Granular and liquid fertiliser in same field.

[Chae1]

I'm always hearing on here how one of the biggest advantages of liquid fertiliser is increased yields from headlands.

We have a lot of ten acre fields so I'm thinking of spraying all headlands with liquid and filling in middles with granular.

Does anyone else do this? If you do how do you work the ins and outs? With granular you are obviously working on a certain degree of overlap.

 

[michael N123]

If you’ve the equipment +storage for liquid why would you use granular

 

[KB6930]

I know someone did a pass of each on the whole field as a trial .

The in's and out's were not good with the granular as they couldn't go back the opposite way to even it up next time . I'd imagine the results would be similar in your situation.

 

[dirty harry]

Just go round between the tramline and border (12m?) with a top up liquid? Cheers dh

 

[deleted user 837354]

The main bonuses are less dust, less handling and being able to apply it in the pishing rain if necessary. Also, clients I had who did it for their grass said less fertiliser was making its way near hedgerows so you encouraged less of the gruff under hedges to grow.

 

[Barleymow]

Do the outside 10 m with home made liquid ,can see the difference do it on a wet day with conventional nozzels

 

[Boysground]

The main bonuses are less dust, less handling and being able to apply it in the pishing rain if necessary. Also, clients I had who did it for their grass said less fertiliser was making its way near hedgerows so you encouraged less of the gruff under hedges to grow.

Dont forget no plastic bags to get rid of

Bg

 

[deleted user 837354]

Dont forget no plastic bags to get rid of

Bg

That too. And storage is a lot simpler too. No second machine needed. I know one contractor does a lot of liquid for people and they take it to farms in a tanker to fill the sprayer?? Sounds like an interesting service to me.

 

[Simon Chiles]

I'm always hearing on here how one of the biggest advantages of liquid fertiliser is increased yields from headlands.

We have a lot of ten acre fields so I'm thinking of spraying all headlands with liquid and filling in middles with granular.

Does anyone else do this? If you do how do you work the ins and outs? With granular you are obviously working on a certain degree of overlap.

I’m really struggling to work out why you’d want to do solid fertiliser in the middle of the field when you’re going to do liquid on the headland. Surely once you’re there with the liquid you’d just do the whole field otherwise you’re just making hard work of the job. Having made the transition to liquid about 5 years ago there is no way that I’d go back to solid.

 

[Against_the_grain]

Just to give a different side of the story we moved to a liquid fert system 3 years ago and are now actually thinking about going back to a solid system. The advantages of lower capital cost, accuracy and storage advantages with liquid are offset for us by increased workload on a busy machine (sprayer), underutilisation of labour, scorch and chemical application intervals.

 

[AndrewB]

I’ve done 3 m round the outside of a few fields with liquid one year when we had an uneven spread on the outside.

in theory it should be no different if you did whole outside with the sprayer and inside with spreader. Newer GPS spreaders might not like it so much.

 

[Chae1]

I'm looking at changing my sprayer. Next 1 will be capable of liquid fert so just thought I might try some.

We bought a new fert spreader last year. Didn't bother with weigh cells or section control. Sprayer will have section control.

Lots of people bang on about how much more accurate liquid is on edge of fields. So thought that would be a good place to start to gain some yield and reduce fert wasted.

I take peoples points about just doing whole field though.

 

[Zebbedee]

I'm looking at changing my sprayer. Next 1 will be capable of liquid fert so just thought I might try some.

We bought a new fert spreader last year. Didn't bother with weigh cells or section control. Sprayer will have section control.

Lots of people bang on about how much more accurate liquid is on edge of fields. So thought that would be a good place to start to gain some yield and reduce fert wasted.

I take peoples points about just doing whole field though.

We are predominately liquid now I wasn’t all that bothered about it to begin with but a few years in it certainly has its advantages as far as endrigs go rtk drilled also helps application no bags to blow about etc and no shed to store in and no forkliftt to shift about,,,,, the big advantage of granular for me was if available I could put two guys to job and spreader would hardly stop very efficient time wise, I could do the same with liquid but means buying a bowser whereas I already have a forklift

 

[T Hectares]

Just to give a different side of the story we moved to a liquid fert system 3 years ago and are now actually thinking about going back to a solid system. The advantages of lower capital cost, accuracy and storage advantages with liquid are offset for us by increased workload on a busy machine (sprayer), underutilisation of labour, scorch and chemical application intervals.

I moved back to soild 5 years ago

Liquid v Solid both have their merits but for me there was no saving in labour or machinery, there’s 2 of us on farm, we had a spinner so it was unit cost of N which made the difference, Urea made a decent saving over liquid

The knock on advantages of solid for me are better timeliness as we can spread and spray simultaneously whereas with liquid there’s always a compromise, I disliked putting Liquid on in the rain scrabbling about on the hills making a mess of tramlines and pulling mud onto the road
I really do not miss scorching crops !!

I have a decent average field size and no watercourses so solid is fine here, but the near future if Urea goes is probably to products like PolyN, better efficiencies, lower Carbon footprint, less passes when mixed in with fungicides

 

[Bumble Bee]

That too. And storage is a lot simpler too. No second machine needed. I know one contractor does a lot of liquid for people and they take it to farms in a tanker to fill the sprayer?? Sounds like an interesting service to me.

That's what we do. Tankers delivered to a nearby yard or layby. Then bowsers ferry the fert direct to the sprayers. Great in a wet time as sprayers can stay in the field and not drag mud onto the roads.

 

[deleted user 837354]

That's what we do. Tankers delivered to a nearby yard or layby. Then bowsers ferry the fert direct to the sprayers. Great in a wet time as sprayers can stay in the field and not drag mud onto the roads.

When you say tankers, are we talking artics?

 

[Bumble Bee]

When you say tankers, are we talking artics?

Yes artics.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Yes artics.

Nice.

 

[cotswoldcs]

Bringing up this thread as I'm considering a move to liquid fertiliser if we change our sprayer. Currently spread mainly CF Nitram and DoubleTop. Do most liquid users have a tank for different product types? How many tanks and what size? Do they need a concrete base?

Biggest drawback to liquid I can see is price. Correct me if I'm wrong but liquid seems a lot more expensive per ha. If it were a similar price or cheaper I'd jump at the liquid route.

 

[Thomas Simpson]

Our tanks are 40,000l, best on a concrete pad. The more product you use the cheaper the tanks are to rent. normally order autumn fill and then when empty get topped up again. If near watercourse will need bunding.