Moving to a contractor-applied suspension fertiliser system has reduced the autumn workload on a Suffolk farm and brought financial and waste disposal benefits.

Shortage of time during the busy autumn period was the spur for cereal farmer David Dawson of Tothill Farms near Stowmarket to abandon conventional solid fertilisers.

“We’d used liquid nitrogen for several years. I wanted to focus my time on autumn land preparation and drilling, so it was the fertiliser regime that had to change.”

His 324ha (800 acres) of light to heavy land grow feed barley, wheat and oilseed rape.

Economic pressure saw his labour force cut in five years – from four men to just himself and a part-time helper at busy periods. So the autumn workload demanded a strategy rethink.

Applying phosphate and potash fertiliser when also trying to drill winter crops was a problem. So outsourcing operations to contractors was viable and sensible, Mr Dawson explains.

“I switched from using farmer-applied solids to Omex suspension fertiliser on a delivered and spread basis by an approved contractor.

“A lot of our land used to be permanent pasture, so we have inherited a blackgrass and ryegrass problem.”

That means stale seed-beds – which increase the workload – are essential, he adds.

Last year suspension fertiliser was applied instead of solid to some of the barley and the entire oilseed rape crop. The rape also received Treflan (trifluralin) herbicide in the same tank mix.

Applying fertiliser and herbicide at the same time optimises the timing of both drilling and P and K treatment, he believes.
By early May the suspension-treated Carat barley was two weeks further forward than the half spring-treated with solid P:K.
Both areas yielded well.

“At 3-3.25t/acre it was a touch above average for us. I don’t have a combine yield meter, but the suspension-treated crop definitely looked thicker and better.”

Moving forklifts and tractors to handle solid fertiliser was expensive and time consuming, and took about three times as long as it does under the new regime, he notes.

“With respect to costs, the raw material prices are comparable. And although with the contractor spreading there is an additional cost, the fact that we don’t have to use our own diesel means it is not actually costing much more.

“The big advantages to us are time-saving and less waste packaging disposal.

“We have more control on whether to add agrochemicals to the mix and/or apply slug pellets from a front-mounted applicator, because we can make the decision on the day. This allows us to be much more precise with inputs.

“I am confident that our fertiliser costs will start to come down because we now only apply exactly what is needed for the crop.”

Agronomists tend to be wary of mixing fertiliser and agchems, but once they see the results their confidence grows, says Omex’s Andrew Butler.

“The cost of the materials is in line with solids. It’s in the logistics of doing several passes in one that the savings lie. We can apply N, P, K, agchem and slug pellets together for £13.90/ha or £5.60/acre total application charge. Most contractors will charge £4/acre for a pass and £2/acre for applying pellets. So the costs soon mount up and can be at least double.”

“We were a bit nervous to start with because we didn’t really know what to expect,” says Mr Dawson. “But, based on what we know now, the whole farm is going over to suspension fertiliser this autumn.

“I want to look more at mixing pre-emergence herbicides such as Ice (flufenacet + pendimethalin). But when dealing with an expensive product like that you can’t afford to get it wrong, so making sure it is spread evenly across the field is key.

“We know that mixing Treflan in with the suspension on the rape did a fantastic job taking out broadleaved weeds. So I feel confident that we can do the pre-ems on wheat and barley as well.”