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Improving Nitrogen fertiliser Use Efficiency (NfUE) will be one of the most important ways in which UK growers can improve their business productivity in the future.
The single most important decision you can make to maximise your NfUE lies in the type of fertiliser you choose in the first place, says CF Fertilisers’ head agronomy Dr. Sajjad Awan. Whilst good management can help finetune the effectiveness of your applications, start with the wrong Nitrogen source and you’ll be locked into lower levels of NfUE with little you can do to lift it, he says.
“NfUE is essentially a measure of how much of the Nitrogen applied ends up in the crop. “In simple terms, if you apply 100kg N/ha and only 50kg N/ha is taken up by your crop, you will have an NfUE of 50% and half of the N you have paid for has gone somewhere other than into your crops as intended “Improving NfUE benefits your crop, your pocket and the wider environment.
Whether you are looking at it from the perspective of clean air, reducing your carbon footprint or increasing production efficiency, loss of N from the cropping system is a major problem.”
With cropping decisions being made, now is a great time to carry out soil sampling to plan your fertiliser regime for the coming season. Good yields may have results in greater nutrient offtake which will need to be replenished to ensure your subsequent crops can reach their full potential. By soil sampling now you can also gauge whether there is a requirement for an autumn application of fertiliser.
The 2021/22 AHDB Recommended List sees several high-yielding varieties introduced in the wheat and barley groups. For maximum potential yield to be achieved, crops need to be provided with the correct balance of essential nutrients throughout the growing season.
It would be an understatement to say we have seen some changeable weather over recent weeks! April was one of the coldest and driest on record since the 1980’s, followed by plenty of showers in May. This combination has not provided a great basis for early grass growth, and those who cut early, or have managed to dodge the more recent showers will have seen mixed results.
Fertiliser prices have increased significantly since the beginning of 2021, particularly for Nitrogen and DAP/TSP, and this upward trend appears to be continuing into spring.
The evidence that most grassland soils require the application of sulphur from fertilisers to maximise grass silage and grazing yields still mounts. Most farmers now appreciate that all light and medium soils, and even now some heavier loam soils, don’t release enough sulphur from organic matter to allow grass growth and quality to meet potential. They also realise that there is not enough available sulphur in slurries and manures to meet demand.
New season AN prices were launched in the UK at the end of May. Prices are approximately £50/t cheaper than last year's launch and nearly £40/t cheaper than the levels they were trading at recently.
With the delays that have been experienced getting on to the land this spring don’t forget to ensure the nutrient requirement of your soil and plants is calculated in the dash to get crops planted or animals turned out.
As another weather front blows in across the whole of the UK and with cropping still unsure in a lot of areas, the thought of fertiliser applications may be at the back of grower’s mind.
