cutting silage after fertiliser spreading

k mac

what is the shortest amount of time you can cut after spreading, 5/6 weeks ?

Casinoking

A minimum of 6 weeks or your silage quality will be badly affected.

alphamale 1

k mac wrote: »

what is the shortest amount of time you can cut after spreading, 5/6 weeks ?

Hey K mac,

You need to be careful when deciding when to cut silage. The most thing you need to know is to know is how many units of Nitrogen you applied and the date you applied the fertiliser. The rule of thumb is thAT you allow 2 units of Nitrogen per day to be utilised by the crop. Eg 70 Units applied will be ready in approx 5 weeks plus a few days grace.

kfk

2 units of nitrogen per day??? Is that per acre or hectare?

alphamale 1

Per acre would be the norm. Typically first cut silage would require 100 units/ac, while second cut silage would require 75 units/ac


Hope this is off some help

adne

How many units does a 50 KG Bag of 18-6-12 represent

reilig

The other thing that you have to remember about Nitrogen levels is that if you cut your silage and wilt it, you will remove 20 to 30 units of nitrogen per day of wilting. So In theory, you could have fertilizer out only 4 weeks, cut the silage, wilt it for 3 days and pick it up or bale it up and it would be perfectly safe.

In the old days when people made pit silage with a single chop harvester (ie. no wilting), there were serious problems with silage preservation due to high nitrogen levels (that's why people used acid for preservation). Most people wilt silage these days and have no problem no matter how long the fertilizer is out. (The use of acid these days is almost non-existent).

kfk

adne wrote: »

How many units does a 50 KG Bag of 18-6-12 represent

18 units Nitrogen, 6 units Phosphorus, 12 units Potassium AFAIK

alphamale 1

iT ALSO AMOUNTS TO 9 KGS OF N, 3 KGS OF P, AND 6 KGS OF K.