Farmers can slash costs, say experts

Farmers can save hundreds of pounds in fertiliser costs by testing their soils and developing an objective nutrient management plan, according to the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative.

With soaring fertiliser prices, producers who analyse their soil, calculate crop nutrient requirements and better target their manure, slurry and fertiliser applications can slash input costs for an average maize crop by almost £70/ha.

"Farmers need to reassess their fertiliser strategies," said Simon Draper, a consultant with Momenta, at a CSF meeting last week.

"They can save money by looking at manures differently and seeing how to get nutrients to the crops properly."

A typical farmyard manure contains enough Phosphate and Potash to eliminate the need for any other fertiliser on maize crops. Applied at the right time - early spring is best - it will also almost halve the inorganic nitrogen requirement, saving about £66/ha in fertiliser costs.

Farmers attending the meeting in the Avon catchment also learnt how to calculate the exact crop nutrient requirements to better target their fertiliser applications. This included working out the soil nitrogen supply, crop nitrogen content and requirement, and planning how to best supply the nutrients using slurry, manure and inorganic fertiliser.

To calculate whether nitrogen fertiliser was being used to its optimum efficiency, producers could also test grain nitrogen content, said Mr Draper.