you have only got to look at the cut and burn farming going on in the amazon basin to see that after a short time, nutrients are gone out of the land? id imagine in europe thousands of years ago when farming started the same happened, biggest difference above everything Yesmentioned on this thread, is the growing size of the worlds population? Yes the UKs farming could go back to how it was 70 odd years ago with a modern twist? but at the same time could we also have the UKs population back to that size of 70 odd years ago ?
Anyone growing crops with no fert ?
- Thread starter bobk
- Start date
- Location
- LINCOLNSHIRE/KENYA
KICKING THE HABIT: FERTILISERS | Rothamsted Research
It is estimated that around 50% of the food produced today in conventional farming systems would not exist without fe
www.rothamsted.ac.uk
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
£7.50/t rise in one year? That sounds a bit steep. Nothing like that kind of price rise around here, including the white diesel charge.
- Location
- Black Isle
Pretty sure it was £28/t delivered last year, £33.50 just now, with £2.50 going on again next week. Quarry about 70 miles away so haulage a fair bit of it.
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
All of my quarries are adding 80-90p for the fuel rise
- Location
- Cumbria
Be interesting to know how you get on.
A few questions. 1k tons on how many acres/hectares ?
What is the crop you are spreading on ?
What is the nutrient balance of the digestate ?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
It doesn't really do anything for the soil. Source of nutrients, yes. But negligible fibre. Looks good value on paper but relies on accurate application to avoid overlaps/misses etc.
Biggest perk is it keeps the dog walkers off.
Impressive! Why are you blathering so much phosphate on but no potash?
- Location
- Cumbria
It really depends on what type of digestate you are spreading, and what was it's source, as this affects the % of available N. Digestate from food waste and slurry's vary.
Digestate can be sourced in three forms. 1) Whole, like slurry >7% DM 2) Fibre, the dry fraction after separation or 3) Liquor, the liquid fraction after separation.
Each type can be used for a specific task such as a soil conditioner/fertilizer or just as a fertilizer, however if the latter is the choice, it also contains trace elements that benefit the soil.
Depending on the separator (press or centrifuge) used, this can also affect where most of the N ends up, as it tends to follow the liquid. So post centrifuge the liquor should be higher in N than after a press.
- Location
- LINCOLNSHIRE/KENYA
We are limited in the fertilisers available here generally we are using a 15.9.21 plus for beans but we went to 12.46.0 because we had a couple of batches that went floury and wouldn’t flow. We had tried TSP based on our soil analysis but that tied up the Iron in the soil and everything goes yellow especially if we aren’t irrigating as our water has lots of iron. We just work on trial and error because we are on our own here with regard to independent advice. We have tried high levels of gypsum to bring down the PH but it is expensive and doesn’t work. We are now on direct drilling or striptill to avoid moving the soil too much and moving the nutrients out of reach. Its very complex and i say we are doing what we have learnt rather than what we have been taught. We’ve tried increasing fertiliser rates but more often than not we don’t get a yield increase but we do get an increased level of pest and disease. I’m contributing to this not because i’m cleverer than i really am but just that i thing that there might be alternative ways.
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Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Not sure who advised you that gypsum will bring down pH but I’ve never heard that before.
It won’t raise pH, but that doesn’t mean it will lower pH
It won’t raise pH, but that doesn’t mean it will lower pH
- Location
- LINCOLNSHIRE/KENYA
It’s on every soil analysis sheet i get most farms here will put 1 tonne a hectare pre planting. I have some reccomendations of up to 15 tonnes a hectare. It’s more about reducing sodium which is high according to soil analysis but in practise causes few problems because of the way we farm. As i said soils here are very complex but the best buffer we have is keeping them alive with crop year round.
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Bossfarmer
Member
- Location
- between Perth and Inverness
im rotating all my cereal ground with grass and applying FYM to every stubble field each year, it annoys me if i have to plough in a bare field of stubble which ive sometimes had to do in a wet spring for time issues i cant understand the guys doing it every year though
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
- Location
- LINCOLNSHIRE/KENYA
Nope on the most recent analysis they’ve changed to ‘reduce sodium build up’ Either way we’ve had no real affect from gypsum.
- Location
- Cumbria
"Gypsum will change soil pH very slightly, yet it can promote better root development of crops, especially in acid soils, even without a big pH change. This is because the gypsum counteracts the toxic effect of soluble aluminum on root development. Aluminum occurs naturally in soil and often isn't a problem for crops."
farmerm
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
It is 3.2T
(per ha)
aka about 1.3T/ac
at least according to this... https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2002655117
1T of wheat removes about 3.8Kg P and 10Kg K
3.2T/ha removes 12Kg P, 32Kg K
Top 15cm soil in 1ha weights about 2million Kg.
Tarmac quarries are going up 30% in April
May well kick start the next recession IMO
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Blimey
holywell farmer
Member
- Location
- holywell, north wales
Crops like beans can be grown without fertlizer