liquid N

[Billboy1]

do you use liquid N on your haylage / hay fields or is it best to use a compound like 20.10.10 ?

 

[N.Yorks.]

do you use liquid N on your haylage / hay fields or is it best to use a compound like 20.10.10 ?

Can't say unless you've got soil P, K, Mg and pH analysis as P and K requirement differs dependant upon how much you've got banked in the soil?

To achieve the correct balance of nutrients it's unlikely one product alone will achieve best yields.

Need to supply N, P, K and sulphur, so straight liquid N is unlikely to give best result and 20:10:10 isn't guaranteed to give you the correct balance oif N, P, K.

Have you used muck/slurry? If yes then this'll potentially go a long way to reduce either P and K requirements..........

 

[deleted user 837354]

You shouldn't be using any fertiliser at all without knowing what your soil indices are like. The days of just applying 20.10.10 and hoping for the best are long gone, you could be spending a lot of money needlessly without recent soil tests and then accounting for manures and slurries etc where appropriate.

 

[Billboy1]

I don’t ! It was more a question of liquid n and compounds or a 20.10.10 type product. I’m actually on vari rate p& k but question it’s value now and thinking just going back to whole field values as things have evened up a bit

 

[deleted user 837354]

I don’t ! It was more a question of liquid n and compounds or a 20.10.10 type product. I’m actually on vari rate p& k but question it’s value now and thinking just going back to whole field values as things have evened up a bit

It is down to your soil indices and what other sources of P and K you might be using.

There is no reason someone couldn't use liquid N (and sulphur) for all their nitrogen requirements, even on grass. I had clients who used to do it and one of them told me they thought the grass responded to liquid N faster than when he used bagged product. The other used it because he had no fertiliser spreader any longer and preferred liquid for his arable enterprise.

If you are prepared to use other forms of P and K or apply it in some other way then there is no reason you couldn't use liquid N on all your grass, to make hay or whatever really.

Long term you could switch to things like fibrophos or similar and have a contractor spread it once a year rotationally etc to give you the required P and K as necessary and then rely on the sprayer for the nitrogen and sulphur. The problem with 20.10.10 I always found is that you get stuck with it and it won't suit all situations as you are basically having to apply P and K whenever you want nitrogen, and, being a compound, it's more expensive than straight N.

 

[teslacoils]

I use liquid N + S on grassland. Gives me something to do when it's a bit drizzly.

 

[Brisel]

do you use liquid N on your haylage / hay fields or is it best to use a compound like 20.10.10 ?

I won't go into the P and K supply vs requirements as this was covered above. You will need P and K to cover offtake at some point and you will struggle to get a lot of K in liquid fertilisers as it just isn't able to stay in solution at high concentrations. Don't forget to have some sulphur with your N.

If you have a good logistical reason for going to liquid then goo for it, but if you're on relatively narrow spreading widths then you can certainly get solid NPKS blends more cheaply and spread with a disc spreader. Liquid is all or nothing with coverage so without GPS or tramlines I'd be careful with liquid if you don't want to see double dosing or missed bits.

There is no agronomic reason that liquid is any less effective on grass as solid, only the PK debate above really.

 

[N.Yorks.]

I don’t ! It was more a question of liquid n and compounds or a 20.10.10 type product. I’m actually on vari rate p& k but question it’s value now and thinking just going back to whole field values as things have evened up a bit

Yes if you've evened up the variability it makes sense to migrate to a simpler system for a while for sure.

If you've evened up its possible to look at the variable map points and work out what your whole field average is for P and K ppm/indices and that'd give you the information about what proportions you'll need for N,P,K,S for blanket coverage.

As mentioned above S is something not to be missed, maybe 40 kg SO3/ha before your 1st cut. Could apply that in with a first split of N so use AN/AS 27N:30S, (double top for example) at 140kg/ha (product) then top up with AN two to four weeks later, depending on weather, expected DM yield, slurries/manures already applied etc.

 

[Kildare]

Don't use liquid n over here in Ireland as it would have to be bought in by the lorry load from the UK.
With N restrictions now I would like to know if liquid is more effective. Would 120kgs of liguid give a similar yield to 160 kgs solid for example

 

[Brisel]

Don't use liquid n over here in Ireland as it would have to be bought in by the lorry load from the UK.
With N restrictions now I would like to know if liquid is more effective. Would 120kgs of liguid give a similar yield to 160 kgs solid for example

There is no yield benefit to using liquid, kg for kg, unless you’re a fan of Poly N and that’s debatable. It’s mostly a logistical solution. Some people melt their own which has a cost advantage if you have the equipment and can buy cheap prillled or distressed urea.

 

[farmerdan7618]

Looking at liquid fert for grassland here, contractor supply and apply. Biggest concern is scorch, is it a big risk and what are best conditions to minimise?

Apply in drizzle?

 

[Brisel]

Scorch is a problem but it doesn't reduce yield unless you do it badly. Apply it in high winds on a hot sunny day and you will not be happy. If you apply it as a spray rather than streams you will really scorch it.

 

[Dextersg]

Scorch is a problem but it doesn't reduce yield unless you do it badly. Apply it in high winds on a hot sunny day and you will not be happy. If you apply it as a spray rather than streams you will really scorch it.

what in your opinion is the ideal time lapse from applying nitrogen to pasture for hay to mowing

 

[teslacoils]

Don't use liquid n over here in Ireland as it would have to be bought in by the lorry load from the UK.
With N restrictions now I would like to know if liquid is more effective. Would 120kgs of liguid give a similar yield to 160 kgs solid for example

Could you make your own liquid urea?

 

[Brisel]

what in your opinion is the ideal time lapse from applying nitrogen to pasture for hay to mowing

The same as for solid fertiliser! At least 6 weeks depending on the dose.

Too short an interval and a) you won't get the benefit of the fertiliser in bulk yield and b) you will have high amino content in the hay that reduces palatability and wastes fertiliser.

 

[Dextersg]

The same as for solid fertiliser! At least 6 weeks depending on the dose.

Too short an interval and a) you won't get the benefit of the fertiliser in bulk yield and b) you will have high amino content in the hay that reduces palatability and wastes fertiliser.

That’s what I thought about 6 weeks, few years ago we couldn’t get fert on the silage ground till late and I think it was about 4 to 5 weeks from spreading till cutting silage and the cows had a lot of gut problems in the winter. Quite a bit of the fertiliser had come back in the pit with the grass