Which way to apply AD digestate on growng crops

EBF

Member
Location
Edinburgh
We put on approx 450 tonnes at 8 tonnes per acre in the back end of 2018. Was charged £1 per tonne to supply (half the spring/summer price) and another £1 per tonne to the contractor for him to spread with umbilical system. I definitely wouldn't want to be paying the spreading man by the hour as he spent most of the day sitting in a stationary tractor waiting for tankers that were stuck in traffic!

Umbilical best I would say if you have decent sized fields with no obstacles although tanker maybe better for small fields. I wanted several smaller (c. 4 to 5 acre) fields doing but contractor refused as he said it would take him too much time emptying the digestate out of the hose and reeling and unreeling it (he then spent most of the day sitting still ).

Good value nutrients compared to synthetics.
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
We put on approx 450 tonnes at 8 tonnes per acre in the back end of 2018. Was charged £1 per tonne to supply (half the spring/summer price) and another £1 per tonne to the contractor for him to spread with umbilical system. I definitely wouldn't want to be paying the spreading man by the hour as he spent most of the day sitting in a stationary tractor waiting for tankers that were stuck in traffic!

Umbilical best I would say if you have decent sized fields with no obstacles although tanker maybe better for small fields. I wanted several smaller (c. 4 to 5 acre) fields doing but contractor refused as he said it would take him too much time emptying the digestate out of the hose and reeling and unreeling it (he then spent most of the day sitting still ).

Good value nutrients compared to synthetics.

What he means is around 1200m of 4 inch pipe holds about 20 cube

We generally spread about 30 cube/Ha
So in 5 acre fields his pipe would no sooner have filled up than he’d be blowing it out again to change field, spreading while blowing out ain’t really very accurate either....
 

Speedstar

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
We put on approx 450 tonnes at 8 tonnes per acre in the back end of 2018. Was charged £1 per tonne to supply (half the spring/summer price) and another £1 per tonne to the contractor for him to spread with umbilical system. I definitely wouldn't want to be paying the spreading man by the hour as he spent most of the day sitting in a stationary tractor waiting for tankers that were stuck in traffic!

Umbilical best I would say if you have decent sized fields with no obstacles although tanker maybe better for small fields. I wanted several smaller (c. 4 to 5 acre) fields doing but contractor refused as he said it would take him too much time emptying the digestate out of the hose and reeling and unreeling it (he then spent most of the day sitting still ).

Good value nutrients compared to synthetics.
with wide gates and hose humper that is not a problem doing small fields or ones with lots of poles etc in them
 

Big guy

Member
Was in a similar situation last year, went with umbilical and dribble bar, firstly it’s worth doing! Def go heavier, first fields where dribble bar overlapped at points/headlands etc the difference in crop was unreal, there will be a few gremlins, there will be wheeling through crop unreeling pipes and rolling up again, I noticed that the clamps that join the pipes leave a score in the ground and it’s difficult to apply it evenly at headlands when turning. That said you will see a difference in the crop within a week.
 

SRRC

Member
Location
West Somerset
My routine is to make the normal early N application of about 40 kg/ha even where I'm going to apply via umbilical. That's to make sure any cock ups, misses or miscalculations at least have some fertilizer, then adjust rates for later spreadings.
 

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
The guy with dribble bar has told me that the waste disposer pays me £1.50/cube and I pay spreading contractor (£40/hr reeling, £80/hr spreading)
Not sure if thats competitive or not?
I wouldn't be paying an hourly rate. A lot can go wrong with digestate which can hold the job up. Not enough digestate, lorry's out of action, lorry's too slow, not enough lorries. In my experience you may end up paying for lots of labour sitting around waiting for the next lorry to turn up. Especially if you spreading umbilical as the digestate is usually spread faster than the lorry's can get it unloaded.
 

Big guy

Member
What would be the best way to apply liquid digestate onto spring crops? We generally don’t drill until mid April, would it be best ploughed down/ spread on top of the ploughed ground and worked down/ surface applied directly after sowing or wait until it’s emerged?
 

Rob78

Member
What should the rate be by the cube for umbilical then? By the cube seems the fair way of doing it for the farmer, but the contractor needs to cover the time he’s sat around?
 

SRRC

Member
Location
West Somerset
What would be the best way to apply liquid digestate onto spring crops? We generally don’t drill until mid April, would it be best ploughed down/ spread on top of the ploughed ground and worked down/ surface applied directly after sowing or wait until it’s emerged?
Almost certainly apply before ploughing, applying to newly sown seedbeds is a recipe for a mess (fine soils etc) and newly emerged plants don't have enough of a root system to withstand pipe dragging and wheeling.
If you use a cultivator injector you can apply much higher rates which in the case of spring barley means that very little bagged N will be needed.
 

jack6480

Member
Location
Staffs
What would be the best way to apply liquid digestate onto spring crops? We generally don’t drill until mid April, would it be best ploughed down/ spread on top of the ploughed ground and worked down/ surface applied directly after sowing or wait until it’s emerged?

I drill my crops let it come up and then spread while it’s growing!
 

Big guy

Member
Almost certainly apply before ploughing, applying to newly sown seedbeds is a recipe for a mess (fine soils etc) and newly emerged plants don't have enough of a root system to withstand pipe dragging and wheeling.
If you use a cultivator injector you can apply much higher rates which in the case of spring barley means that very little bagged N will be needed.
Contractor just has dribble bar, if the ground was ploughed then digestate applied on top of furrow before being cultivated do you think this would be as effective?
 

jack6480

Member
Location
Staffs
Are you able to stay on the tramlines? We can’t, It’s off putting tramping over spring crops, the wheeling don’t recover near as well as winter crops for some reason

I do on winter wheat but if you go early on the spring barley I usually just go at an angle and the lines usually go after a few weeks. I think you will make the most of the N if you put it on when it’s just come up rather than before you drill
 

Big guy

Member
What has the solid compost Digestste have In it nutrient wise
Demands what the feedstock is, last analysis I got from separated fibre ( like compost in appearance) food waste only AD was:
(Converted to units/ton)
Nitrogen 30 units/ton
Phosphorus 24 units/ton
Potassium 4.5 units/ton
Magnesium 3.5 units/ton
Sulphur 16 units/ton
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 67 35.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top