spreading Fertiliser

Dunedin

What are the thoughts on best times to spread fertiliser. Given the cost of same these days, it is vital to get it right.

I am referring only to suckler/beef farms. Some people say that if you shake it too early, the nitrogen does not stay in the ground and also can be affected by bad weather such as heavy rain or frost.

I am planning to shake nitrogen or urea asap. what are the thoughts. is it too early or just right.

nilhg

I don't think its possible to give a general answer to this, it depends on too many factors, like location, stocking rate, sward quality, whether or not slurry has been spread and the expected performance of your stock.

If you are not heavily stocked and not going to spread much fertiliser then I'd wait a week or two.

irish_bob

Dunedin wrote: »

What are the thoughts on best times to spread fertiliser. Given the cost of same these days, it is vital to get it right.

I am referring only to suckler/beef farms. Some people say that if you shake it too early, the nitrogen does not stay in the ground and also can be affected by bad weather such as heavy rain or frost.

I am planning to shake nitrogen or urea asap. what are the thoughts. is it too early or just right.

personally ive no faith in urea . never seen it deliver but one thing is certain , unless you have some sort of cover to start with , urea wont work at all , you cant spread urea on bare ground

wiggy123

what i did this year anyway was spread...a 1/2 bag of urea per acre about 2 weeks--there was grasscover..as animals off the land since end of November! i then will graze it--and come again with a 1/2 bag of urea..and so on..till over the course of the grazing season i spread about 2 bags to the acre roughly! depending on the grass growth and year we hav,etc.. any excess growth-or if a field gets to far ahead--its cut for silage--round bales!

worked for me last yr--see how this yr goes!

as said before--everyones set up differs..on slurry application+amount of land for grazing+amount of stock!

reilig

irish_bob wrote: »

personally ive no faith in urea . never seen it deliver but one thing is certain , unless you have some sort of cover to start with , urea wont work at all , you cant spread urea on bare ground

You have a good point there. Urea is more suitable to marginal land than drier land. There are 2 reasons for this. 1. The damper soil will retain the nitrogen better than drier / sandy / rock land. 2. Marginal land is often more deficient in nitrogen so therefore will make better use of it and show better results.

So Urea isn't suitable for everyone. I get great results by spreading urea on top of slurry. Have had my soild tested and they show a N deficiency. The slurry has adequate P and K quantities to give good grass.

Best advice is to get your soils tested and spread as recommended by the tester. Don't spread a high N fertilizer on its own or you will be wasting your money.

Sourced urea at €300 per ton this week so it is very economical - but it needs to be spread right and your land needs to be able to take it and make use of it.

snowman707

I never use Urea, it sucks lime & magnesium from the soil, as relig states it may be better suited for heavy soil.

We use 1 bag of Sweet grass per acre every 6 weeks in the growing season, but we graze out the paddocks with sheep after the cows, I reckon the sheep are worth about 30 - 40 units N per annum.

OP to reply to your query, it depends on your location, if no heavy rain is forecast for 48 hours & soil conditions are favourable you could spread. best spreading little & often maybe 26 units N every month or as required.

canon5571

I have a few acres that was wintered by horses and is fairly well cut up. I will need a good cover of grass coming fairly soon. Should I spread fertiliser first and then chain harrow it and roll it, or should I harrow, spread and then roll??
Whats the best fertiliser to bring a good cover quick? There is also a lot of bare patches, someone suggested shaking grass seed along with the fertiliser.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

locky76

canon5571 wrote: »

I have a few acres that was wintered by horses and is fairly well cut up. I will need a good cover of grass coming fairly soon. Should I spread fertiliser first and then chain harrow it and roll it, or should I harrow, spread and then roll??
Whats the best fertiliser to bring a good cover quick? There is also a lot of bare patches, someone suggested shaking grass seed along with the fertiliser.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

i'm in a similar situation where i grazed out a paddock last october/november and i had a round feeder in it as well for a few weeks, the grass cover was always fairly bare so what i'm going to do is grass harrow it twice, put out grass seed with a seed barrow(i'll shake it by hand where the round feeders were), roll it once and then tar it with slurry from a slatted tank, i'll then meadow it after 8 or 9 weeks, that's the plan anyway!

canon5571

locky76 wrote: »

i'm in a similar situation where i grazed out a paddock last october/november and i had a round feeder in it as well for a few weeks, the grass cover was always fairly bare so what i'm going to do is grass harrow it twice, put out grass seed with a seed barrow(i'll shake it by hand where the round feeders were), roll it once and then tar it with slurry from a slatted tank, i'll then meadow it after 8 or 9 weeks, that's the plan anyway!

I dont have access to slurry. What fertiliser would you recommend?

reilig

canon5571 wrote: »

I dont have access to slurry. What fertiliser would you recommend?

It really depends on what the ground needs as determined by soil testing. But you can't go too far wrong with 18-6-12 for your pasture and cut swart or similar for your meadows.