Filling fertiliser spreader with one tractor.

[JackoTS90]

What spreader?

C-DAX 1300
Basic, no nonsense fully galvanised frame and plastic hopper. Should last Ages hopefully. Got there guidance setup and has functions like on off by itself. No weighting but it’s simple to keep it easy for a number of different drivers of differing abilities. Cost around 14,000 NZD with everything. Cheap enough when we were spending 25000 on spreading costs per annum and seeing it where it shouldn’t be, and ruts. Hopefully the tractor sorts some of these issues out, being abit lighter compared to a spreader truck.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yep as long as the price hikes go with an increase in payout, that’s fine. Not the other way round when the payout drops the fert and other compliance costs keep rising. That’s when it gets tough. Two increases in all of two months for ballance, hopefully not just clicking the ticket

Not clipping the ticket - main "problem" is the drop in volume of aviation and jet fuels, which means there's a drop in supply of all the petroleum byproducts (everything from grease to tyres) so there'll be more to come, I'd say.
I guess it's a good thing in some ways as the only way to drive down usage is to keep bumping the costs up - like tobacco



I'm about to order a fair bit of pipe to convert the other side of the ranch, just because they can't say what prices or availability will be like when I need it.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Dairy farm in New Zealand. Purely grass based with 280ha effective and 715 NZ fresian cows. No need for anymore than one tractor for most jobs just make do, but a second tractor would be handy but can’t really be justified. (Tight) haha . An old forklift would be great but we would rather buy a fertiliser silo that can hold 16-20 tonne at a time instead, but the only con is how well does the fert store in a silo? Wouldn’t want any Moisture in there.

Urea storage is OK once your ambient temp is consistently above dew point for your area.

We'd probably do a small round of ammo first, then the silo would be empty again in time for the urea, pretty slow to warm up down here but we had very few problems

I rescued a big (30mm?) nylon fishing rope off the beach - made a big double knot on the end, a couple of whumps on the side of the silo with that would get anything stuck, flowing again.

(Cross between using a lassoo and a lump hammer)

up there you should have no issues, especially if you're dribbling it on fairly regularly, snowing here today so urea is a while away

 

[JackoTS90]

Urea storage is OK once your ambient temp is consistently above dew point for your area.

We'd probably do a small round of ammo first, then the silo would be empty again in time for the urea, pretty slow to warm up down here but we had very few problems

I rescued a big (30mm?) nylon fishing rope off the beach - made a big double knot on the end, a couple of whumps on the side of the silo with that would get anything stuck, flowing again.

(Cross between using a lassoo and a lump hammer)

up there you should have no issues, especially if you're dribbling it on fairly regularly, snowing here today so urea is a while away

Yeah we’re warm being up in the Lower north island but won’t get any out till middle of august here, wasted other wise. We are 11-14 degrees this time of the year but tomorrow and Monday we are turning horrible with southerly and temperature drops.

 

[JackoTS90]

Maybe talk to your supplier about putting a silo in, just reread the thread and they should install one if you're using that much over a season - and all the anti-gravity stuff is done with a blower truck . Back in, fill, go spreading.

The last farm I was on used 130T+ and had one, as I only used 13T and then 4T the next season Ballance wanted to take it away

no pressure at all

Interesting to see the recent price hikes, funny how that coincides neatly with a better forecast payout, eh?

Would you care to mention how much the silo cost? Do you just rent them?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yeah we’re warm being up in the Lower north island but won’t get any out till middle of august here, wasted other wise. We are 11-14 degrees this time of the year but tomorrow and Monday we are turning horrible with southerly and temperature drops.

Believe it, it's really chilly!

Would you care to mention how much the silo cost? Do you just rent them?

Have a yarn to your rep, I'm not sure that they do it in all areas or not.
We were reasonably remote on the south coast so it was a big plus having the silo, unit would just call in, unload when it suited

 

[mo!]

Convert the spreader to trailed. Less stress on the tractor and with decent tyres less ground pressure.

 

[haybob]

Just buy a cheap loader tractor. Will hold its money well, easy to use, save time and safer than some home made death trap.

 

[JackoTS90]

Just buy a cheap loader tractor. Will hold its money well, easy to use, save time and safer than some home made death trap.

Can’t just pull money out of anywhere to buy a cheap loader tractor. If I wanted to be a mechanic I would. I need something to go as soon as I turn the key.

 

[Exfarmer]

Not a great example but cold you find an old high tip trailer. Position after filling and then unhook the tractor? Might need to watch the stability.....

Be scared on several fronts, stability , plus your tractor is going to be very short of oil!
Also check your pick up hitch it 100% before tipping too high and your rear door is closed, a lot of older tractors may release the ring when the weight goes negative on the drawbar.
You will also find for some fertilizer it will need the trailer tipped to a pretty high angle.
We used to do this a lot with bulk fertiliser and you learn a lot about high tip trailers and pick up hitches
Take care!

 

[JackoTS90]

Be scared on several fronts, stability , plus your tractor is going to be very short of oil!
Also check your pick up hitch it 100% before tipping too high and your rear door is closed, a lot of older tractors may release the ring when the weight goes negative on the drawbar.
You will also find for some fertilizer it will need the trailer tipped to a pretty high angle.
We used to do this a lot with bulk fertiliser and you learn a lot about high tip trailers and pick up hitches
Take care!

Yep this may work for some but have already put this idea on the back burner, be very dodgy

 

[glasshouse]

Yep as long as the price hikes go with an increase in payout, that’s fine. Not the other way round when the payout drops the fert and other compliance costs keep rising. That’s when it gets tough. Two increases in all of two months for ballance, hopefully not just clicking the ticket

Be scared on several fronts, stability , plus your tractor is going to be very short of oil!
Also check your pick up hitch it 100% before tipping too high and your rear door is closed, a lot of older tractors may release the ring when the weight goes negative on the drawbar.
You will also find for some fertilizer it will need the trailer tipped to a pretty high angle.
We used to do this a lot with bulk fertiliser and you learn a lot about high tip trailers and pick up hitches
Take care!

No way
Thats a death trap
Simple solution is a metal frame 6ft off the ground, with a ladder,strong enough for two tons
Put the bags up, reverse under and cut them .

Pretty safe

is jacinda not banning fert yet?

 

[box]

@JackoTS90 Have you actually done any spreading with this setup or is it something new that you're going to be doing this season?

I might have missed it, but you're planning to do your own autumn/spring fert right? Not just urea or whatever granulated N product.

is jacinda not banning fert yet?

How dare you speak badly of our esteemed leader.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Jacinda has enough manure onboard to completely cure NZ's N addiction @box



Resources don't cause a problem - it isn't water, urea, cows - it's people that cause a problem with the available resources

 

[JackoTS90]

@JackoTS90 Have you actually done any spreading with this setup or is it something new that you're going to be doing this season?

I might have missed it, but you're planning to do your own autumn/spring fert right? Not just urea or whatever granulated N product.


How dare you speak badly of our esteemed leader.

No haven’t done any spreading with the setup yet. Yes planning on doing everything from the urea to autumn and spring fert, we split maintainence fert up into spring and autumn applicaton, essentially doing half in spring and half in autumn and we feel that works better for us than doing it all in one hit.
At the moment a frame that we can back the spreader under or a silo seems like the best option.
Jacinda is trying her best at Winding the farmers up, with the recent protests having fallen on deaf ears. It’s the unworkable rules that are the kick in the guts really.

 

[glasshouse]

No haven’t done any spreading with the setup yet. Yes planning on doing everything from the urea to autumn and spring fert, we split maintainence fert up into spring and autumn applicaton, essentially doing half in spring and half in autumn and we feel that works better for us than doing it all in one hit.
At the moment a frame that we can back the spreader under or a silo seems like the best option.
Jacinda is trying her best at Winding the farmers up, with the recent protests having fallen on deaf ears. It’s the unworkable rules that are the kick in the guts really.

You mention multiple drivers of varying skill
Your spreader wont last long i fear
Is the tractor on gps?

 

[JackoTS90]

You mention multiple drivers of varying skill
Your spreader wont last long i fear
Is the tractor on gps?

Multiple drivers, (3) with me doing the majority. They will do some urea behind the cows but that’s about it. tractor not on gps but have a basic gps that we got with the spreader, basically just paints a picture of where you have been. Not auto steer though.

 

[Bignor Farmer]

Our Brinkman Engineering bag lifter fits between the tractor and spreader without pushing it backwards. You just need to make a short top link.

 

[box]

Fair enough about not wanting another tractor if you're going to be paying a man to fix it. My little tractor was only $6750 delivered (inc gst) but it's not exactly what I would call work ready, certainly potentially a bit of a handyman special. It does the job for me though and hasn't gone wrong yet. When I go to sell it, it'll be worth the same as what I paid for it....maybe more? Maybe by then when the book value is $450, it'll disappear in a cloud of cash? Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud.

See how you go with the mounted spreader, I found them too prone to blocking up with "bits" - but that might just be a problem with my local Ravensdown branch. It didn't seem to matter if it was urea out of a bag or a bulk load of spring fert, almost guaranteed to have a blockage at some point. I've since gone to a 3.25 (old 2.75 with hungry boards) single axle SAM spreader. Bonus with a trailed spreader is you have the option of spreading your own lime, not to mention the hopper is a fair bit bigger. Less driving around in circles reloading when you're spreading 500kg/ha.

It'll also solve your issue of trying to load a mounted spreader with one tractor. Although a silo sounds fantastic if it works well.

Is your farm steep and wet?

 

[kiwi pom]

How much cheaper is it to do your own instead of just ringing the spreader truck?
Bulk, trailed spreader, unhitch and load it with your tractor?