The giant fert price rise!!!!

[Highland Mule]

I use bags and units, always have and aways will ,see no reason to change

I'm sure you see no reason to change from ambiguous units, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

6 Unit-Conversion Disasters

Forgetting to convert units of measurement can result in big-time disasters—like these six examples.

www.mentalfloss.com

 

[brigadoon]

A bag is 1cwt

not for a long time - became 25Kg many years ago

 

[Agrivator]

not for a long time - became 25Kg many years ago

A bag of fertiliser is 50Kg - equivalent to the old cwt bags.

Units/acre is far more meaningful than kg/ha.

And almost everyone in the UK with a car will talk about miles/gallon, even though most of them will have no idea what a gallon is. For anyone who doesn't know, its 4.54 litres or thereabouts.

 

[brigadoon]

A bag of fertiliser is 50Kg - equivalent to the old cwt bags.

Units/acre is far more meaningful than kg/ha.

And almost everyone in the UK with a car will talk about miles/gallon, even though most of them will have no idea what a gallon is. For anyone who doesn't know, its 4.54 litres or thereabouts.

Units per acre may well be meaningful to you

It means absolutely nothing to me

I do however know what a Kg is and what a Hectare is

 

[Agrivator]

Units per acre may well be meaningful to you

It means absolutely nothing to me

I do however know what a Kg is and what a Hectare is

Is there any other farmer in Galloway who talks in hectares?

I admit that one or two farmers in Peeblesshire refer to ''hectares'' as 'hectacres'' but that's a close as they come to ditching the acre. And I know of one farmer, now diseased, who regarded the metric system a ''diffusing''.

When it comes to land area, the acre is supreme. And feet and inches are far more reliable when it comes to small measurements of length, breadth and height.

 

[hally]

Been drilling grass seeds in kg per acre for as long as I remember…..despite my drill operating in hectares

 

[brigadoon]

Is there any other farmer in Galloway who talks in hectares?

I admit that one or two farmers in Peeblesshire refer to ''hectares'' as 'hectacres'' but that's a close as they come to ditching the acre. And I know of one farmer, now diseased, who regarded the metric system a ''diffusing''.

When it comes to land area, the acre is supreme. And feet and inches are far more reliable when it comes to small measurements of length, breadth and height.

Actually I never said anything about talking in Hectares - I fully agree that everyone (me included) talks in acres. I was taught what an acre was at school.

But I calculate applications in Kg/Ha because that is what is in the manual

I had no idea what a "Unit" was until I googled it.

I do disagree with your last paragraph - hectares are far more logical - I did have the great joy of describing what an acre was to my son =

But then I had to explain what a furlong was - and a chain.

I lost him totally when I explained that an inch derived from three grains of wheat end to end

 

[RhysT]

200kg per acre per cut on haylage ground 21.8.11

No slurry though!

Just to update. Harvested our second cut haylage on the 28th of Aug. Round bales averaged 6.8 bales per acre over 68 acres.

Most of the fields cropped just over 7 bales, one batch on reseeded ground, reseeded spring 2020 only averaged 6.4 per acre. Dissapointed with the reseed quantity, but the grass looked nice in the bale.
the rest of our haylage ground hasn't been reseeded for 20plus years

 

[2wheels]

friend of mine’s brother when he was 13/14 was told by his dad to put 2 bags an acre on. Fair to say dad wasn’t Impressed when he came back and asked when the next wagon load was coming for the other fields it burnt the whole field off.

spread fert for a customer. i calibrated the spreader as per usual. when i finished the field i thought i hadn't used enough big bags. i said to the farmer i would go over it again to correct the rate at no charge to him. however before i started again i checked and realised the bags were 600kgs not the usual 500kgs that he usually had. i went back to the farmer and explained, i think he believed i was nuts. it did prove my calibration was spot on.

 

[Gedd]

A bag of fertiliser is 50Kg - equivalent to the old cwt bags.

Units/acre is far more meaningful than kg/ha.

And almost everyone in the UK with a car will talk about miles/gallon, even though most of them will have no idea what a gallon is. For anyone who doesn't know, its 4.54 litres or thereabouts.

Is a unit a kg or in the case of nitram at 34.5 n 34.5 units

 

[curlietailz]

Is a unit a kg or in the case of nitram at 34.5 n 34.5 units

There are 34.5 units in a 50kg bag of Nitram I think
But there is 17.25 Kg N in the same bag
Because it’s 34.5% N and that’s 34.5kg per 100kg ie 2 x 50kg bag

??

( I hope that’s right !!!!!)

 

[Gedd]

There are 34.5 units in a 50kg bag of Nitram I think
But there is 17.25 Kg N in the same bag
Because it’s 34.5% N and that’s 34.5kg per 100kg ie 2 x 50kg bag

??

 

[Jackov Altraids]

Actually I never said anything about talking in Hectares - I fully agree that everyone (me included) talks in acres. I was taught what an acre was at school.

But I calculate applications in Kg/Ha because that is what is in the manual

I had no idea what a "Unit" was until I googled it.

I do disagree with your last paragraph - hectares are far more logical - I did have the great joy of describing what an acre was to my son =

But then I had to explain what a furlong was - and a chain.

I lost him totally when I explained that an inch derived from three grains of wheat end to end

Metric is obviously more logical mathematically but I think imperial is much more logical to the human eye.
I would love to been given the time and money to research this but I'm willing to bet that someone that only uses imperial measures will make much more accurate guesstimates than someone who only uses metric. They are just handier sized units.

 

[Agrivator]

Is a unit a kg or in the case of nitram at 34.5 n 34.5 units

Fertiliser was sold in 112lb bags - called one hundred weight. or 1 cwt for short.

A common analysis of a compound fertiliser was 20:10:10. In other words, it contained 20 percentage units of nitrogen, 10 of phosphate, and 10 of Potash. And one percentage unit weighed 1.12lb (which is almost equivalent to 0,5kg)

So if you applied 3 cwt/acre of 20:10:10, you were applying 60 units/acre of N, 30 of Phosphate and 30 of Potash.

In the same way, Nitram was a common straight nitrogen fertiliser, and it contained 34.5% nitrogen, And so 3cwt/acre supplied approx. 100 units /acre of nitrogen. And it made the grass grow like never before.

But Napoleon, or at least his Civil Servants, didn't realise what chaos they were about to cause when they introduced metrication. The old cwt bag eventually became 50 kg (110lb), and a 50 kg bag of 20:10:10 contained 10kg of N, 5Kg of Phosphate and 5kg of Potash.

And then for some stupid reason, about 50 years ago, Britain adopted the Hectare. And with the invention of the fore-end loader, fertiliser began to be delivered in 500kg bags, or even (with urea) 600 kg bags. Fertiliser recommendations were in kg/ha rather than in units/acre, and life then became very complicated, particularly when nearly every farmer still thought in acres and units.

And now, after 50 years of constant propaganda, most farmers still think in acres. Why on earth did we ever accept the hectare as a unit of land measurement??????

 

[Flatlander]

Fertiliser was sold in 112lb bags - called one hundred weight. or 1 cwt for short.

A common analysis of a compound fertiliser was 20:10:10. In other words, it contained 20 percentage units of nitrogen, 10 of phosphate, and 10 of Potash. And one percentage unit weighed 1.12lb (which is almost equivalent to 0,5kg)

So if you applied 3 cwt/acre of 20:10:10, you were supplying 60 units/acre of N, 30 of Phosphate and 30 of Potash.

In the same way, Nitram was common straight nitrogen fertiliser, and it contained 34.5% nitrogen, And so 3cwt/acre supplied approx. 100 units /acre of nitrogen. And it made the grass grow like never before.

But Napoleon, or at least his Civil Servants, didn't realise what chaos they were about to cause when they introduced metrication. The old cwt bag eventually became 50 kg (110lb), and a 50 kg bag of 20:10:10 contained 10kg of N, 5Kg of Phosphate and 5kg of Potash.

And then for some stupid reason, about 50 years ago, Britain adopted the Hectare. And with the invention of the fore-end loader, fertiliser began to be delivered in 500kg bags, or even (with urea) 600 kg bags. Fertiliser recommendations were in kg/ha rather than in units/acre, and life then became very complicated, particularly when nearly every farmer still thought in acres and units.

And now, after 50 years of constant propaganda, most farmers still think in acres. Why on earth did we ever accept the hectare as a unit of land measurement??????

Very mixed up in Canada too. Most of Manitoba is on a one mile grid road pattern. Each 1 mile square is 640 acres. we buy it in quarters or 160 acres generally. Most farmers are unsure wat a hectare is. Fertilizer is bought by the metric ton in bulk. We apply it in pounds per acre. yield Is in bushels per acre,sold in tons but price quoated per bushel. Chemicals are generally in US gallons or 3.78 litres. Fuel is in litres but the tank it goes in is in US gallons. Road speed signs are in kmh. 60 miles south into the states and math becomes even more important. Mph,ounces per acre for chemicals fuel bought by the US gallon which ironically is trucked from the terminal here in Winnipeg over the border into N Dakota and magically becomes cheaper than here.