Liquid or solid fert spreading

[Case290]

Reason I’m going to liquid
Solid fert striping and overlap control

 

[T Hectares]

I went from liquid to solid six years ago

Just another step in retaining independence and flexibility which I think is increasingly important, put a merchants tank on farm and you are a price taker!!

I’ve used all sorts of solid products in the last six years (AN/Urea/AS/polysulphate) and saved a lot of cash over liquid terms

It’s a ring fenced farm with large field size and no watercourses, I’ve some old barns ideal for storage and the most important aspect is that there’s two of us here so we can cover large areas with a spinner and sprayer on the inevitable one decent day of the week without worrying about spray/fert intervals and scorch or plugging on in all weathers applying liquid as you have to to keep up

The sprayer will last a very long time now and solid spreaders have great tech, accuracy and capacity, current one is 13 years old

Liquid can work well on spread out farms/one man bands, but there’s no yield benefit either way so I like solid, this year buying in solid early has saved a substantial sum v liquid where some autumn tank fill would be bought then be supplemented by a pretty stiff spring fill price, and you’ve got their tanks on farm so don’t really have an option but to take it

Each farms different but I’m very happy with the switch

Edit, liquid is bloody horrible sticky stuff

 

[Nailbourne]

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.

What form/brand of Potassium Sulphate do you use? Does it spread accurately?

 

[Nailbourne]

I have been happy with our mix of liquid on a further away farm (but always solid on the last application) and solid on closer farms with buildings. We’re always going to need a spinner for P and K and also for grassland. BUT the price difference this last June means I’ll be looking closely in 2022. Even if I need to buy a second spinner.