Urea versus Nitrogen

Dunedin · 01-03-2011 09:36PM #1

Just wondering what is the views on this.

Urea works out 33% cheaper per unit than nitrogen (based on quote of 380e v 330e for Nitrogen (I got quote from connaught gold today)).

with the prices they way they are, this is a serious difference.

I used Urea 2 years ago and wasn't happy with results but it was a terrible year for grass growth so prob unfair to blame the Urea.

My land is heavy with a bit of cover on it so it shoudl be suitable for Urea. was thinking of waiting til this bit of night frost passes and going with a half bag to the area on the grazing

whelan1 · 01-03-2011 09:39PM

my ground is heavy too, i am going with urea as well

GERMAN ROCKS · 01-03-2011 09:49PM

we use urea at this time of the year and start onto can around april. we have already a half bag to the acre put out around all the farm. the op price for can seems dear at €330 we can buy it at our local coop for €315 but urea is €395 a tonne

jmurf100 · 01-03-2011 10:27PM

How much Urea is equivalent to one bag of CAN?

GERMAN ROCKS · 01-03-2011 10:34PM

urea is 42% vs can which is 27% nitrogen

keep going · 01-03-2011 11:04PM

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

urea is 42% vs can which is 27% nitrogen

isnt 46%

blue5000 · 01-03-2011 11:32PM

jmurf100 wrote: »

How much Urea is equivalent to one bag of CAN?

Just over half a bag of urea has same N as a bag of can. Half a bag of urea has 23 units of N and full bag of can has 27.5 units of N

dar31 · 02-03-2011 07:22AM

cant see the argument here it is 33% cheaper and there is no diffenence at this time of year, prilled is cheaper again

nilhg · 02-03-2011 08:41AM

Volatilisation is an issue with Urea, my understanding is that you will always have some losses, at best about 8% but that it is more usually 15% and can often be 30%. This info came from a fertiliser seller who is bringing in a small amount of coated urea for testing on cereals this year, so he may have a vested interest but it does agree with my limited experience.

The thing that always put me off urea on my cereals was that you never really know how much was available to the plant, if you put on a little extra to be sure you've enough then you run the risk of lodging the crop if uptake is better than expected.

keep going · 02-03-2011 01:53PM

old tip with urea is if you kneel down in the field and when you get up your knees are damp its ok but personally i have reservations about warmer weather urea can be cooked off

BeeDI · 02-03-2011 02:46PM

keep going wrote: »

old tip with urea is if you kneel down in the field and when you get up your knees are damp its ok but personally i have reservations about warmer weather urea can be cooked off

That's at least 360 days out of 365 per year, in my neck of the woods.
Urea, it is then:cool:

Dunedin · 02-03-2011 10:47PM

dar31 wrote: »

cant see the argument here it is 33% cheaper and there is no diffenence at this time of year, prilled is cheaper again

the argument is that Nitrogen stays in the ground longer than Urea.

Urea is a bit more tempermental than N in my opinion.

Prob unfair to compare a dairy farmer v a suckler guy as the dairy farmer will be spreading a lot more than the poor suckler buck like me who is trying to skimp on fert to save a few pound.

:(

still not convinced if I will switch to Urea. might do a pilot job on a some fields and see how it goes.

was thinking that I could use what I would save on using urea on buying granulated lime and thus have a much better job overall.

Urea versus Nitrogen

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