With the price of fertiliser, our most important input, gone through the roof, you have decisions to make for next spring, and the sooner the better.
t is unrealistic to expect that prices will drop in the first quarter of 2022. Merchants have not bought fertiliser and at present it is difficult if not impossible for farmers to buy it.
Where you can get a quote, prices appear totally uneconomical.
However, the prospect for higher grain prices next harvest makes the economics look better.
The quantity and types of fertiliser you need are very much down to soil fertility. Check you soil results, and if analyses are four years old, arrange to soil-sample immediately — you cannot plan an efficient programme without recent data.
In a year when fertiliser prices are high, your first move must be to correct pH, where necessary, and apply lime ASAP.
Then look to where you can cut back on your standard N, P and K applications.
You may reduce your normal N application rates by 10-20pc with little impact on yields. The yield response to increasing the N application rate decreases as you approach the optimum level.
The last 10 units of fertiliser you apply give the least return, and in some years may give no return.
On sulphur-deficient land the inclusion of S will give up to 20pc extra yield from the same rate of N. Higher N application rates have frequently been used to mask other nutrient deficiencies, but doing so does not make economic sense.
Reduction in P application is only possible where soils are at P-index 3 — you can apply 50pc of standard rates with little or no yield reduction.
However, cold wet soils will require higher rates, as will soils that are at pH levels less than 6.5. P applications may also be reduced by up to 20pc below normal if the soils are at K-index 3. Lighter soils are less resilient to reductions in soil K applications.
Combine drilling of P and K at sowing gives a substantially improved response at both soil indices 1 and 2. Advantage may be taken of that by reducing the standard applications by 25pc.
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That will result in having no nutrient build-up in the soil, but a year of high prices is not the time to try to increase soil fertility.
Use of organic manures will be almost essential for index 1 and 2 soils, but it is important not to rely on them for more than half of the nutrient requirement, and their availability is low until soil temperatures build.
Crop response to reduced nutrient rates will be improved with good soil management. Roots must have good soil contact — firm seedbeds — and be free of compaction.
Having reduced nutrient applications, it is important to ensure that spreaders do their job properly — reduction in rates means that any leeway for the ‘eejit factor’ is gone.
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All spreaders should be calibrated manually at least once every year using test trays. Further calibrations should be carried out each time you change fertiliser types or batches.
GPS-controlled fertiliser spreaders give improved accuracy of spread rate on ins and outs, and those with section control will avoid overlaps on short ground.
A small but gradually increasing number of farmers are applying fertiliser as liquid. Only a limited range of sprayers are suitable as fertiliser is corrosive.
However, it enables very even application in windy conditions and virtually guarantees that no fertiliser will end up in buffer zones or water channels. It is very accurate and enables rate reductions but gives little or no overall saving in fertiliser costs.
PJ Phelan is a tillage advisor based in Tipperary; he is a member of the ACA and ITCA