C
Cork
Guest
Dedicated thread for info and experience of using organic manures (slurry, FYM, digestate, sewage, creamery sludge etc).
rustymcsocks
Well-Known Member
We have our own cattle slurry which we mainly use on tillage ground.
We find we get the best use from it by ploughing down as soon as possible. Not always practical to do every field every year but most fields will be got once in 3 years.
I get a few loads also for the fields far away from our own yard from farmers local to those fields.
C
Cork
Guest
We’ve used sewage pellets on a couple of occasions. Find them good, a slow release job. Haven’t used the sludge as yet.
We have some cattle slurry this year too which will stay in the tank until the autumn.
Im interested in using more organic manures but our P indices are generally too high to let much in.
Uniformity of application would be a priority in my opinion.
We have some cattle slurry this year too which will stay in the tank until the autumn.
Im interested in using more organic manures but our P indices are generally too high to let much in.
Uniformity of application would be a priority in my opinion.
headcase
Very Senior Member
i tried a trailing shoe on umbilical years back but the stoopid cunt had half the pipes blocked with sand when he started here
they showed up all season
"oh you want them all working) yes you fuckin retard or id have said splash plate
i also used a trailing shoe on a tanker then the year after but the 2500 was too heavy on the crop and could see the wheelings all season
they showed up all season
"oh you want them all working) yes you fuckin retard or id have said splash plate
i also used a trailing shoe on a tanker then the year after but the 2500 was too heavy on the crop and could see the wheelings all season
C
Cork
Guest
While there’s a saving to be made with organic manures, I really do like the accuracy, uniformity and evenness of bagged fertiliser.
headcase
Very Senior Member
rusty has the best way to plough it in
marco
Well-Known Member
Apply your manures to a cover crop and let it release slowly to the cash crop.
C
Cork
Guest
Yep, we’ve done that with slurry in recent years. Contractor has a trailing shoe which is good for uniformity.
Ags11
Well-Known Member
We use a mixture here of mushroom compost or chicken dung. I like them both well heated/rotted for different reasons.
Chicken dung for botulism, if fresh its too dry and dusty, which leaves it hard to spread accurately and blows everywhere which is too much stress with botulism. The other pressure is getting it ploughed in quickly, we only put on about 4T to the acre which means the contractor can soon have a lot spread ahead of the plough.
With the compost l want it well heated and broken down for fear of black grass in the straw. It's probably better for the ground and has a liming ability. The down side is the amount you need on to be effective, which leaves it costly with the hourly spreading charge. It needs at least a spreader load to the acre, with chick dung a spreader does 2.5 acres.
With either a short draw is a must for cost effectiveness.
As Cork says bagged fertiliser is much easier to be precise. Having said that organic manure shows its worth in stressful conditions like drought, more common in Spring this past while. They've definitely been worth the effort here.
I'm sure sometimes it's not the most profitable but over the years the soil definitely comes back too life, and its nice to feel you're doing the right thing sometimes! I was ploughing yesterday, there was slurry going out everywhere, but the seagulls were with me...
Edit to add we're very fortunate to have a free supply of either near hand.
Also on an online Agrii event, the jist was for chopping straw you need healthy soil to break it down. Otherwise it forms a nasty mat at the plough pan. I'm thinking that's interesting given the chopping scheme coming along.
Chicken dung for botulism, if fresh its too dry and dusty, which leaves it hard to spread accurately and blows everywhere which is too much stress with botulism. The other pressure is getting it ploughed in quickly, we only put on about 4T to the acre which means the contractor can soon have a lot spread ahead of the plough.
With the compost l want it well heated and broken down for fear of black grass in the straw. It's probably better for the ground and has a liming ability. The down side is the amount you need on to be effective, which leaves it costly with the hourly spreading charge. It needs at least a spreader load to the acre, with chick dung a spreader does 2.5 acres.
With either a short draw is a must for cost effectiveness.
As Cork says bagged fertiliser is much easier to be precise. Having said that organic manure shows its worth in stressful conditions like drought, more common in Spring this past while. They've definitely been worth the effort here.
I'm sure sometimes it's not the most profitable but over the years the soil definitely comes back too life, and its nice to feel you're doing the right thing sometimes! I was ploughing yesterday, there was slurry going out everywhere, but the seagulls were with me...
Edit to add we're very fortunate to have a free supply of either near hand.
Also on an online Agrii event, the jist was for chopping straw you need healthy soil to break it down. Otherwise it forms a nasty mat at the plough pan. I'm thinking that's interesting given the chopping scheme coming along.
Ugo Schtiglitz
Well-Known Member
Since I gave up growing a specialist spring crop (trying to avoid the trigger), I've been taking in brown bin smc and chicken muck, mixing it all together and cultivating it down. Never an issue. It grew crops well. The chicken in particular is quite nutrient dense and I put it under sosr and all it needed then was 2 bags of asn to grow it. For peas or beans, I'd mostly grow them with just compost as fert. Since I've been educating myself a bit about soils, I figure the calcium in all of the above is a bit of a problem on my calcium dominated soils, and needs to be balanced with magnesium to avoid the whole high ca nutrient lock up business. So I gave up on those for a while. My phs have declined a bit now and I'm going back with well composted smc again. I'm afraid of the chicken muck and botulism with a lot of stock farmers around my borders (and the regs mean it has to be ploughed now also, which I don't like) I think despite the hassle of spreading and hauling, it is well worth it for crops. The lads who are managing to maintain yields on long term tillage around me, all have slurry or dung to go around with. Cover crops really help with cycling the nutrients as well I think. As @marco often says, really it's trying to get the benefit of a mixed farm without the stock, and imv in an ideal world, there is no substitute for mixed farming with grass and stock manure in the rotation.
I'm currently toying with building a slab and tank for more muck and slurry imports tbh.
I'm currently toying with building a slab and tank for more muck and slurry imports tbh.
john415
Well-Known Member
Spread quiet a bit or pig slurry onto stubbles farmers do comment its a big helping keepin the crop green in a stressful weather period.
fattening house pig slurry is twice the stuff of breeding unit breeding unit is good for grass we found the stuff from fattening unit can sour grass if applied after april/may.
fattening house pig slurry is twice the stuff of breeding unit breeding unit is good for grass we found the stuff from fattening unit can sour grass if applied after april/may.
Now I'm driving about the "country" more I see as a general observation.
Cornwall. Lots and lots of FYM in heaps and spread. Plenty of slurry spread and injected.
Devon similar to above
Somerset/Dorset as above but also a lot of digestate be it shyte dairy waste or whatever being I never by Philip trim contractors
Further up wilts and Glos there seems to be piles and piles of stockpiled " bio solid" lot in Oxford and Berks as well. Have seen several teams stockpiling over the winter 8 wheelers backing in to fields and a slew heaping it all up.. some stink to it mind can't wait till they start spreading it when it's warmer and drier....
Cornwall. Lots and lots of FYM in heaps and spread. Plenty of slurry spread and injected.
Devon similar to above
Somerset/Dorset as above but also a lot of digestate be it shyte dairy waste or whatever being I never by Philip trim contractors
Further up wilts and Glos there seems to be piles and piles of stockpiled " bio solid" lot in Oxford and Berks as well. Have seen several teams stockpiling over the winter 8 wheelers backing in to fields and a slew heaping it all up.. some stink to it mind can't wait till they start spreading it when it's warmer and drier....
Masseyrk662
Well-Known Member
I’m not a tillage farmer long enough to comment on how organic manures affect yields etc but I did do a good bit of research in my undergrad on organic use and the benefits do seem to be there. I grew spring wheat using different organic manures and the FYM and digestate grown wheat were brilliant altogether. This year I am hoping to apply 2000 gallons of pig slurry to the acre on top of winter barley, this recieved 3 tonne of FYM to the acre before ploughing. The spring barley ground that’s in stubble will receive 6 tonne of FYM to the acre before ploughing, ley ground will receive 3 tonne of FYM before ploughing also. Depending if I have time and conditions are right I might put 2000 gallons of either digestate or pig slurry onto winter wheat.
13spanner
Well-Known Member
We used to out winter cows on stubbles and when it came to the following harvest you could see the difference in the barley where the ring feeders were. You could even see the patches where the cows had dunged.
First year we got a spreader I put out slurry on stubble which was ploughed in straight away and it lodged. Strips where it overlapped and all the headlands. Now we put the slurry out before beet. Land in tillage for over 50 years and still grows decent crops of barley,all down to the beet.
First year we got a spreader I put out slurry on stubble which was ploughed in straight away and it lodged. Strips where it overlapped and all the headlands. Now we put the slurry out before beet. Land in tillage for over 50 years and still grows decent crops of barley,all down to the beet.
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C
Cork
Guest
I know a local man that had put domestic type compost on his field in the autumn of 2017 (previous crop was beans). He planted Conros winter wheat and cut 5tn in 2018. It was the only 5tn I heard of that year. He must have cleared 1k/acre as the prices were mega that year. It would be light textured soil near the coast.
Blackwater boy
Moderator
75% of our tillage land 90% of our grassland gets slurry and or FYM most years, I would not like to be trying to grow what we grow without it.
the last few weeks slurry has become an issue, had to spread the open day and again last week, luckily we had stubbles to spread on, don’t know how a fella with just grass would mange.
im not exactly sure how it would or should work buy mine should be thrown at the livestock sector to help move slurrry and fym to the tillage lads, win win for both as grazing blocks around the yard are on the verge of complete saturation from slurry around the country and a lot of tillage lads badly need to open their eyes and start working With the livestock lads too.
the last few weeks slurry has become an issue, had to spread the open day and again last week, luckily we had stubbles to spread on, don’t know how a fella with just grass would mange.
im not exactly sure how it would or should work buy mine should be thrown at the livestock sector to help move slurrry and fym to the tillage lads, win win for both as grazing blocks around the yard are on the verge of complete saturation from slurry around the country and a lot of tillage lads badly need to open their eyes and start working With the livestock lads too.
gone
Well-Known Member
Not my experience, but know what you getting at, we do need to work together.
Blackwater boy
Moderator
What is yours?
gone
Well-Known Member
Too much paper offers of slurry and FYM, a distinct lack of interest in working together, an ugly "them and us" within farming especially the disgusting Teagasc mantra of "pay your neighbours last" , but the main thing, I think, is that a couple of years ago tillage farmers needed livestock farmers more than the other way around, but as of this year it is the other way around.
Livestock farmers taking the piss offering €8.00 for 4x4 bale of straw and using GMO cheap imported brown dirt to keep down the price of barley, has to end.
I don't believe tillage farmers need to "open their eyes", I think the last few tillage farmers left in the country have their eyes open, nor do I believe they need to "start working with livestock lads", but I do hope that they keep their eyes open and keep an open mind to working with their neighbours. I hope it isn't taken advantage of, and I will be using this opportunity to setup Straw for FYM deals, but find them hard to keep going, but I am building a very good relationship with a neighbouring dairy farm.
Blackwater boy
Moderator
My open their eyes comment was in relation to the benefits of organic manures not in any other context
Ugo Schtiglitz
Well-Known Member
I've always liked the idea of slurry seperators that leave the more n rich liquid available to stock farmers and the more pk rich solid stuff available to export. Would solve a lot of problems and be worth hauling. With the new grants for solar, the generated electricity could be used to run the machine. Or in other juristictions, they use mobile ones. Now if only they were grant aided somehow.
Ugo Schtiglitz
Well-Known Member
Sounds like a good cheap way to grow crops
We use a lot of organic manure. It’s great stuff indeed but the hassle, time, diesel, wear and tear etc are brutal. It’s sooooo much easier to load the fert spreader with artificial fert and away you go! Unfortunately we don’t have any choice so it’s a matter of grin and bear it.
Upside to organic manure is the deep richness and fertility of soil that you’ll never get from a bag. Before I came here I used to buy trace elements by the palet, we don’t use any now.
I recently gave 400t of good compost to a neighbor because we just couldn’t spend/waste the time spreading it. It’s on a block with tricky access and needs to be hauled through a town...and all the townies are only waiting to call the cops if an ounce falls off the spreader.
Upside to organic manure is the deep richness and fertility of soil that you’ll never get from a bag. Before I came here I used to buy trace elements by the palet, we don’t use any now.
I recently gave 400t of good compost to a neighbor because we just couldn’t spend/waste the time spreading it. It’s on a block with tricky access and needs to be hauled through a town...and all the townies are only waiting to call the cops if an ounce falls off the spreader.
Masseyrk662
Well-Known Member
The first sheet is the field that the redstart was grown last year before receiving sludge (human) site “A” in the second sheet is the same field after sludge this year, it recieved one bag of 18-6-12 to the acre but that is all along with the sludge
