Seed and Fertiliser bag size poll

[snarling bee]

I am fed up with being fobbed off with 500/600 kg bags when I want everything in tonnes. I keep being told that only a few customers want 1 tonne bags. I don't always belief them. So please vote so I know if I am the odd one out or not.
Please don't vote if you only buy 1800kg Ammonium Nitrate for a horse paddock for example. Min 10 tonne fertiliser or 5 tonne cereal seed orders I would suggest.

 

[stroller]

1tonne bags are fine for proper farmers like you but for us peasants with small farms 500kg is enough

 

[Shutesy]

I am fed up with being fobbed off with 500/600 kg bags when I want everything in tonnes. I keep being told that only a few customers want 1 tonne bags. I don't always belief them. So please vote so I know if I am the odd one out or not.
Please don't vote if you only buy 1800kg Ammonium Nitrate for a horse paddock for example. Min 10 tonne fertiliser or 5 tonne cereal seed orders I would suggest.

Fert in 600kgs, can just get 3 in spreader but not 2 1000kg bags, though mainly gone to liquid now. Seed in 500kgs, tractor can lift the drill fine with 500kgs in or 500kgs plus say 100kgs left at a fill so 600kgs total. Couldn't lift the drill with 1000kg+ of seed in and I dont want to start leaning under 1000kg bags retying the chute up everytime. Can see why bigger farms with trailed drills, bigger spreaders etc would want 1000kg bags.

 

[nick...]

My drill only holds about 600kg so ton bag would be a pain.600kg fertiliser bags are perfect too to get 3 bags in hopper.small bags are probably the only things that benefit us peasant farmers
Nick...

 

[Still Farming]

Is there any one selling 50kg size fert. Or seeds these days in the uk?
See lots abroad still?

 

[Brisel]

My drill struggles to hold more than a tonne from empty. If I had a big hopper and lots of hp to drag it up the hills it would be a different matter. The fert spinner holds a couple of tonnes so I've had tonne bags in the past. They stack much better but the curtain sider lorries can get the weight on better with 600 kg bags. I've tried getting 1 tonne bags for kieserite and MOP but they aren't normally available.

You can get 50 kg bags for some UK produced fertilisers but pay a premium for them. It wasn't that long ago people turned up at the merchant's yard with their spinners and filled up...

 

[yellow belly]

1tonne every time
2 tonne bags are a lot safer than 4 600 kg bags

 

[Boysground]

4 600kg bags fit in the spreader with some left from the previous trip. It won’t take 3t.

Drill will take 1.5t but I usually only put 2 bags in, the tractor pulls better up the banks with less weight and I have 2 fields where I can only put 1 bag in so I can get up the hills. Also 500kg bags tend to tie in with my smaller fields better.

Bg

 

[deleted user 837354]

I will never understand big farms still messing around with fertiliser in bags. Liquid and fibrophos in bulk solves the lot.

 

[radar]

Tractor struggles to lift 4 mtr combi drill as it is with 500kg in it, and thats with a water filled press on the front!

 

[pine_guy]

My old Fiona drill on the combi can only just hold 250kg if the bushel is good. So don’t think I’m ready for ton bags. Fert I could handle. I get 5 600 bags in my contractors machine.

 

[fudge]

One tonne bags where possible. Easier to deal with the empties. Having said that we accepted next years urea in 600kg bags because it was a good offer at the time.

 

[Jerry]

Merchant messed up here a few years back before I had a telehandler.

An artic loss of nitram turned up.

Upon opening the curtain sides I saw it was 1tonne bags.

All I had to unload it was a little MF5455 with loader.

 

[snarling bee]

That load was destined for me, and I had your load of 600s

 

[Clive]

I will never understand big farms still messing around with fertiliser in bags. Liquid and fibrophos in bulk solves the lot.

And helps reduce plastic waste a lot - like supermarket carrier bag I think it’s time ag plastic was taxed to make users think about reducing it

Not a popular thing to suggest I suspect but we really do have to clean up our act environmentally if we are going to survive as an industry

 

[Clive]

600 fits trucks better so reduces haulage costs

1 t is better imo but it costs more to transport

 

[fudge]

Hessian is the way forward. Flax anyone?

 

[Boohoo]

Is there any one selling 50kg size fert. Or seeds these days in the uk?
See lots abroad still?

50kg bags of fertiliser are still widely available here in Northern Ireland, along with 25kg bags of seed.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

And helps reduce plastic waste a lot - like supermarket carrier bag I think it’s time ag plastic was taxed to make users think about reducing it

Not a popular thing to suggest I suspect but we really do have to clean up our act environmentally if we are going to survive as an industry

$30/bag fee down here, bagged fert is pretty rare unless mineral mixes or biological stuff.

About the only bags we have in store are elemental S, as it's handy to add to a mix without tying up a bay and sulphur mixes tend to set unless cured or spread straightaway; and 25kg bags of moly / selenium / cobalt in prilled form.

Still cursed with 40kg bags of seed though, even oats etc seems to come on pallets of little bags for some reason ?

I like tonne bags FWIW

 

[traineefarmer]

And helps reduce plastic waste a lot - like supermarket carrier bag I think it’s time ag plastic was taxed to make users think about reducing it

Not a popular thing to suggest I suspect but we really do have to clean up our act environmentally if we are going to survive as an industry

This need preaching to the livestock supply industry just as much as the arable side. Cattle minerals arrive in 25kg bags on a pallet, cling-wrapped and a heat-shrunk cover over the top. A powder disinfectant we use is double bagged! Rarely is there a bulk option unless you want 28t tipped in your yard - I would happily move to 5/600kg big bags of minerals and scoop bucketfulls out, rather than deal with multiple pallets and huge piles of plastic to recycle every few months.

Let's not get started on PPP packaging! Fert in big bags is the least of our worries.

The problem with taxing the issue is the supply industry not changing its ways and just passing the charge on to us. They could start by at least giving us the option of receiving the goods in more economical packaging first.