Slurry Questions

roosterman71

Folks,

I'm new to the whole slurry business so I've a few questions.
1. When is it too late to spread on silage ground with an aim to cut end of May?
2. For 2.5k gallons of piggy poo/acre, what would the best chemical fertiliser be to follow on with (note, no soil test done for a feckin age so it's a stab in the dark)
3. Is there any difference in spreading time for cattle or pig slurry?

Ya see, we got a tanker for the first time this year and I spent a couple of days last week spreading. But the weather turned and I was ordered in off the field so as not to be marking it. And it hasn't dried up much since, and not looking like drying much in the next 4/5 days to allow me back out. And that pushes us up to near the middle of the month and only 20% of the silage ground covered.

tellmeabit

Another question to add maybe..
How long between spreading and the ground taking up the nutrients? Like last week with the heavy rain/snow.

lakill Farm

Best question to ask. Who ordered you off the land?

Horse on and spread it we had very little rain and land is very dry. Put slurry our here mid January with a 2500g on 30.5 tyres and 1800G on 24 tyres and not a mark

Nekarsulm

End of May is almost 11 weeks away, horse on the slurry whenever the ground will carry you in the next 3 to 4 weeks.
Don't worry, there will be a few showers to wash it off the leaf between now and cutting time!

ganmo

roosterman71 wrote: »

Folks,

I'm new to the whole slurry business so I've a few questions.
1. When is it too late to spread on silage ground with an aim to cut end of May?
2. For 2.5k gallons of piggy poo/acre, what would the best chemical fertiliser be to follow on with (note, no soil test done for a feckin age so it's a stab in the dark)
3. Is there any difference in spreading time for cattle or pig slurry?

Ya see, we got a tanker for the first time this year and I spent a couple of days last week spreading. But the weather turned and I was ordered in off the field so as not to be marking it. And it hasn't dried up much since, and not looking like drying much in the next 4/5 days to allow me back out. And that pushes us up to near the middle of the month and only 20% of the silage ground covered.

What has been done with the fields for the last few years? Grazing, silage and fert etc.
I'd suggest you get a few samples done, after that 1 tonne (or more) to the acre of lime would probably be the best if going in blind

roosterman71

lakill Farm wrote: »

Best question to ask. Who ordered you off the land?

The father did. But I knew myself anyway it was time to be getting off it. It's field that was once a bog and has been reclaimed. It takes some love and attention to keep right and if there's still time, I seen no reason to be going up and down it in the horsing rain we had around last weekend.

ganmo wrote: »

What has been done with the fields for the last few years? Grazing, silage and fert etc.
I'd suggest you get a few samples done, after that 1 tonne (or more) to the acre of lime would probably be the best if going in blind

Always 2 cuts of silage, then sheep graze the aftergrass. Gets cattle and pig slurry on alternating years, then usually 18-6-12 but a light enough spread. Only slurry after 1st cut, nothing after 2nd until the sprint time. Probably a bit late now for the sampling (got any recommendations on who to get to do it?), so will do it next year now.

ganmo

https://iaslabs.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Guidelines-to-Taking-a-Soil-Sample.pdf
anywhere where you've spread slurry this year is too late but the rest isn't too late.

Who2

ganmo wrote: »

What has been done with the fields for the last few years? Grazing, silage and fert etc.
I'd suggest you get a few samples done, after that 1 tonne (or more) to the acre of lime would probably be the best if going in blind

dont go spreading lime at this stage for silage ground it will feck up the silage.

roosterman71

Now that I've all my slurry out, I might as well share this.

I spent some time trying to figure out the correct driving speed to go at to spread a set amount of slurry per acre. I googled and googled, but couldn't find any calculator that did the job. Found one kind like what I needed, but was dealing with hectares (too modern for me), and square meters instead of good old fashioned gallons. So I did some maths.

Now anyone that knows this already, feel free to leave now! But for those that don't, lets dive in.

Firstly, you need to know 3 things about your own setup:

1. The size of your tanker (in gallons)
2. The spreading width (in meters)
3. Time to unload the tanker (in seconds)

Next, you need to know that an acre equals 4046.856 square meters.

How many gallons/acre do I spread if I drive at X km/h
Formula: Tanker Size (gals) / ((Spreading Width (m) * ((Forward Speed (km/h)*1000)/3600) * Unload Time (s)) / 4046.856)
Break Down:

• Get the forward speed into meters/second [Forward Speed (km/h)*1000/3600]
• Get how far you would travel (in meters) in the length of time it takes to unload [Answer #1 * Unload Time (s)]
• Get the area covered when spreading that load (this will give you how much ground is covered in acres for that load) [Answer #2 * Spreading Width (m) / 4046.856]
• Calculate the spreading rate [Tanker size (gallons) / Answer #3]

And hey presto, based on your forward speed you can get the rate/acre

An example of all this for my own tanker

1. Tanker size (2000 gals)
2. Spreading Width (13m)
3. Time to unload (180 seconds)

Here goes:

• Convert my speed to m/s B]5 km/h*1000/3600 = 1.3888 m/s[/B
• Distance driven to unload B]1.3888*180 = 249.984m[/B
• How much area have I covered spreading B]249.984 * 13 = 3249.792 sqm; 3249.792 / 4046.856 = 0.8030 acres[/B
• How many gallons then do I need to cover a full acre (I know now that my tanker covers 0.8030 acres) B]2000 / 0.8030 = 2490 gallons/acre[/B

To conclude. driving at 5km/h will spread 2,490 gallons/acre using my tanker.

I'll add a second formula later that will give you the forward speed based on a desired application rate. And I'll add a small excel sheet for anyone interested too.

roosterman71

Can't be bothered detailing the second formula (I will if ye want), so here's the excel.

You change the green boxes for you're own setup. The grey box is just some calculation needed, and the yellow are the ones ya need to get yer answer

mengele

I just do a rough calculation in my head. Tank is 2000 gallons. Field has ten acres in it. I spread 10 loads in said field. Giving it 2000 gallons to the acre give or take.

ganmo

roosterman71 wrote: »

Can't be bothered detailing the second formula (I will if ye want), so here's the excel.

You change the green boxes for you're own setup. The grey box is just some calculation needed, and the yellow are the ones ya need to get yer answer

A tip for using that spreadsheet to work out the speed needed for different rates is the 'goal seek' function