Dry Fert placement for the spring

Was going to try out liquid injection but couldn't get the product I want so as my drill can band dry fert in with the seed I think I'll try a bit of that to see what happens.

I'm not going to place any P or K. Just not needed.

I have some options of

Urea
Ammonium Sulphate
Ammonium Nitrate + Sulphur
Straight AN

Short of calcium more than anything on this land fyi. (Which has been applied in Autumn and some more in Spring)
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I have a demo of a Dale eco-drill on some oats this spring so have opertunity to trail seedbed fert and am wondering what seed bed fert to place with it

My thoughts were DAP or MAP - I was thinking around 100kgs/ha but have been told today that 20Kg's should be enough as far as the P is concerned ? thoughts ??
 
Well what does the soil test say?

I know its fashionable at the moment to knock conventional soil test but I still think it the case of P and K its a decent starting point. That said we're talking Oats and they are not known as a hungry plant so if your indices are ok, the conditions are good and we're on a warming trend I'd be tempted not to put any P on.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
SilliamWhale said:
Well what does the soil test say?

I know its fashionable at the moment to knock conventional soil test but I still think it the case of P and K its a decent starting point. That said we're talking Oats and they are not known as a hungry plant so if your indices are ok, the conditions are good and we're on a warming trend I'd be tempted not to put any P on.

Soil has adequate p&k idiocies circa 2 -2plus so probably not needed, just thinking a bit of placed phosphate will help until the plants get roots ?

My experience of spring crops is poor so not sure how much better it is to use seedbed N vs throwing it on top ?
 

Jim Bullock

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Back in the seventies and early eighties we grew a lot of spring crops and they were all combine drilled (Flexi-tine /M-F 30) with something like 20:10:10 for the cereals (usually barley or oats) and 0:24:24 for the beans...yields were much better than they are today so why we gave up the practice I really do not know...it was probably due to the introduction of the Power-Harrow/Drill combination..which when we used it initially worked well (whilst destroying our soils) and it probably oxidised a lot of SOM releasing nutrients which made us think we did not need any added base fertilisers..Big mistake!
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
I was talking to Steve Townsend the other day regarding putting dap down the spout with the dale Eco drill this spring, and he suggested that 25 kg ha of product was about right. Reason being that one its placed and not banded and so it's equivalent to 100 kg ha broad cast, and 2 if you go much higher you could lock up other nutrients.

I would tend to agree but guess I will find out this spring
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
willy said:
I was talking to Steve Townsend the other day regarding putting dap down the spout with the dale Eco drill this spring, and he suggested that 25 kg ha of product was about right. Reason being that one its placed and not banded and so it's equivalent to 100 kg ha broad cast, and 2 if you go much higher you could lock up other nutrients.

I would tend to agree but guess I will find out this spring

Yes it was Steve that told me 100kgs would be too much and 20/25 plenty - guess we will find out as well !
 
I don't think I was going to use Urea really. I have read about the toxicity and also the plant doesn't want that form of N then. I have read that koch urea isn't so toxic but I don't really like it.

I think I will use AN + S

Spent a few hours yesterday reviewing a load of literature and pullouts about soil fertility etc. and I've re evaluated some options for the future most notably about keeping it simple.

My strategy for the future:

Try and lime at least one in four (or even more) Calcium is my weak point on my soils.
Use Muck or Fibrophos or maybe a bit of Slag to get all P and K requirements. hopefully this will buffer against
Place a little N with the seed.
Keep using AN and Urea and stop using Ammonium Sulphate. I just do not need the extra acidity
Get tissue testing done early and deal with micronutrient issues there.
Try elemental sulphur instead of Sulphur with N.

Any views?
 

Elmsted

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Bucharest
Have used an mixed with seed for a long time. Use DAP as starter but side banded. Do also chuck some elemental sulphur in as as well as nutrition provides a degree of anti slug in your Northern climate.
 

Mattch

Member
Location
cotswolds
I had intended to use DAP through a Mzuri, but the Mzuri handbook suggests a quality prilled product will flow better. I have not spoken to Martin or Will yet but have ordered a 16 16 16 prilled compound. I know DAP is hydroscopic so the last thing I want to be doing is unblocking fertiliser rather than drilling. It may be worth checking with drill manufacturers as to which type of product is best suited to the drill. Not sure if you can get prilled DAP/MAP?
 

Elmsted

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Bucharest
I had intended to use DAP through a Mzuri, but the Mzuri handbook suggests a quality prilled product will flow better. I have not spoken to Martin or Will yet but have ordered a 16 16 16 prilled compound. I know DAP is hydroscopic so the last thing I want to be doing is unblocking fertiliser rather than drilling. It may be worth checking with drill manufacturers as to which type of product is best suited to the drill. Not sure if you can get prilled DAP/MAP?

Appreciate have not used a Mzuri but have used Vaddy, Kinze, Great Plains, Moore with the above fertilisers. Never ever had a problem.
 

Elmsted

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Bucharest
I was talking to Steve Townsend the other day regarding putting dap down the spout with the dale Eco drill this spring, and he suggested that 25 kg ha of product was about right. Reason being that one its placed and not banded and so it's equivalent to 100 kg ha broad cast, and 2 if you go much higher you could lock up other nutrients.

I would tend to agree but guess I will find out this spring

Good to see that Steve has taken this fact on board. Simple really. 1 metre width with 10 cm rows = 10 X 2 = 20 cm planted so fertiliser is 5 times more concentrated.
Hence 34% N = 34 X 5 =170 kg.

At 70 cm row spacing for Maize & Sunflower for example = 1.42 ( 1.50 practical terms) so fert is 1.5 times greater when side banded for example. So 15:15:15. At 100 kg hectare =23 NPK.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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