Most efficient way to use Muck in FERT FIASCO!!!!

[Bossfarmer]

Given the fact these high fert prices are going to catch up to us all eventually, how do people plan to use their muck to get best use of it? It seems to me spreading straight out the shed in the spring and ploughed straight in then followed quickly by the drill is the best way to trap any available N and make use of it? Yet i see a lot of people just putting dung in a midden and cracking on with winter ploughing with nothing applied, surely the N will just evaporate over time out the midden?

Also do many people apply dung to grassland? Ive never tried this worried about it putting cows off or being baled up in silage?

@Hilly @gone up the hill @Clive @chaffcutter @mixed farm @Cowabunga @Cowmangav @Pringles @mixedfarming686 @Muck Spreader @lexion man

 

[czechmate]

If we get a decent freeze, in say February I am considering spreading some on winter cereals. Or if we have a seriously dry March
Also planning on a bit of spring spreading on grass, like you I have some concerns so probably only before hay

 

[Cowabunga]

Needs to be well rotted or composted before applying to grassland. Stone free and ideally in the autumn after cutting. Depending on the type of muck, a decent period may be required between applying and grazing, particularly if it is bird muck.

 

[redsloe]

I wouldn't worry about spreading dung on grass in the spring, it gets pulled in incredibly fast during April.

How about suggesting a muck for grain swap with an arable neighbour?

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

We're arable and do straw for muck with two beef neighbours. Normally muck before wheat in autumn.
We put chicken manure on wheat in the spring 24m down the trams with beef manure be lucky if it spreads 8-10m.
We dont like putting it on before a spring cereal as it means we have to cultivate and get weeds.
Considering composting the beef muck in windrows to get a better product to be able to throw it hopefully at least 12m to use in the spring

 

[quattro]

anyone spreading chicken muck on cereals at 28m (layers)

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

anyone spreading chicken muck on cereals at 28m (layers)

our contractor spreads on 30m for broiler manure, says can do 36m but its not ideal.
Uses a bunnings lowlander widebody with spreader discs

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Given the fact these high fert prices are going to catch up to us all eventually, how do people plan to use their muck to get best use of it? It seems to me spreading straight out the shed in the spring and ploughed straight in then followed quickly by the drill is the best way to trap any available N and make use of it? Yet i see a lot of people just putting dung in a midden and cracking on with winter ploughing with nothing applied, surely the N will just evaporate over time out the midden?

Also do many people apply dung to grassland? Ive never tried this worried about it putting cows off or being baled up in silage?

@Hilly @gone up the hill @Clive @chaffcutter @mixed farm @Cowabunga @Cowmangav @Pringles @mixedfarming686 @Muck Spreader @lexion man

well if you don't let it compost down a bit it will use up more N to brake down the straw if you apply it fresh out of shed and plough in, i can see the reason why people are windrowing it and putting it through a shreader, ends up more like compost for spreading more even and wider but it seams a bit of a faff and takes up a lot of space, where as a good heaped up midden will compost down quite well if left long enough

 

[jh.]

Last year I dunged a field and min tilled spring barley in . I think it worked better than ploughing it down as the crop got hold of it sooner . We grow malting barley and always had to watch when ploughed down as seems to go to the head and push up Ns . We always winter ploughed as spring ploughing is a waste of time here .

 

[Muck Spreader]

We tend to store shed muck until the autumn and put it on the arable fields just before cultivating and drilling. As it's mostly oats or triticale they only get a sniff of the N bag in the spring anyway. As the land around the farm tends to be dry even in winter we spread slurry on the grassland as we need, but I don't put any on grazing or haylage ground after the end of Jan. Usually, we put about 50 units of N across the hay and haylage fields in the spring, but that won't be happening this year.

 

[Clive]

Given the fact these high fert prices are going to catch up to us all eventually, how do people plan to use their muck to get best use of it? It seems to me spreading straight out the shed in the spring and ploughed straight in then followed quickly by the drill is the best way to trap any available N and make use of it? Yet i see a lot of people just putting dung in a midden and cracking on with winter ploughing with nothing applied, surely the N will just evaporate over time out the midden?

Also do many people apply dung to grassland? Ive never tried this worried about it putting cows off or being baled up in silage?

@Hilly @gone up the hill @Clive @chaffcutter @mixed farm @Cowabunga @Cowmangav @Pringles @mixedfarming686 @Muck Spreader @lexion man

there is a recent @ADAS @yen paper on exactly this in the TFF resource section

it’s worth a read / download

How to respond to costly fertiliser nitrogen for use in 2022

Research Review No. 97 Review of how best to respond to expensive fertiliser nitrogen for use in 2022 by Roger Sylvester-Bradley and Daniel Kindred 1. Abstract This is Part One of a two-part study to help cereal and oilseed growers respond...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[milkloss]

Have put some rot muck on silage ground the last few years. It doesn't always entirely disappear, especially if there's a strawy lump or two, so if in any doubt leave the rake and the tedder in the shed.

 

[Chae1]

We really need to be speaking to some organic farmers?

They normally cover muck heaps in fields to minimise losses.

 

[chipchap]

well if you don't let it compost down a bit it will use up more N to brake down the straw if you apply it fresh out of shed and plough in, i can see the reason why people are windrowing it and putting it through a shreader, ends up more like compost for spreading more even and wider but it seams a bit of a faff and takes up a lot of space, where as a good heaped up midden will compost down quite well if left long enough

I do appreciate it is the fashion amongst many at the moment to compost manure.

However do you in fact realise that composting manure in fact wastes one of the most valuable resources contained within, energy? It may be true that applying fresh manure to land may initially cause temporary nitrogen lock up, but the increased biological activity in the soil enabled by the energy content of the manure will release locked up macronutrients from the soil far in excess of those contained within the manure.

It is my honest opinion that the current method of P, K and Mg balance used by the industry is a completely inadequate system where significant amounts of organic manure are being applied.

 

[Dave6170]

We really need to be speaking to some organic farmers?

They normally cover muck heaps in fields to minimise losses.

I was looking through the little diary that I get from welch's seed and wondered why we don't all sow organic grass seed mixtures?

 

[jondear]

We really need to be speaking to some organic farmers?

They normally cover muck heaps in fields to minimise losses.

Covered my last heap before recent rain .

 

[mo!]

I do appreciate it is the fashion amongst many at the moment to compost manure.

However do you in fact realise that composting manure in fact wastes one of the most valuable resources contained within, energy? It may be true that applying fresh manure to land may initially cause temporary nitrogen lock up, but the increased biological activity in the soil enabled by the energy content of the manure will release locked up macronutrients from the soil far in excess of those contained within the manure.

It is my honest opinion that the current method of P, K and Mg balance used by the industry is a completely inadequate system where significant amounts of organic manure are being applied.

But I spent 5k on a course that told me composting was the answer to all ills?

 

[chaffcutter]

Neighbour of ours topdresses all his winter cereals with broiler litter in spring, not sure whether he tops up with bag N but his corn looks well
He’s on very light land so it travels well, don’t know what his yields are like.

 

[Still Farming]

Muck V Fertiliser is it?

 

[Boysground]

Muck V Fertiliser is it?

Both here, separated slurry on as much wheat and grass as I can when weather and nvz regs allow. Solid under maize and most of the rest swapped for straw and hay. Liquid is tested and n adjusted accordingly. A little more hit and miss with the solids.

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