Fertiliser Spreading plans

locky76

I'm drawing up a fertiliser spreading plan at the moment and it goes like this:
20 Acres Meadowing (nice cover of grass):
Spread 1 bag of urea per acre around 19th March (1 tonne)
Graze off tight one week later
Spread slurry out of slatted tank (4 bays of 14'6'' slats) on 20 acres around 2nd April, this is a mix of cattle & pig slurry
Spread 1 bag of urea per acre around 16th April (1 tonne)
Cut silage 28th May onwards

40 Acres Grazing:
Spread 1 bag of pasture sward per acre on 20 of theacres around 19th March (1 tonne)Spread 1 bag of pasture sward per acre onthe second twenty acres around 16th April (1 tonne)Any comments gratefully accepted

TUBBY

How ya locky,
my only advice is to do a soil sample before you spread anything. it only 12.50 per sample and you can sample yourself.
that way you are wasting no P or K and can spread lime if you need it.

Username John

TUBBY wrote: »

How ya locky,
my only advice is to do a soil sample before you spread anything. it only 12.50 per sample and you can sample yourself.
that way you are wasting no P or K and can spread lime if you need it.

12.50?
Thought it was 25 / sample, for Teagasc anyways? Where can you get it done for 12.50?

Thanks.

5live

Hi locky76. Why spread so close to grazing? 46units of N going on a week before grazing will probably leave 15-20 units of N in the leaf when grazing it out. This will take energy to remove from the animals and reduce performance. Could you not put a half bag then or earlier and reduce the N content in the grass and maybe get more growth pre grazing?

funny man

locky76 wrote: »

I'm drawing up a fertiliser spreading plan at the moment and it goes like this:
20 Acres Meadowing (nice cover of grass):
Spread 1 bag of urea per acre around 19th March (1 tonne)
Graze off tight one week later
Spread slurry out of slatted tank (4 bays of 14'6'' slats) on 20 acres around 2nd April, this is a mix of cattle & pig slurry
Spread 1 bag of urea per acre around 16th April (1 tonne)
Cut silage 28th May onwards

40 Acres Grazing:
Spread 1 bag of pasture sward per acre on 20 of theacres around 19th March (1 tonne)Spread 1 bag of pasture sward per acre onthe second twenty acres around 16th April (1 tonne)Any comments gratefully accepted

I like to see a man with a plan, it shows you have put some thought into it. on your meadow i would go with a half a bag on the 1st of march and still let stock to it around paddy's day to make sure youre off it by early April and its grazed nice and tight then the slurry and after that it really depends on how much silage you want from it, i never cross 70 units of N when slurry is applied. when you spread fertilizer ideally you shouldn't graze between 5-10 days something todo with nitrgen in the plant.

on the rest it comes down to how much stock you're carrying, do soil samples and only spread what you need you might get away with straight Nitrogen. my policy is little and often and this helps to prevent feasts or famines!

barryoc1

I believe Urea is slow acting and should ideally be spread in the spring. It also requires moisture to break it down. So personally i would spread CAN rather than Urea in the middle of April.

Also i would generally leave a field for 2 weeks before grazing after spreading fertiliser. Perhaps spread your Urea earlier.

Muckit

This is a good thread. Fair play OP for posting. Good to see that your thinking about it anyways.

I'm no expert, but I'd agree with some posters that if you want to get results from your first application of nitrogen to meadow ground for first grazing, you'd want to get out earlier with it (ground and weather conditions being suitable).

Again, I wouldn't have much knowledge about CAN or UREA, or which to use. I've always just used CAN, but mainly I have nearly been exclusively using 20-0-15 for both silage and grazing ground (obviously more on silage ground;), as in REPS) That's why I've decised to get soil tested this year myself, as don't fully trust REPS planner and nearly finished it anyway. Dying to see what P levels and PH are like.

RE soil samply TUBBY, where do you get it done for €12.50? I see your from Athlone which is onyl over the road from me. I got mine sampled in Teagasc Ballinasloe for €25/sample. Are there private agri consultants doing it cheaper? If so, don't be shy with posting contacts please and thank you:p

johngalway

Teagasc in Galway are €25 for soil sampling.

TUBBY

The place for 12.50 for samples is FBA laboratories in Waterford. Thats for P, K and lime. About two weeks from sending it to get results.

Sampling myself.

Muckit

TUBBY wrote: »

The place for 12.50 for samples is FBA laboratories in Waterford. Thats for P, K and lime. About two weeks from sending it to get results.

Sampling myself.

Can you post up or pm their details? That price isn't including P&P I suppose? That's another few quid, but still cheaper than €25 teagasc price. I think teagasc send samples there anyway. Didn't know you could send them there direct yourself

TUBBY

Muckit

Their address is
FBA Laboratories,
Cappoquin
Co Waterford.
058 52861

I e-mailed them at soilanalysis@fba-labs.com and got the form off them to fill that indicates the field and type of soil etc. (all bog for me:))

Anyway, i just used a steel pipe and hammer to get the samples and popped them in ziploc bags, labelled them and sent off. had results within 10 days.

It cost me a fiver to send six samples.

Muckit

TUBBY wrote: »

Muckit

Their address is
FBA Laboratories,
Cappoquin
Co Waterford.
058 52861

It cost me a fiver to send six samples.

Fair play TUBBY for posting up these details. I'm sure I won't be the only one that'I be using them next time

Just curious..... not sure of technical term for them, but let's call them 'cores' (what you pulled out of ground every time you stuck pipe in). How many of those did you include as a 'soil sample'? I fitted 16 'cores' into the white soil sample boxes I got from teagasc. Do you need to send off this many to get a good representative soil analysis?

It was my first time ever carrying out soil sampling myself this year. So hadn't a clue, and either did the girls in teagasc office whom I borrowed the sampler off!! :D

TUBBY

Well Muckit,

I just used a ziploc bag for each sample that they provided. it was about four inches by three inches and i was able to seal it so that will tell you how much i used - sampled from about eight different places in the field nowhere near where there was a sign of dung.

Results that came back were in line with what i expected cause i spread lime last year and P was same as for REPS samples two years ago so I would say it was representative.

locky76

Cheers folks for all the replies, fertilizer application always seemed like a dark science to me so great stuff to get informed discussion.
I had planned on doing soil sampling tomorrow (planner quoted me €25 per sample and a few quid for himself so great to hear it can be done for €12.50, muchos gracias TUBBY) so these will dictate a lot of my plans.
My rationale as regards fertilizer are as follows:
I spread lime at 2 tonne per acre last year so i think it can cope with 1 bag of urea per acre with a second bag four weeks later.
I was advised to spread urea on land with a good cover of grassand and that i could graze this a week later which i plan to do and graze to the butt, this will then allow me to spread the slurry which will provide the P & K, i will follow up with another bag per acre two weeks later and meadow then 8 weeks after this.
The plans for the grazing need a bit of tweaking alright to prevent a glut of grass ahead of me. Little and often might be a better plan with the soil samples dictating the type of fertilizer applied.

funny man

locky76 wrote: »

Cheers folks for all the replies, fertilizer application always seemed like a dark science to me so great stuff to get informed discussion.
I had planned on doing soil sampling tomorrow (planner quoted me €25 per sample and a few quid for himself so great to hear it can be done for €12.50, muchos gracias TUBBY) so these will dictate a lot of my plans.
My rationale as regards fertilizer are as follows:
I spread lime at 2 tonne per acre last year so i think it can cope with 1 bag of urea per acre with a second bag four weeks later.
I was advised to spread urea on land with a good cover of grassand and that i could graze this a week later which i plan to do and graze to the butt, this will then allow me to spread the slurry which will provide the P & K, i will follow up with another bag per acre two weeks later and meadow then 8 weeks after this.
The plans for the grazing need a bit of tweaking alright to prevent a glut of grass ahead of me. Little and often might be a better plan with the soil samples dictating the type of fertilizer applied.

Never spread urea after lime

locky76

funny man wrote: »

Never spread urea after lime

How come? I've been advised by qualified people that this is the way to go, that the land can take the urea because it's pH will have been taken care of by the lime.
there will be a gap of 6 months from when the lime went out and when i'm planning to spread the urea.

funny man

locky76 wrote: »

How come? I've been advised by qualified people that this is the way to go, that the land can take the urea because it's pH will have been taken care of by the lime.
there will be a gap of 6 months from when the lime went out and when i'm planning to spread the urea.

yea it must be ok, i just remembered hearing something about it. i looked it up for you.


The response to urea can be very poor if it is applied within eight weeks of an application of lime. A reaction occurs between the urea and the freshly applied lime particles, which results in much of the urea being lost to the atmosphere as a gas (volatilization). As a general rule don't use urea if lime has been applied that Spring. If lime was applied in the previous back end it should be safe to use urea in the following Spring provided there was sufficient rainfall to wash the lime into the soil. Lime can be applied a week after an application of urea with no increased risk of losses as the urea will have been fixed in the soil and no reaction occurs between the urea and lime particles

can't find anything on spreading before letting stock in but i'm sure i read it somewhere.

Go with the professional advice.

dar31

funny man wrote: »

yea it must be ok, i just remembered hearing something about it. i looked it up for you.


The response to urea can be very poor if it is applied within eight weeks of an application of lime. A reaction occurs between the urea and the freshly applied lime particles, which results in much of the urea being lost to the atmosphere as a gas (volatilization). As a general rule don't use urea if lime has been applied that Spring. If lime was applied in the previous back end it should be safe to use urea in the following Spring provided there was sufficient rainfall to wash the lime into the soil. Lime can be applied a week after an application of urea with no increased risk of losses as the urea will have been fixed in the soil and no reaction occurs between the urea and lime particles

can't find anything on spreading before letting stock in but i'm sure i read it somewhere.

Go with the professional advice.

only found this out a few months ago.

tanco

Anyone know if the next few days would be a good time to spread pasture sward.?

South west, just looked up soil tempature and its up at 8.2 in Valentia.

What do you think..?