Financial value of FYM

[Drillman]

All straw baled here then loaned to the cattle for a few months. In return they turn it into a better product for applying onto the arable land. Biosolids used to get OSR going as well nowadays.

I’ve never bothered to put a figure on the value of the muck but know it does far more good than anything that comes out the back of the fert spreader.

And it probably goes someway to offset my soil destroying ploughing based cultivation system???

 

[Chae1]

So if your removing 2t of straw/acre do you replace it with 2ton of muck/acre or 10t

I replace 1 ton of straw with 3t of muck. That's how it works out putting it in sheds.

If straw worth nothing like this year, I put back the same amount as if prices are high.

 

[deleted user 837354]

You can look at it always 1 acre of straw worth say £50 you get back say at best 2ton of muck to put on that acre that muck has cost you £25 a ton in lost sale of straw if you were just looking at the money side of things . But as I have seen here on a straw for muck deal some muck has brought in blackgrass as the straw was from blackgrass free fields so must of got in from his grass fields he was renting elsewhere . You could sell the straw and bank the cash and buy in lower risk stuff ie sludge or just chop straw where it is .
Yes you will be getting nutrients back in with the dung that some would of gone up the road anyway if you had just sold the straw plus the extra nutrients from the dung from the cow what it has been eating . If you want to reduce the risk to your farm you really want to be doing straw and also be the one that also grows the extra grass that the other party needs. You of course will have a lower risk of grass weeds coming onto your farm if the grass that the stock was fed on was from more permanent pastures . The big risk is when the other party has a field for silage of another arable boy who is using a 2 year ley to help clear their weed problem .It is the same with slurry as we all know the odd bit from the sides/top of clamps can get dumped in the slurry pit and could be full of weed seeds . Mostly when seeds of anything go through a animal they are killed of but not all .

Straw for muck has to be done with care with some people, always look to see how they grow and where their silage comes from before rushing in .
Soils around here really could eat a covering of dung a year it is the best thing for the soil that's why farms were mixed farms years ago .

Are you still on the chicken muck?

 

[tw15]

Still have a bit but the main place we were getting it from has shut down.

 

[milkloss]

If you were to compost straw on its own what would it’s nutritional value be? If you bought concentrate at £x per tonne and made silage at £y per tonne and put it in the dung what would the value of x and y be that is now in the manure?

 

[4course]

Horse sh!t , I wouldn’t bother , I’d want them to pay me a tenner a ton to take it.

if you sell them the straw at a delivered in price and take the muck back then whats not to like youve added value to your combined straw and put back some enhanced organic matter bit like straw for muck but youve been paid at least one way

 

[Hilly]

if you sell them the straw at a delivered in price and take the muck back then whats not to like youve added value to your combined straw and put back some enhanced organic matter bit like straw for muck but youve been paid at least one way

i was just imagining a pile of shavings full of weed seeds urgh , good for nowt .

 

[4course]

i was just imagining a pile of shavings full of weed seeds urgh , good for nowt .

we try not to take shavings though there is always someone with dobbin who insists on bedding on shavings, a bit mixed is not a problem ,was advised by my then agronomist not to take shavings unless we could compost for more than a year but now with the rules re muckhills etc cant be done

 

[Hard Graft]

Well we have a few horse muck deals and are strict on contaminants. and will turn loads back so they do get it quickly and afther the the first dung heap removed the next ones are a lot cleaner. i do like the horse dung.
As for fym also have deals some is sold at 5/bale to cover costs . but we work on a ratio of 1 tonne straw to 8 -10 of dung out of finishing unit. That is all weighed in and out. Over a bridge


the key is having multiple sources and We do target them around the farm, though we are now blending them and compost it as I feel good compost is worth more and less hassle come spreading and cheeper spread per tonne

 

[Brisel]

i was just imagining a pile of shavings full of weed seeds urgh , good for nowt .

I wouldn’t want grass seeds but am not bothered by docks or thistles as they are easily controlled in cereals.

 

[Werzle]

Good fym , no hay , silage or foreign objects back to the farm where the straw came from should be 10t for 1acre of straw. Arable man can haul inbetween skiing and shooting during the winter

 

[Hilly]

I wouldn’t want grass seeds but am not bothered by docks or thistles as they are easily controlled in cereals.

I amazed you don’t get grass seeds ?

 

[DRC]

I do a simple deal with neighbouring pig farm. Luckily we are very close by.
He pays for baling and contractor to put it in his barn, I cart the muck back and pay to have it spread.
I also get all his slurry . I just provide the land for that and he pays the contractor to spread it.

 

[rob1]

WE do about two hundred loads of horse manure a year from various sources, while some might say it has no value its easy to see where we have spread it, not bought any PK for best part of ten years and get paid for taking it, often its yards that we sell hay and straw to so weeds are often our own but by composting it they arent a problem, we just spread it on and DD straight into it cant see the soil when its done by spring the worms have donw their work and its all gone

 

[Hilly]

I do a simple deal with neighbouring pig farm. Luckily we are very close by.
He pays for baling and contractor to put it in his barn, I cart the muck back and pay to have it spread.
I also get all his slurry . I just provide the land for that and he pays the contractor to spread it.

Good do that , pig muck is excellent stuff.

 

[DRC]

Good do that , pig muck is excellent stuff.

Best part is I’m only getting my own straw back and he doesn’t buy any other straw in, so reducing the chance of black grass.

 

[Hilly]

Best part is I’m only getting my own straw back and he doesn’t buy any other straw in, so reducing the chance of black grass.

Excellent deal that.

 

[DRC]

Excellent deal that.

I’ve been ploughing some of it in today after having spreaders in yesterday . I used to hire a spreader myself, but I prefer to get the contractors with two spreaders and I load all day with the manitou. At £35/hr for each outfit it’s not bad and we can shift a lot in a day. Grow 100 acres maize, and it’s had slurry and the solid muck. After harvest we do the same onto stubbles for wheat or barley. Silage ground also got slurry.

 

[theboytheboy]

I charge a council owned farm attraction £50 + vat a load. Probably about an 8 tonne trailer full. They deliver it to the heap once a week.

It's a mixture of pig, goat, sheep, cow, deer, rabbit, duck etc bedding.

It's is tipped in a heap with our on site livery muck and pushed up quite often so reasonably mixed up.

We don't supply the straw to them and I am worried about blackgrass being imported.....but based on the nutrient value, the organic matter and the £2600 a year income I convince myself it's worth it.

If I was to spread it on permanent pasture is importing blackgrass an issue anyway?

Thoughts?

 

[snarling bee]

I’ve been ploughing some of it in today after having spreaders in yesterday . I used to hire a spreader myself, but I prefer to get the contractors with two spreaders and I load all day with the manitou. At £35/hr for each outfit it’s not bad and we can shift a lot in a day. Grow 100 acres maize, and it’s had slurry and the solid muck. After harvest we do the same onto stubbles for wheat or barley. Silage ground also got slurry.

£35 an hour. Is that a man, tractor and spreader? Diesel? How can they possibly make a margin at that? In my part of the world contractors charge a lot more than that.