An answer to rocketing fertilizer prices

oneplain1 · Tar Sands Joined: Nov 18, 2007 Posts: 53

Pop's wrote:
How is that plug-in car working for you?

No plugs here, my next car is gonna be a Standardbred!
Next tractor will be 4 Belgians....check it out...

http://horseprogressdays.com/welcome.html

Right you are about cattle prices; add to that pork and milk (paid to farmers that is, not necessarily what one would pay at the market). All are feeling the strain of corn prices.

I'm hoping for a bit of a surge this spring when the grass gets going, if so, I will take advantage of the upswing. My meadows and pastures are still a bit spent from last years drought (fertilizer is a bit to risky at these prices).

My ears are certainly perked to the current situation, I can't wait to see how it shakes out....wish I could skip to the end of the book!

Pops

PrairieMule

basil_hayden

I wonder if the septage in my tank could be run through a solar oven to kill pathogens then spread on land?

Just a crazy thought for when the honey wagon stops coming 'round.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1374

We made it a point to run septic laterals under one garden area. You know, Phillis Diller said "The Grass is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank". (Her treatise on suburbia.) Actually, it only gets water from the laterals, but it helps.
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Local fix-it guy..

Windmills

How often does one fertilize during a plant's growth? Once or twice? Should diluted urine be applied at any time, or is it better just before or just after watering?

socrates1fan · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 04, 2008 Posts: 270

A lot of the time in the 1930's back they would have multiple plots on ones property and what they would do is they would bury their food scraps(before we had all this odd processed crap.) in the garden because it made the soil richer. It also reduced their garbage.
That helps if you can't find fertalizer but you have to be careful what you bury or you could suffer invasions from things such as ants and what not and if you are going to bury food you want to make sure its ground up well and buried at least 1ft under.

PhebaAndThePilgrim

Good day from Pheba, from the farm:
Fertilizer woes are a disaster here on the farm this year. For the first time since 1971 no synthetic fertilizer was purchased for our farm.
Synthetic is not a good descriptive term for the fertilizer used for agriculture. Synthesized would be a better word.
Low nitrogen/potash/phosphate blend for 100 acre hay would have cost us $7,500.00. Previous years was about $3,500.00.
We just do not have the money.
Our cost was for hay. For corn the volume of fertilizer is much higher.
For about 180 bushels per acre one of our neighbors put down 110/80/80. That is 110# of nitrogen/ 80 of potash/80 of phosphate. that is about the norm around here for corn.
His cost for 100 acres was $26,000.00. He paid over 260.00 per acre to fertilize his corn.
Now, as if that isn't bad enough, it will not stop raining here so the farmers can get the corn planted. Can you imagine a farmers angst to have invested $26,000.00 in fertilizer and not be able to get in the field to plant.
My husband is anxious because he needs to cut hay, but you can't cut hay until it stops raining.
Last week he mowed the roadside, and is picking it up with the pitchfork, by hand, and putting it in the barn.
Without synthetic fertilizer our yield will be way down.
We used the end loader on the tractor to pile the manure up in the lots and it is fermenting.
We will use the old manure spreader to spread the manure later this spring.
the manure spreader is very old, and may not hold together.
Even with this treatment there will not be enough manure to make a huge difference.
We would need the manure from 500 head of cattle to do the job of synthetic fertilizer.
I am not certain of this, but I am wondering where potash and phosphate come from if they are not imported in synthesized fertilizer?
Does a cow produce them in their waste?
What is actually available in animal waste and compost fertilizers?
The big 3 nutrients needed for plant growth are
nitrogen, potash and phosphate.
I know how nitrogen is made, and I also know that some plants synthesize nitrogen from the atmosphere (legumes), but where do potash and phosphate come from?
I hear my husband call it rock phosphate from time to time, so I guess it is a mineral. Also, I have heard that rock phosphate has peaked globally. Can anybody verify this information.
What about potash. What is potash?
Personally I believe that potash and rock phosphate are going to become as important as nitrogen, if not more so.
Personally I also believe that there are micro-nutrients that are seriously depleted in U.S. soil.
I have no answers. Personally I think we are doomed unless 300 million of us can start composting like crazy.
Pheba.

Heineken

frankthetank

I have never fertilized any of my fruit trees, and they seem to be doing just fine.

I've made it a point to scoop up any fish guts i can get my hands on. Lots of goodies there. Living right by the river, i could always load the boat up with all kinds of river weeds and bring them home.

Wood chips are my secret weapon. Lots of woodchips.
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"Oil is going up because we use too much oil, and the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling"
-President Bush 11/07/07