Poultry Amount to Spread

Today we started spreading some poultry litter as an organic manure to provide fertiliser (feed) for the stubble turnip crop that we are going to plant for sheep feed through the summer. The muck was delivered 2 weeks ago and has been sitting in field heaps dotted across the farm waiting to be spread. Today was that day, hopefully just before some nice warm rain (see previous blogs). The spreading contractor, Phil Odam, has just bought this spreader that can weigh each load and apply it very accurately. The spreader has a GPS guidance device which shows where the muck has been spread.

We want to apply about 7tonnes/ha to the fields which will provide enough nitrogen for this crop. 7t /ha is a very small amount and you have to look very hard to actually find it on the surface but it does contain a lot of nitrogen fertiliser of which about 30% is available to the crop straight away. The manure will also provide enough phosphate and potash for this crop and hopefully for the following wheat crop, to be planted in September. It smells a bit but with Derek hot on the heals of the spreading team, working the manure in and planting the seeds, the smell and much of the nitrogen will be captured. Gordon is following behind rolling up. If it rains tomorrow we should be in the pound seats and the sheep should be well fed. You can catch up on this fields progress by coming along to our Open Farm Sunday event on the 13th June this year.