The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: Backinwellies on July 09, 2013, 06:08:06 pm
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Does anyone sell the small bags of fertiliser these days? Dumpy bags are great for large areas but not much good for most smallholders
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600kgs doesn't actually go that far. We use 2 x 600 kgs on about 10 acres and that's being quite sparing I think. Email Derek, he'll let you know what the ratio is that he uses on our hayfields :thumbsup:
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We applied straight N at 50kg / acre this year, so on our 9 acres we used most of a 600kg bag. The difficulty was getting it delivered and unloaded 'cos we don't have a forklift or a front loader (yet). We had it delivered to a local contractor and he brought it down for us. :thumbsup:
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Yes small bags are availible but you will pay through the nose for them, try your local feed merchants.
Blinkers is bang on with the ratio, i always base on 600kg will do 5 acres perfectly, with maybe a little to spare.
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If you are looking for very small bags MVF do them in 25kg. I think the ratio is 20:10:10 and 25:5:5.
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Thank you everyone .... 150Kg per acre recommended so yes 600Kg bag would be OK but it is the hopper filling that is the problem (no loader) ..... quad spreader so will need lots of filling.!!......... any suggestions?
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Ah been here before i found a good old bucket works best to transfer between the bag and quad hopper, remember to wear gloves.
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Ah been here before i found a good old bucket works best to transfer between the bag and quad hopper, remember to wear gloves.
Bucket worked for us :thumbsup:
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I used a bowl type feed scoop to empty half the bag - filled one hopper on spreader. Doesn't take long - 15-20 mins (husband says 10 mins for him - so I let him do second half when he came home from work ;D ). Then he got the digger working again ::) then lifted the second half over hopper and split the bag ;) .
You should really get a soil test done to see what your soil needs and use 'PLANET' software to work out what you need to apply (roughly, if you are taking a a forage crop, you will need double that 'needed ' for grazing). I asked around locally and the standard response was use 20:10:10 but in fact I used a spreadsheet (after soil analysis and using planet) and worked out a whole combination of different types because each field was different, but especially as they were deficient in P and K. If yours are not then AN/CAN (27% Nitrogen) gives more 'bang for your buck' as they say and my grass really took off when that went down.
The cheapest is UREA (c47% Nitrogen - don't forget almost half of your bag is 'filler' to make the pellets) but that takes a lot of rain to soak in so is an early spring application. CAN is useful because even heavy dew soaks it into the soil and it is 'neutral' - all artificial ferts are acidifying. Which is the other really important aspect of soil health/ fertility - ph level and does it need liming? Pelleted lime is a lot more (a lot, lot more) expensive than aglime but you apply the latter in autumn through to early spring latest.
The other thing is you might struggle to get fertiliser now, even big bags - we struggled a bit and that was in May. Small bags are 2x expensive than big bags - personally lifting 25kg bags over a hopper would be harder than scooping out the big bags - but you do need access and delivery sorted.
Good luck (I'm just about to post about applying muck....)
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.... and another problem Countrywide only deliver 3 tonne minimum .......... enough to do our whole place twice!!