Where to buy Fertiliser spread testing kit

[davidroberts30]

 

[JeremyD]

Had a company here last week who told me I could test 2 products. Anyway. 30 minutes and £250 later having claimed a headland test was the 2nd product therefore only one product was tested I am now after my own kit . Felt slightly ripped off by said company . Where’s the best place to buy a kit from? Thanks

Begin with s and end with s by any chance?

 

[DrWazzock]

Can’t folk judge anything by eye nowadays. We are slowly losing our faculties by relying on expensive gizmos to tell us everything from how to go straight to how thick fertiliser is on the ground.
Half the day is gone before some folk get started, clatting about with trays and tubes.

 

[Phil P]

Can’t folk judge anything by eye nowadays. We are slowly losing our faculties by relying on expensive gizmos to tell us everything from how to go straight to how thick fertiliser is on the ground.
Half the day is gone before some folk get started, clatting about with trays and tubes.

I’d hardly call 20 minutes with a few cheep trays and test tubes relying on expensive gizmos! And with N over £600/t it could be the most profitable 20 minutes of the year. And If you honestly think you can accurately set spread pattern just by looking at the prills on the ground your either deluded or trying to wined people up! It’s impossible especially at wide spread widths, if the difference is visible by eye it must be well over 25% out!

 

[DrWazzock]

Well I usually look up the product on the Amazone database and set the vanes accordingly. I have laid hessian sacks at 2 m intervals going 12 m from the centre of my 24m spreader to get some idea but never got to the test tube stage. I just sort of gathered each sack to bring the fert into a heap in the middle and compared heap size on each sack.
Might try test tubes but I reckon I can see by eye where it’s thick and thin on bare soil. Not frightened to prove myself wrong though.

 

[DrWazzock]

What kind of rate are people testing with? Had an attempt at diy testing last couple of years. Have to go v slow or high rate to get enough granules in garden trays.

I’d doubt there is enough to show up significance difference in height of fill of a standard test tube unless you use a fairly big collector then how do you tip out into a funnel without spilling?
I’m applying anything from 80 to 150 kg of product normally. At those rates I’d say going on prills under your hand or between spread first and second finger gives you a reasonable measure to work on. Or make a small frame, throw it down and count prills within at points across the width.
Some products like Ag salt vary from wet dust to lumps the size of ball bearings that go across three tramlines. Just looking on the ground your eye compensates for different particle size which would throw the test tube system out due to packing density effect.

 

[DrWazzock]

I’ll try it though. Don’t mind a project.

 

[jd6420s]

Well I got a set of 10 trays for £350 from SCS last year. I have to say it doesn't look great value for money. I had three products to test .Unless you are putting on well over 100kg product per acre there won't be much in the test tube. Spent quite some time getting all the trays and inserts set up to find that actually I had been spreading it perfectly using factory settings all along.
There doesn't seem much choice out there if you want an actual kit made for the job and ones people have put together from the garden centre don't look too dissimilar for a fraction of the price.

 

[DrWazzock]

I often find, as with the combine, that the first setting is the best setting. Start fiddling, and I end up in an OCD, continuous loop.

 

[2wheels]

I’d doubt there is enough to show up significance difference in height of fill of a standard test tube unless you use a fairly big collector then how do you tip out into a funnel without spilling?
I’m applying anything from 80 to 150 kg of product normally. At those rates I’d say going on prills under your hand or between spread first and second finger gives you a reasonable measure to work on. Or make a small frame, throw it down and count prills within at points across the width.
Some products like Ag salt vary from wet dust to lumps the size of ball bearings that go across three tramlines. Just looking on the ground your eye compensates for different particle size which would throw the test tube system out due to packing density effect.

i would take longer to count the prills than it would to tray test it. as for striping i think it has to be nr=early 20%? out before you can see it in crops. happy to be corrected.

 

[DrWazzock]

Wonder if 6 2m lengths of rainwater guttering laid in same direction as travel would give better for and aft averaging and also easy to pour into funnel / test tubes. Could store them in the hopper.
As you drive you see the prills going out in waves. If your trays aren’t that big they might be catching or not catching waves as you pass depending how fast forward you are going relative to disc speed and whether the long it short vane is chucking it out at the time. It shouldn’t matter but I bet it makes a difference.

 

[thesilentone]

You only really need two trays, one that just misses the tractor wheel, one exactly in the middle of the tramlines, up one tram, down the other and see if there is an equal amount in each tray.

 

[jd6420s]

You only really need two trays, one that just misses the tractor wheel, one exactly in the middle of the tramlines, up one tram, down the other and see if there is an equal amount in each tray.

I think you're right about the positioning but you actually catch very little in one tray so it is hard to see the difference in each tray. You could up the rate and that will show up any discrepancies better. You could also put a series of trays in the same place and that would also do the same. You would also only be testing one side of the spreader with your method so you would have to reposition the trays for the other side.

 

[thesilentone]

I think you're right about the positioning but you actually catch very little in one tray so it is hard to see the difference in each tray. You could up the rate and that will show up any discrepancies better. You could also put a series of trays in the same place and that would also do the same. You would also only be testing one side of the spreader with your method so you would have to reposition the trays for the other side.

Once up and down and there should be exactly the same in each tray. A couple of milk sample containers are ideal for comparing.

Upping the rate for the test can help, but it can also affect the spread pattern.

 

[David.]

I think the people who come out and baffle you with science and jazzy graphs are charlatans. £350 to test a particular batch of one product, under one set of atmospheric conditions on one day. Another day another result basically.
Sulky style kit does all you need for nothing, and because there are only 4 trays it is quick and easy to do, so gets done regularly.

 

[bumkin]

I think the people who come out and baffle you with science and jazzy graphs are charlatans. £350 to test a particular batch of one product, under one set of atmospheric conditions on one day. Another day another result basically.
Sulky style kit does all you need for nothing, and because there are only 4 trays it is quick and easy to do, so gets done regularly.

I have used egg trays in the past

 

[robbie]

I borrowed a sulky kit and found it very good. I then copied it to make my own from trays that I bought form B and M or home bargains. I used 4 syringes mounded on a piece of wood with holes drilled in it.
First time out and I placed my trays with the sulky ones and had the same result so I'm sure they're good enough for the Job and only cost me a 10er or so.

I can test/Check ever day if I wish not just once a year on a given day under certain conditions.

I think SCS et al are yet another case of how can we extract a bit more from the farmer. I'm sure they're good and profession but also I've heard some horror stories and if I cock it up it hasn't cost me £350!

 

[Zippy768]

Once up and down and there should be exactly the same in each tray. A couple of milk sample containers are ideal for comparing.

Upping the rate for the test can help, but it can also affect the spread pattern.

Tried the milk sample pots. Not really a go-er ime. Few cheap test tubes for amazon I reckon is way to go

 

[Zippy768]

I borrowed a sulky kit and found it very good. I then copied it to make my own from trays that I bought form B and M or home bargains. I used 4 syringes mounded on a piece of wood with holes drilled in it.
First time out and I placed my trays with the sulky ones and had the same result so I'm sure they're good enough for the Job and only cost me a 10er or so.

I can test/Check ever day if I wish not just once a year on a given day under certain conditions.

I think SCS et al are yet another case of how can we extract a bit more from the farmer. I'm sure they're good and profession but also I've heard some horror stories and if I cock it up it hasn't cost me £350!

Not considered syringes before . Why the holes drilled?

 

[robbie]

Not considered syringes before . Why the holes drilled?

Holes on the wood not the syringe