Fertliser spend per year

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
good morning. I'm putting together a presentation for dealers and open evening talks i do. I try to us facts rather then my opinion. Its been 20 years since i was a farm manager. Can you tell me what your fertliser spend per HA is? feel free to pm if you want.
Kind regards
RobT
 

Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
I'm interested in this.

Do you think I'd have spare fertiliser leftover at end of season if i ran a more accurate fertiliser spreader?
If you did you just keep it for next season !!
It takes what it takes no matter what machine any of us use i guess
I feel my current KV Geospread is very accurate & does save me fert
but hardly a huge amount. It has many other benefits that iam sure the brand that Robt is heavily involved with will do similar things with. (y);)
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
Has anyone that’s bought a weigh cell and section control fert spinner ever said to you after using it for a season

“I saved 5% fert vs my old spreader (with no technology) so I have ordered 5% less fert for next season”
Yes, quite often.
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
Theoretically I budget on 220kg N/Ha on wheats, 170kg on barley and 1st wheats after beans...

Lets say a 34.5% N product like Nitram is £230/t, 220Kg N / 0.345 equates to 637kg Nitram/Ha

£230/1000kg = 23p/kg of Nitram
637kg x 0.23p = £146.50/Ha £156/Ha if your Nitram was £245/tonne

Obviously its a bit more complex as some of the N will come from a N+S product and there is P+K fertiliser with rates that varies massively depending on soil type and farm history.

Its all well and good saving 5% fertiliser by using a more accurate machine but I am not sure I know what the optimum rate actually might have been until after the crop is harvested and sold... If wheat sells at £200/t the extra yield from 20% more N may more than cover the extra cost but if wheat ends up being sold for £100/t the optimum N rate was probably 20% less!
 

Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
Has anyone that’s bought a weigh cell and section control fert spinner ever said to you after using it for a season

“I saved 5% fert vs my old spreader (with no technology) so I have ordered 5% less fert for next season”
NO. simples
BUT!
Its not not being wasted ie overspread
fully auto on/off so no flat triangular shaped in n out of the headland turns parts that always either didnt get enough fert or too much
esp Nitrogen.

Then putting the likes of vari rate P&K where it needs to be, nothing over or under applied.

I like having some spare of everything just case i need more, you never know.
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
What farmerm said for w.wheat and w.barley.

Add on about £75/ha for the p+k if farmer isn't using manures, fibrophos etc.

Spring cereals would be about £170/ha all in n,p,k.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
Thanks again to all that have helped!
The saving on weigh cells can be up to 10%, even at 5% its a large saving!
There is no saving from weigh cells, only improved calibration and accuracy. This is because farmers apply a fixed amount of fertiliser according to their *fixed weight* fertiliser plans. You can't magically reduce your use due to improved tech and pocket the savings, if we 'save' 5% of our expected fertiliser use it's due to under calibrating the spreader or incorrect field size.
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
I half agree with you. When you go to auto section control, your fields shrink by 6-7%. Ask anyone with autosection control on a sprayer. You have to trust the tech and to accurately measure your fields.
 

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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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