Grain N test

[l'ordinary bonville]

I have some Santiago 2nd wheat which has not yielded as expected despite looking really well all year.

I was thinking of the rb209 advice of using grain n to justify extra fert.

How do we test grain n. Is there a simple test or do we send samples away

 

[Steevo]

Send samples away is the best thing you can do really. If you speak nicely to your friendly grain trader then I'd be surprised if they couldn't run a few through for you.

 

[Brisel]

Grain N = protein. Your post harvest sampling will highlight that & cost nowt other than maybe selling that merchant some grain occasionally.

 

[Colin]

I can't remember the factor but you multiply the protein by it to give the N or vice versa. However as long as you are consistently getting low proteins over a series of years then you could justify extra N I would have thought.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

It's just a couple of fields that are yielding poorly this year compared to expectation. I am trying to deduce in this case whether nitrogen was the limiting factor.

Urea fertiliser applied and pig dlurry may have been lower n than forecast

 

[Brisel]

Your slurry could be the wild card in the calculations. There's just so many variables - nutrient content, delay until incorporation, true dose rate & evenness, leaching, to name but a few.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

Your slurry could be the wild card in the calculations. There's just so many variables - nutrient content, delay until incorporation, true dose rate & evenness, leaching, to name but a few.

I totally agree

We will be trying MUCH harder next year to accurately measure applied available nitrogen in slurry.

However one field of Santiago 2nd wheat received no slurry at all. So I am working on the possibility that urea N was less efficiently utilised.

And I only have grain N as something to deduce if enough fert was put on. Crops have looked well all season with full fungicide inputs and good P and K levels.

Grafton has done better despite looking poorer all season.

This land is capable of 15t/ha and has consistently done 12+

 

[Brisel]

Most of us would be happy with 12 t/ha...

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

I would be. This is under 10 this time

 

[Gilchro]

I can't remember the factor but you multiply the protein by it to give the N or vice versa. However as long as you are consistently getting low proteins over a series of years then you could justify extra N I would have thought.

N x 6.25 gives a theoretical approximation of protein, the same as forage sampling. It's not actually that accurate as 6.25 assumes that all of the N is bound up in protein chains.

For instance, Home and Dry and Maxxamon grain treatments claim that the protein content rises, which on the standard test, it does. Unfortunately, the rise is entirely N and the actual protein content hasn't changed