What is typically in Slurry? Trying to spread the right fertilizer.

Ky Abu

Just trying to make sense of a few things, have silage fields that got Slurry and Cut Sward 6weeks ago, their fairly close to being ready for cutting.

The other half of silage ground just got Cut Sward, no slurry. You could cut that with the lawn mower up to last week. It's very poor. Will take another few weeks at least. Just to get my head around this.


Slurry contains in general - Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus.

What kind of percentages would you get typically in an 800 gallon tanker of slurry, off dairy cows and a few cattle. Is there a way of measuring this?

When we got a soil sample done, we were short on Potish, but have heard it is a bad idea to spread this in the Spring, better to spread in the Autumn.

Also is the Farmers Handbook 2013 any good?

Any help, suggestions would be appreciated.

F.D

during the summer months i was told the 1000 gal of slurry is close to a bag of 0-7-30, in spring with damp misty weather you would get 5-8 units of N in that

Username John

Ky Abu wrote: »

Just trying to make sense of a few things, have silage fields that got Slurry and Cut Sward 6weeks ago, their fairly close to being ready for cutting.

The other half of silage ground just got Cut Sward, no slurry. You could cut that with the lawn mower up to last week. It's very poor. Will take another few weeks at least. Just to get my head around this.


Slurry contains in general - Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus.

What kind of percentages would you get typically in an 800 gallon tanker of slurry, off dairy cows and a few cattle. Is there a way of measuring this?

When we got a soil sample done, we were short on Potish, but have heard it is a bad idea to spread this in the Spring, better to spread in the Autumn.

Also is the Farmers Handbook 2013 any good?

Any help, suggestions would be appreciated.

Plenty on here that can answer this better than I can.

But see here for some info which might help.
(and dont think me, thank Delaval for posting it originally)

Ky Abu

Brought from this Thread - pros and cons of investing in a slurry tank

delaval wrote: »

These are the values of slurry
Soiled water n4-p0.7-k5 value €5/1000gls
Cattle slurry splashplate spring 6-5-38 value €24/100 gls : summer 3-5-38 Trailing shoe +3 units N/1000gls €26/1000 glsh
Pig 19-7-20 €28/1000gls
FYM 3-2.5-12 €0/tonne

Am I right in saying so, the better agitated the slurry the better the level of N and P. So therefore spreading thicker, better agitated slurry in the Spring might be more beneficial in terms of grass growth?

Farmer Pudsey

Cattle slurry is about 40 units of N per 1000 gallons. Conventional spreading looses about 80% of N this would be on normal cool day's. If you plough or till it in straight after spreading you can increase the useable amount by 100-200%. This is also if you spread on a wet damp spring day. On a hot summers day you will lose all the nitrogen. I am not sure about trail shoe/injection figures.

However about 3 years ago it was a cold damp foggy day when nitrogen was spread on silage ground the end of March. My own opinion is that I got about 20 units/thousand gallons slurry. I have seen this with tilling it in as well on when reseeding you get a way better return than spreading on dry days. My own opinion is that you will get 12-15 units if you get a few good showers after you spread. Most of my fields are fairly flat.

Ky Abu

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Cattle slurry is about 40 units of N per 1000 gallons.

How much of the 1000gallons would be P and K approx? We have marginal land which tends to grow rushes easily unless we keep on top of it. A C-dax weed eliminator is at least helping.

Any way of doing a home Soil Sample to see what the soil is missing or aa home Slurry Sample?

Farmer Pudsey

6 units of P and 38 units of K/1000gallons

blue5000

OP there is only I think 10 units Of potash in a bag of cutsward, the ground that got slurry is probably looking better than the cut sward only ground because of the potash.

Was top dressing barley that got 1500 gals ploughed in and there is a savage difference where one field got no slurry.

yellow50HX

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Cattle slurry is about 40 units of N per 1000 gallons. Conventional spreading looses about 80% of N this would be on normal cool day's. If you plough or till it in straight after spreading you can increase the useable amount by 100-200%. This is also if you spread on a wet damp spring day. On a hot summers day you will lose all the nitrogen. I am not sure about trail shoe/injection figures.

However about 3 years ago it was a cold damp foggy day when nitrogen was spread on silage ground the end of March. My own opinion is that I got about 20 units/thousand gallons slurry. I have seen this with tilling it in as well on when reseeding you get a way better return than spreading on dry days. My own opinion is that you will get 12-15 units if you get a few good showers after you spread. Most of my fields are fairly flat.

yeah i'd agree with you. waste of time spreading slurry in summer to get N into the ground. I think lads just do it out of habit or to empty tanks.

much better returns with band spreaders or trailing shoe but they seem to do best with a bit of cover in the grass. with the temps at the moment i reckosn its a waste of time.

best returns from a convential spreader are from a damp overcast day with air temps in the low to mid teens.