Best liquid fert company / tank hire deal

[Zan]

As above really, had a few of the merchants out offering tanks for free as long as I buy from them....am I better to go direct with one company?

 

[Steevo]

Why not buy a tank yourself and have pick of the market?

 

[Farmer Fin]

Some of the companies “free” tanks are based on a rebate scheme, where they charge you rent and the rebate fert. They still own the tank. The other issue is the free tanks are often only for say a third of your yearly volume. It means they can charge you more for spring top up / can run short in spring if putting a lot on and waiting for a delivery. We have one company tank which we got free (they tried charging us a rental after agreeing a free tank) and one tank we bought ourselves.

 

[Zan]

I’ve looked at that option too, will cost me about 8k a tank (need two) It would need to be a lot cheaper to justify that?

 

[Zan]

Some of the companies “free” tanks are based on a rebate scheme, where they charge you rent and the rebate fert. They still own the tank. The other issue is the free tanks are often only for say a third of your yearly volume. It means they can charge you more for spring top up / can run short in spring if putting a lot on and waiting for a delivery. We have one company tank which we got free (they tried charging us a rental after agreeing a free tank) and one tank we bought ourselves.

ive been told no rent as long as I buy from them....also I can go back to granular for A season if I wanted and as long as I buy it from them they say they won’t be bothered.....

 

[ih1455xl]

I brought my own tank so can buy it off who I want brought it through the fert company as they let me have the tank at cost price think it was 3000

 

[Zan]

Is the fert much cheaper if I can pick where to buy? What sort of % will they put on?

 

[Farmer Fin]

I’ve looked at that option too, will cost me about 8k a tank (need two) It would need to be a lot cheaper to justify that?

It depends who you go with and how different the cost is for filling / buying at different times of the year. For us buying the one tank pays. Haven’t don’t the maths on 2. We are also limited to 2 sellers due to location.

 

[Farmer Fin]

ive been told no rent as long as I buy from them....also I can go back to granular for A season if I wanted and as long as I buy it from them they say they won’t be bothered.....

As long as it’s in writing! Luckily we had that when first rep said tank was free.

 

[Zan]

It depends who you go with and how different the cost is for filling / buying at different times of the year. For us buying the one tank pays. Haven’t don’t the maths on 2. We are also limited to 2 sellers due to location.

I may as well say....frontier are who I’m thinking....they can offer me free tanks (as long as I use them) and they can supply brineflow, omex or billericay.

 

[Farmer Fin]

Is the fert much cheaper if I can pick where to buy? What sort of % will they put on?

We have choice of Omex or Yara. We have used Yara since we started when bought our second tank last year I tried Omex and they were dearer. You have to be careful comparing prices between what companies call grades as some to it by weight and some by volume

 

[Brisel]

I rent tanks from Yara. £1000 rent/year/tank reduced to £200 if I use their product. I do use their product because there's no price difference between suppliers according to my buying group. Last year I paid no rent as the invoice was backed by an equal credit note. Free tanks depend on a certain turnover which as others have pointed out, means you pay more for spring deliveries. I'd suggest that you consider having on farm storage for at least 50% of your spring March - May demand.

The main cost for tanks is the concrete pad you sit them on. I had someone make mine for me as we didn't have time. Nearly £1500 each and treble that if you put a bund around it which you're not legally obliged to do but ought to and this may well become law in future. Those doing their own work will be able to do this far cheaper. You need 6" of concrete and 6" of compacted hardcore/scalpings under that.

 

[Zan]

What I’m really after knowing though is if I will pay much more for my fert if I don’t own the tank myself.

 

[Shutesy]

What I’m really after knowing though is if I will pay much more for my fert if I don’t own the tank myself.

No I don't think so. The only real way of getting liquid fert at a reasonable discount to merchant prices is to melt your own on farm which is a whole other ball-game. We have had a tank from OMEX this year, built the concrete pad, bund and steps ourselves. Tank has a small rental each year which is credited back to you when you buy a certain amount of fert which we will just about hit each year. Fert wasn't any cheaper last year when we had a trial run of 1 lorry load of liquid fert and put it in a 10000L tank and 15 IBCs. (Though obviously prices change over the year).

 

[Farmer Fin]

What I’m really after knowing though is if I will pay much more for my fert if I don’t own the tank myself.

You won’t pay more for the fert. As I said above it’s about being able to buy it and have it delivered at the right time of the year.

 

[Brisel]

What I’m really after knowing though is if I will pay much more for my fert if I don’t own the tank myself.

No. I've been keeping a close eye on this since I first started dealing with liquid 9 years ago. The days of a virtual monopoly of the liquid market by Chafer (now Yara) are over. Liquid is just another part of the oligopoly of fertiliser manufacturers or importers and the price is always related back to that of the solid equivalents. I ran a cost/benefit analysis of liquid vs solid and liquid came out top though this will vary from farm to farm with a multitude of factors. That's another whole debate that's had regularly in TFF and not what you were asking.

The manufacturers run the tank schemes to ease logistics. It costs them less to encourage tanks on farm than it does to expand their own facilities and find hundreds more tankers in the peak March to May usage period.

 

[Andrew K]

If anyone is looking , we have a shopsoiled 30,000 litre Enduramaxx fertiliser storage tank in stock at a heavily discounted price at the moment.
It is unused , ready to go, and will include full warranty and delivery to mainland UK.
Looks similar to this:

 

[Steevo]

No I don't think so. The only real way of getting liquid fert at a reasonable discount to merchant prices is to melt your own on farm which is a whole other ball-game. We have had a tank from OMEX this year, built the concrete pad, bund and steps ourselves. Tank has a small rental each year which is credited back to you when you buy a certain amount of fert which we will just about hit each year. Fert wasn't any cheaper last year when we had a trial run of 1 lorry load of liquid fert and put it in a 10000L tank and 15 IBCs. (Though obviously prices change over the year).

Very smart setup!! @Robert K would be proud!

 

[Steevo]

If anyone is looking , we have a shopsoiled 30,000 litre Enduramaxx fertiliser storage tank in stock at a heavily discounted price at the moment.
It is unused , ready to go, and will include full warranty and delivery to mainland UK.
Looks similar to this:

Looks a smart job! What price are they?

 

[Shutesy]

Very smart setup!! @Robert K would be proud!

Thanks, I wanted to do the job right, just got to finish concreting the yard around it now.