Anyone growing crops with no fert ?

[wanton dwarf]

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 ?

We've put digestate on Winter Wheat, we're short of 80kg/hectare of Nitrogen. So the plan is to put at least that much on via digestate.

Digestate was coming at 2 to 3% Nitrogen available max. I haven't looked at the balance, but I hope this also goes towards PK next year.

 

[bobk]

We've put digestate on Winter Wheat, we're short of 80kg/hectare of Nitrogen. So the plan is to put at least that much on via digestate.

Digestate was coming at 2 to 3% Nitrogen available max. I haven't looked at the balance, but I hope this also goes towards PK next year.

Show us some photos after spreading

 

[wanton dwarf]

Show us some photos after spreading

OMG no ... you'd only get the good bits !

The tyres were massively wide. Where they've gone over once the crop will recover. But everywhere else it's going to be less or no crop.

Nothing I can do about that, you live and learn. Could look towards umbilical maybe ... if we use it again then we'd attempt to use something different which might include timing.

Besides the crop needs rain really to wash the nutrients in. If we get a good result after the coming rain I'll see what I can do. Who knows the rain might spring back everything.

 

[bobk]

OMG no ... you'd only get the good bits !

The tyres were massively wide. Where they've gone over once the crop will recover. But everywhere else it's going to be less or no crop.

Nothing I can do about that, you live and learn. Could look towards umbilical maybe ... if we use it again then we'd attempt to use something different which might include timing.

Besides the crop needs rain really to wash the nutrients in. If we get a good result after the coming rain I'll see what I can do. Who knows the rain might spring back everything.

Have you no N whatsoever

 

[wanton dwarf]

Have you no N whatsoever

We were just 80kg a hectare short. We'd planned to go Digestate for the remainder last year. Although we would probably have bought Liquid if the price was cheap enough at the start of this year.

 

[wanton dwarf]

@bobk I doubt Digestate is an option for the whole year unless you use Umbilical.

In which case you'd probably want a reservoir of digestate being brought over the winter and your own kit to pump out as and when you can. Large tonnages involved for sure and it will knock the head on those with odd fields spread all over the place unless they have other kind farmers in the locality.

Also current fuel price is a problem .. quoted £1.50+ a litre today.

 

[bobk]

@bobk I doubt Digestate is an option for the whole year unless you use Umbilical.

In which case you'd probably want a reservoir of digestate being brought over the winter and your own kit to pump out as and when you can. Large tonnages involved for sure and it will knock the head on those with odd fields spread all over the place unless they have other kind farmers in the locality.

Also current fuel price is a problem .. quoted £1.50+ a litre today.

I think you can do it with spring crops , work a humungous amount of shite in to the soil before you sow it

 

[wanton dwarf]

I think you can do it with spring crops , work a humungous amount of shite in to the soil before you sow it

Surprisingly it's not as much as you think. Same with Compost, putting on tonnes of compost is a light skittering across the top.

Whether you could put on a years worth of nutirents in one go and get the crop you planned I don't know. As long as there isn't a flood it should work.

 

[Lowland1]

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.

K can be 0.3 to 2.5% of this so you could have 50 tonnes a hectare of K in your soil. This could last a few years. The trick obviously is getting it into the plant.

 

[Sid]

Think every seed merchant in the land will be sold out of Clover seed soon , a difference a year makes

Sold on the back of the clover fixing N.....which it will do very well





In 2023!

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Does this count as fertiliser
View attachment 1025003

I watched Tom Pemberton on youtube last night, his father replied to George Eustace on using FYM to replace fertliser, "does he think we have mountains of muck waiting to be used? We already use it all" and interesting to note, they were saying how autumn muck/slurry application really helped the grass growth in the spring, I am guessing our NVZ rules preclude that, after all, I am sure the Senedd knows better!!!!!!

 

[Sid]

I watched Tom Pemberton on youtube last night, his father replied to George Eustace on using FYM to replace fertliser, "does he think we have mountains of muck waiting to be used? We already use it all" and interesting to note, they were saying how autumn muck/slurry application really helped the grass growth in the spring, I am guessing our NVZ rules preclude that, after all, I am sure the Senedd knows better!!!!!!

The issue with autumn spreading is with manures with highly available nitrogen, slurries and pig and poultry manures on stubbles planted with crops with low N requirements and therefore leaching.

Government departments work to dates not seasons or ground conditions.

 

[thesilentone]

We've put digestate on Winter Wheat, we're short of 80kg/hectare of Nitrogen. So the plan is to put at least that much on via digestate.

Digestate was coming at 2 to 3% Nitrogen available max. I haven't looked at the balance, but I hope this also goes towards PK next year.

Thanks for the info.

Do you know what type of feed-stock the digestate is from ? eg: Slurry Cow/Pig, energy crops, food waste etc ?

You REALLY need to know what you are spreading, and it is reasonable to ask the supplier.

 

[wanton dwarf]

Thanks for the info.

Do you know what type of feed-stock the digestate is from ? eg: Slurry Cow/Pig, energy crops, food waste etc ?

You REALLY need to know what you are spreading, and it is reasonable to ask the supplier.

It's from a vegetable factory, in this case the base is potato peelings. The remaining peelings are maserated as part of the spreading process.