Fertiliser

[DrDunc]

Livestock farming has an elephant in the room......

Static beef price, and lamb struggling to hold it's own, how do we afford fertiliser at £1000 a tonne???

I just cannot see how to cut inputs and still have enough income to cover feed, fuel and fertiliser increases???

Is everyone in the same position, or am I alone?

 

[bobk]

Livestock farming has an elephant in the room......

Static beef price, and lamb struggling to hold it's own, how do we afford fertiliser at £1000 a tonne???

I just cannot see how to cut inputs and still have enough income to cover feed, fuel and fertiliser increases???

Is everyone in the same position, or am I alone?

Livestock men round here aren't using any

 

[DrDunc]

Livestock men round here aren't using any

Starving their animals or selling them off?

 

[bobk]

Starving their animals or selling them off?

Fert , still get fed

 

[Dog Bowl]

Not buying it.

Utilising my muck and slurry far more.

Improving my grazing to try and grow more grass and perhaps accepting lower yields from cutting ground. Lucerne and clover being my dominant cutting species of choice now.

I said to my wife the other night we will never have another lorry of fert turn up on the farm again. Sod that.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Livestock farming has an elephant in the room......

Static beef price, and lamb struggling to hold it's own, how do we afford fertiliser at £1000 a tonne???

I just cannot see how to cut inputs and still have enough income to cover feed, fuel and fertiliser increases???

Is everyone in the same position, or am I alone?

Buy it when it was £730 a ton ?

Or use fibrephos and clovers

 

[Bill the Bass]

We put no fert on grazing land and have fed no calf creep yet. We will probably do similar next year. With these extremes in weather - cold spring then droughty summers I wonder have much we get out of fert anyways - here certainly.

The reality for me is if sucklers can’t survive and leave profit like this they will go. Cows which haven’t managed to rear a big enough calf with no creep will not see a bull again.

The only way I can see this going is to ramp up the ruthlessness and if that doesn’t work get out of the job.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Not using any, making far better use of muck, also getting bio solids (not everyone’s cup of tea I know)
I’d rather buy corn at £350/400 than fert at 800-1000

 

[davidroberts30]

Not using any, making far better use of muck, also getting bio solids (not everyone’s cup of tea I know)
I’d rather buy corn at £350/400 than fert at 800-1000

Depends if you can grow it
You won't buy as much corn at 400 as you will grow with fert at 800

 

[davidroberts30]

Livestock farming has an elephant in the room......

Static beef price, and lamb struggling to hold it's own, how do we afford fertiliser at £1000 a tonne???

I just cannot see how to cut inputs and still have enough income to cover feed, fuel and fertiliser increases???

Is everyone in the same position, or am I alone?

Reseeds and clovers

 

[ringi]

What 50 years of the organic movement could not do, Putin has done in under a year.

 

[celtis man]

Puts a value on the dung heap

 

[Dave6170]

I’m trying to see the high prices as a wake up call and opportunity to get away from fertiliser.
I havnt decided what I ll do yet, silage making will probably have to change a lot.
Didn’t use a lot this year on grazing and had heaps of grass. Got ph and P and K much better now and that has made a huge difference.
I’m not working to pay a fert bill.

 

[Wood field]

Not using any, making far better use of muck, also getting bio solids (not everyone’s cup of tea I know)
I’d rather buy corn at £350/400 than fert at 800-1000

I’ve bit the bullet and had bio solids delivered
Mind we have never used artificial fertiliser only bedding muck
I do miss having the cows for the pile of fym we got each spring at turnout

 

[deere 6600]

Instead of a full load of compound 20 10 10 we might just buy a half load of nitrogen and throw it about we’ve had probably the best grass growing year ever don’t suppose it will be repeated

 

[DrDunc]

Haven't fed calves creep for years. Yearlings sold store in the spring currently averaging over £1000 a head.

Cow numbers were cut this year, but retained heifers calving next spring increases total from 2021 total. Had already fenced off some sheep rough grazing ground which reduces cattle pressure on summer in bye

Lambs already finished off grass and home grown fodder

Grass swards already all clover rich

Middens already analysed and weighed into spreader




Still need to buy P&K to make up cutting takeoff shortfall

Still need to buy nitrogen for spring grazing growth and to produce enough winter fodder. Clover doesn't replace it all

I can't see efficiency improvements that haven't already been made????

 

[M-J-G]

Haven't fed calves creep for years. Yearlings sold store in the spring currently averaging over £1000 a head.

Cow numbers were cut this year, but retained heifers calving next spring increases total from 2021 total. Had already fenced off some sheep rough grazing ground which reduces cattle pressure on summer in bye

Lambs already finished off grass and home grown fodder

Grass swards already all clover rich

Middens already analysed and weighed into spreader




Still need to buy P&K to make up cutting takeoff shortfall

Still need to buy nitrogen for spring grazing growth and to produce enough winter fodder. Clover doesn't replace it all

I can't see efficiency improvements that haven't already been made????

Is Red clover silage an option?

We've sown a block of it this year to cut for silage, most I speak to aren't applying N to RC mixes, but it will obviously need P&K etc.

 

[Gedd]

I used less on the grass this spring its now telling as grass just isnt growing the way it normally would in the autumn when the rain finally arrived

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Not buying it.

Utilising my muck and slurry far more.

Improving my grazing to try and grow more grass and perhaps accepting lower yields from cutting ground. Lucerne and clover being my dominant cutting species of choice now.

I said to my wife the other night we will never have another lorry of fert turn up on the farm again. Sod that.

You'll end up with a far more robust model without fertiliser, than you had with fertiliser.

What it doesn't say on the tin is "will increase rain risk for your business" simply by costing what it does.
It says "might grow this much extra under ideal conditions" in the blurb, if you get these ideal conditions you can farm more extractively, but either way it costs money you have to recoup - by farming extractively

and if that isn't a bum way of designing your small business, tell me a worse one

 

[jondear]

Not buying it.

Utilising my muck and slurry far more.

Improving my grazing to try and grow more grass and perhaps accepting lower yields from cutting ground. Lucerne and clover being my dominant cutting species of choice now.

I said to my wife the other night we will never have another lorry of fert turn up on the farm again. Sod that.

Shhhh don't tell everyone !Not bought any for 22 years .