any published work that does put values on organic matter beyond NPK I'd like to see it. @Feldspar ?

For straw the values are in the market place - it's easy enough to know what it is worth to bale or get it delivered by a merchant. I see little wrong with a muck for straw agreement where both parties are happy that they get something out of the deal.

Don't have anything to hand, sorry. I think we on our farm need to look more carefully at bio-solids / muck etc. So if I find anything, I'll let you know. I still need to finish my reading on NH4+ behaviour cold soils.
 

benny6910

Member
Arable Farmer
Yet contamination could mean the true cost exceeds the true benefit?

This is my fear, the last straw for muck deal I did was all my own straw onto one farm, he didn’t use straw from anybody else so I felt safe enough with that. But now nobody local can do the same deal so I feel it’s too risky to take unknown straw/fym anymore.
 
To make things more complicated, is there any value in spreading wood shavings horse muck on land? I know N is used to break down the shavings, but there is P & K in it and organic matter so after putting on a bit of extra bagged N to compensate, would it still be worth while? By the way it is all my own hay/Haylage which makes it , so very little risk of importing weeds Etc.
 

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