Liquid or solid fert spreading

[Chae1]

Same as when you are spraying them.

I like to circle poles. Do you not get doubled bits with boom turning back on itself?

 

[Jim75]

I like to circle poles. Do you not get doubled bits with boom turning back on itself?

20+ yr old sprayer here, just flick outside off, at least on the grass you don’t really see any overlaps as such unless for silage. Can do 100ac in a fill if just top dressing or 60ac with spinner putting same kg/N on. Maybe aren’t going as fast but less travelling.

 

[PSQ]

We have our old 3000 litre bulk tank was thinking of using that, fill with the required amount of water turn on the agitators and have a bin above with a slide on to slowly let the fert in

As long as it’s got enough agitation then it should be fine, especially if it’s stainless (won’t rot out).
2nd thoughts, if it’s insulated it won’t allow the external heat to transfer through?!
Is it hidden away in a shaded building, or could it be moved into direct sunlight? Also, to absorb the suns heat it would be better if it was mat black, silver will reflect the heat.
With 3000L capacity, it would be easy to reduce the size of a batch to fit 2x 600kg bags instead of 1330kg for the full tank.
And a detail I forgot in the earlier post, add half of the urea, let it melt, then add the 2nd half. That way it doesn’t overwhelm the agitation by adding it all at once. Send a direct message if you need any help.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

If you already have the urea why go to the faff of melting it down, just put it through a spreader

 

[ajd132]

If you already have the urea why go to the faff of melting it down, just put it through a spreader

We used to do it with really low quality bulk urea and sulphur that would never spreader.If anyone is looking for an agroco mixing tank I have at least one for sale . All good working order.

 

[ewald]

I can’t justify a decent accurate spreader on my acreage - my elderly trailed Gem sprayer can put on liquid very accurately, with nothing in ditches and hedges. One storage tank is all that is needed, with a partial top up in the spring.
I used to find there was quite a bit of waste fert from cleaning the spreader/ mis-judging the amount needed to finish the field. Now I just pump the surplus back into the tank.

I would agree that on a larger farm with a modern spreader these points are less of an issue - liquid works for me, though.

 

[Fish]

If you already have the urea why go to the faff of melting it down, just put it through a spreader

Well, you can use prilled urea, which is almost impossible to spread any distance with a spinner, you can also add Cristal ammonium sulphate to make N/S blends.
+ liquid is way more accurate on exposed sites and the outer 8m on the headlands.

 

[robs1]

If you already have the urea why go to the faff of melting it down, just put it through a spreader

Our average field size is about 12 acres lots of headlands and lost yield we will just use it on the outside

 

[Sandy]

When applying liquid fert, what do you do when you come to electric poles in fields?

Close you’re eyes and hope for the best

 

[TripleSix]

Liquid

Accurate to apply, unaffected by wind, can be applied on days you wouldn't spray, IE windy or damp.
Doesn't need a shed for storage, doesn't need a loader, safer due to not dealing with dangling bags.

Auto shut offs on the sprayer make it a tidy job.

We had a spinner with auto section control, very clever but you needed a degree in rocket science to work the damn thing.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

what do you all use for P&K when using liquid N, we're on vari-rate mop, tsp and granular N and N+S, sometimes i can be chasing the spreader out of the field with the sprayer so getting both jobs done on same day when conditions allow, all singing all dancing amazone spreader never had any striping yet and if firm enough under foot it can hold 7 bags so you can cover a lot of ground on a fill at 28m

 

[PSQ]

what do you all use for P&K when using liquid N, we're on vari-rate mop, tsp and granular N and N+S, sometimes i can be chasing the spreader out of the field with the sprayer so getting both jobs done on same day when conditions allow, all singing all dancing amazone spreader never had any striping yet and if firm enough under foot it can hold 7 bags so you can cover a lot of ground on a fill at 28m

Contractor applied variable rate Fibrophos, applied on the phosphate map, and a bit of potassium sulphate in the brew at T1/T2.

I like the idea that Fibrophos comes with copper, zinc and a lot of other trace elements; but unlike MoP there’s no chlorine.

 

[fudge]

Solid. Been in and out of liquid twice, on both occasions it was for the same reason. It’s not always possible on our small scale to buy liquid when urea is low in cost. The price difference on those occasions easily pays for a spreader. In a captive market there are only limited suppliers anyway choosing liquid further limits that choice. It’s is a good system though.

 

[ollie989898]

what do you all use for P&K when using liquid N, we're on vari-rate mop, tsp and granular N and N+S, sometimes i can be chasing the spreader out of the field with the sprayer so getting both jobs done on same day when conditions allow, all singing all dancing amazone spreader never had any striping yet and if firm enough under foot it can hold 7 bags so you can cover a lot of ground on a fill at 28m

Contractor to put on P and K in fibrophos form. Better for the soil anyway in my view and can be done in the autumn in one fell swoop.

I'd go liquid for the pure reason of no having to handle or store bags. No disposal, no dust. Spray it on when raining or too windy for spraying.

So there is some overlap, fudge it.

Modern sprayer with GPS control makes things easier, which is a bit more sensible to justify if you are putting liquid on as well and thus saving several thousand pounds buying a spreader.

 

[hillman]

Add urea to water in some form of open top tank and agitate continuously. It’s an endothermic reaction so it needs lots of heat from the surroundings to complete, to the point that the tank will form a frost rhind in anything less than 15 degrees air temperature. Typically it will take 12 hours for the rhind to melt at which point you’ll know the reaction is complete, but have a poke on the bottom of the tank with a stick to make sure. Good agitation is key, so use a 2” pacer / 330L/m pump or larger, with Venturi type jets. The warmer the ambient temperature the faster it will complete. At 5 Celsius it takes an age, above ten a lot better, above 15C is ideal.

Recipe per 1000L of N20.4%:
704L of water
444 kg urea
View attachment 1005013

At what rate are you applying this out at ?

 

[PSQ]

At what rate are you applying this out at ?

Depends on the application. For the last dose of N on OSR I apply it at just under 150L/ha (30kg N) through normal sprayer nozzles onto the pods. Urea is the same as ‘Nufol’, unless anyone knows differently.
For cereals I make a different brew with urea and ammonium sulphate (23%N) with 3 passes of 300L , but that needs fertiliser jets or it would scortch the leaf off.

 

[Renaultman]

Just changed to liquid here.

reason been we had an ageing spreader and sprayer as well as storage issues for bags.

So liquid tank in the yard frees up shed space

And on our smaller number of acres, putting the fert spinner replacement money into a better sprayer that would do 2 jobs was the logical way forwards.

Same here but 4 years ago, for the same reasons. Smallish acreage so sprayer is more than capable of managing both fert and chemical.

 

[Against_the_grain]

Was liquid. Gone back to solid

 

[ajd132]

Was liquid. Gone back to solid

What was your reason?

 

[Longneck]

Been all liquid for last 15 years but this year bought mainly solid (as that was all I could get at a sensible price) so have bought a spreader and the tech on them now is quite impressive.

Would still like to keep using some liquid tho as others have said.