Spreading Urea after the drought has broken??

Hugh 2

Have been on drought here for quite a while (2 weeks of 25kg/ha growth) but forecast is showing 2 wet days on way and I have a bit of urea left over since last year.
How wet does the soil have to get for urea to be of any use i.e. if soil only gets wet on surface and starts drying out again would urea be wasted





Sunday above Monday below

Seems that by Tuesday AM it will be gone again

ellewood

Ah just get down on urn knees and twill be grand sher :-)

_Brian

Drought..
Jesus this country is gas.. We moved stock to prevent poaching heavy ground

bogman_bass

will you get urea this time of year anyways?

Hugh 2

bogman_bass wrote: »

will you get urea this time of year anyways?

Have it here since last year and want to get rid of it but not waste it either,

Hugh 2

ellewood wrote: »

Ah just get down on urn knees and twill be grand sher :-)

Is this for praying or the test for moisture ?
The last rain that fell here was Saturday August 9th (not a drop for at least a month before that( seemed like we had only one decent shower since June )
If it is the damp knees test I would be worried that only the top inch of soil would be damp and would this be enough to hold the fertilizer?

frazzledhome

Hugh 2 wrote: »

Have been on drought here for quite a while (2 weeks of 25kg/ha growth) but forecast is showing 2 wet days on way and I have a bit of urea left over since last year.
How wet does the soil have to get for urea to be of any use i.e. if soil only gets wet on surface and starts drying out again would urea be wasted





Sunday above Monday below

Seems that by Tuesday AM it will be gone again

Go Monday after rain

Brown Podzol

I was at a walk last year, guest was John Roche, chief dairy scientist NZ. Said urea was the n of choice in most of the rest of the world wet or dry. Said the research,based on one trial here,needs to be revisited as in his opinion it is flawed.

Greengrass1

Brown Podzol wrote: »

I was at a walk last year, guest was John Roche, chief dairy scientist NZ. Said urea was the n of choice in most of the rest of the world wet or dry. Said the research,based on one trial here,needs to be revisited as in his opinion it is flawed.

At advisor told me that Johnstown castle ate doing a trial on urea. He said in two yrs time you could be able to spread urea all yr if the work proves right
They want farmers to use urea more as it's not as manufactured as CAN is

ellewood

Hugh 2 wrote: »

Is this for praying or the test for moisture ?
The last rain that fell here was Saturday August 9th (not a drop for at least a month before that( seemed like we had only one decent shower since June )
If it is the damp knees test I would be worried that only the top inch of soil would be damp and would this be enough to hold the fertilizer?

Prob a bit of both:D

No, im in the same boat as you, have had very little rain since june but place has greened up at least since the rain in early august and trying to build a wedge now will be difficult if we don't get rain, but I think forcast is for a good sup of rain Sunday/Monday so happy days.

I think youre biggest problem now if going with urea is the lag before it kicks in, I went with can and will follow with urea so the can, can kick it on now and the urea later.

Dairy farmer beside me who is no clown when it comes to growing grass spreads urea most of the year and says unless in drought the losses are minimal.

Hugh 2

Thanks lads for the replies seems some of yea are more positive about urea than I am ( I had basically decided that it was not worth the 10% saving - needs wet weather/soil - interferes/reacts with lime - the need to some P and K and sulphur)

I am thinking of going out early Monday morning and the rain Monday evening might help get it onto ground
I know there is more rain forecast later in the week but if it was like the summer it might be the kind that just falls everywhere else but here