We have been ploughing digestate down prior to sowing winter crops for years and have occassionally topdressed spring crop in May with digestate as well, however we have very little experience of applying it on winter crop in early spring. We normally retain most of our digestate for grassland in March, but we have a little extra to play with this year and we were thinking of giving our hybrid rye an application in the coming weeks. This block of land is black sand and can be travelled on really at any stage. We're not in the business of wasting organic manures so we'd be keen to make sure whatever we do is done as accurately as possible and in settled weather.
On our most recent nutrient report the available NPK was 26:8:76 (units). Application would be via unbilical system with dribble bar. Normally we would apply 120-130 units of N to hybrid rye.
Have any of you any advice on best practise with this exercise? We're always weary of lodging and don't want to apply too much, but equally we're keen to keep fertiliser costs down so want to maximise the use of the digestate. Someone else suggested to me that the tyre tracks can leave plants more at risk of frost damage at a later stage. Is there anything in this?
Keen for your thoughts!
On our most recent nutrient report the available NPK was 26:8:76 (units). Application would be via unbilical system with dribble bar. Normally we would apply 120-130 units of N to hybrid rye.
Have any of you any advice on best practise with this exercise? We're always weary of lodging and don't want to apply too much, but equally we're keen to keep fertiliser costs down so want to maximise the use of the digestate. Someone else suggested to me that the tyre tracks can leave plants more at risk of frost damage at a later stage. Is there anything in this?
Keen for your thoughts!