Anyone growing crops with no fert ?

[Yale]

Does this count as fertiliser
View attachment 1025003

Has that had slag?

 

[Lowland1]

Colonialism at its best. Plunder the natives resources then clear off.
There’s no way 130 tonnes of fertiliser is maintaining indices on 4000 acres of crops.
But good luck to you.
It’s a bit more hand to mouth here on poorer soils farmed quite intensively. If we don’t add potash every year we are very soon near zero on the sand and output plummets. K index 1.2 is about as high as you can get it here. But we have no trouble maintaining phosphate. Index 2.5 average.
Whether it’s meat walking off or crops trailered off we have to replace it with something.

Ouch that‘s a bit below the belt. Personally i have no idea what my soil indices are and don’t have any interest in them. (We do have all our fields tested each year but for auditing purposes) i believe soil physical and biological properties are far more important growing crops with high volumes of residue helps and having a good rotation. We are farming 1200 acres but growing 4000 acres of crop on them so i think having roots in the soil continually helps. We are going by what we are learning not what we were taught. I’ll send you my soil results if you like Market Rasen ? will have better soils on paper. The colonialism bit was unfair the rest is your own opinion but i think our soils get better as we go on not worse.

 

[yellow belly]

When I was in Australia in the 1980s the local gov advisory service in sa were trying to persuade wheat farmers to apply fertiliser because the protein levels were falling below the milling standard
the land had been cropped for about 70 years and was now not releasing enough nutrient

if you take crop or meat out then you are removing the nutrients eventually the soil has non to give just a matter of time

 

[Lowland1]

When I was in Australia in the 1980s the local gov advisory service in sa were trying to persuade wheat farmers to apply fertiliser because the protein levels were falling below the milling standard
the land had been cropped for about 70 years and was now not releasing enough nutrient

if you take crop or meat out then you are removing the nutrients eventually the soil has non to give just a matter of time

Fair enough but we harvest less than the biomass returned a crop off baby corn will remove 15 tonnes of produce but return 80-100 tonnes of stover.

 

[Daniel]

I notice one firm is pelleting poultry manure available in bulk bags not seen any analysis for it though anyone know??

I was under the impression that drying it to pelletise it vapourised a fair amount of the N?

 

[yellow belly]

Fair enough but we harvest less than the biomass returned a crop off baby corn will remove 15 tonnes of produce but return 80-100 tonnes of stover.

There will be some nutrients removed
Deep black land can give nitrogen for a longtime but eventually the om gets used up

some soils have been farmed on and off for several thousand years since the forests were felled in neolithic times

 

[Gerbert]

Have a guess

How should I know?

 

[bobk]

How should I know?

Do the words fertiliser and organic have much in common , ?

 

[renewablejohn]

Depends what you call fertilizer. I use a fair amount of wood ash, composted woodchip, leaf mould, Comfrey. Grass mulch. Certainly nothing which comes in a bag.

 

[neilo]

Do the words fertiliser and organic have much in common , ?

I’ve been applying some PotashpluS today, which is apparently certified ok for organic farms, as is kieserite iirc.
No doubt there are other products too.

 

[Gerbert]

Do the words fertiliser and organic have much in common , ?

Ah right, I just figured you ment artificial fertiliser.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

We grow literally thousands of acres of crops without fertiliser. We aren’t organic and don’t believe in it either but it’s down to rotation and crop residues. All our broccoli,cabbage,peas and baby corn is grown without fertiliser. French Beans which are about 25 per cent of the rotation get a base dressing of 12. 46. 0 and trace elements of about 60 kg an acre. Potatoes get about 30 tonne an acre and 200 kgs of 12. 46. 0 . Overall we grow about 4000 acres of crops on 130 tonnes of artificial fertiliser. A four month wheat crop will yield 2300 kgs an acre on 50 kgs an acre of 40%N6%S. We’ve tried increasing fertiliser rates but we don’t get any extra yield for it.

I get what you are doing. Carbon+biological activity = organic nutrients transformed to inorganic. Simple eh?

 

[Lowland1]

I get what you are doing. Carbon+biological activity = organic nutrients transformed to inorganic. Simple eh?

Yes and in the tropics we have constant warm temperatures so we're not having to kick start growth in spring time by using Nitrogen etc. I have PHs of up to 9 toxic levels of P and K and too much artificial fertiliser will act as a poison so we have to let the soil sort itself out.

 

[NewlandFarmServices]

Iv made the decision to not put bag fert on my grass this year due to costs apart what little I had left from last season. Might get digestate put on if find someone and right price.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Iv made the decision to not put bag fert on my grass this year due to costs apart what little I had left from last season. Might get digestate put on if find someone and right price.

I have found that it pretty much sorts itself out after a while and you don't get the yellowing when the nitram runs out.

Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[NewlandFarmServices]

I have found that it pretty much sorts itself out after a while and you don't get the yellowing when the nitram runs out.

Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised.

Hope so. Time will tell

 

[bluebell]

to makes things grow on a farm, instead of being a hunter gatherer? some sort of fertilizer has to be used, be it animal, human, or artificial, what was the 4 cource rotation used in the Uk , a few hundred years ago, any one please comment on that please?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

to makes things grow on a farm, instead of being a hunter gatherer? some sort of fertilizer has to be used, be it animal, human, or artificial, what was the 4 cource rotation used in the Uk , a few hundred years ago, any one please comment on that please?

Not sure of the rotation. Think it had turnips in it.

You are right though, the problem with farming is that the nutrients are removed and only some are put back and only sometimes.

 

[7610 super q]

I'm putting fert on, but not sowing any seed.

 

[vantage]

I'm putting fert on, but not sowing any seed.

Got to love grass.