Fertilizing the hayfield

Even though Chris had added some fertilizer when he planted my hayfield, he recommended adding a little more of some fertilizers. I meant to but other stuff had to be done first.  Then I bought the fertilizer spreader to mount on my tractor; then I had to find the tractor's three-point bolt.

I checked with CHS and learned it was not too late to add fertilizer this year.  This afternoon I mounted the fertilizer spreader to my tractor and tested that the PTO ran the spreader.  It did.

So I went to CHS to buy some fertilizer.  It turns out I needed 1,759 pounds of fertilizer.  484 lbs of potash, 600 lbs of ammonium sulfate and 684 lbs of urea (nitrogen).  Even though high nitrogen levels can happen with barley hay, Andy from CHS still felt I needed to add some nitrogen fertilizer.

1,759 lbs.  My fertilizer spreader can hold up to 750 lbs. That means filling it three times.  A problem. The price was based on filling one bag.  It cost $60 more to fill three bags.  Or for $30 I could rent their pull behind fertilizer spreader.  For an extra $30 I saved having to fill my spreader three times using five gallon buckets from the large bulk bag.

Another advantage of the pull behind spreader is that it threw the fertilizer 20 feet since it had two platform spinners.  My spreader, with only one platform spinner, would throw the fertilizer 10 to 12 ft.

While my tractor spreader is run via the tractor's PTO, the trailer's spreader mechanism is ground driven.  Below the spreader's box/container is a conveyor belt that moves the fertilizer dropped on it to the back and to the two platform spinners.

It didn't take long to drive around my hayfield and spread the fertilizer.  I ran out of fertilizer right at the end.  Still, I wonder if the same amount was spread at the end as in the beginning and middle.

Now to get water on the fertilizer.  Some of the chemicals dissolve into the atmosphere if water doesn't break down the fertilizer into the soil.  For the urea fertilizer I have two to four days depending on how warm the temperatures get.  The forecast is for rain tomorrow.  Hopefully the forecast is correct, unlike the past few weeks when forecasted rain didn't materialize, or when it did rain it barely got the ground wet.

If no rain, then I will be setting out my irrigation pipes and running my irrigation pump.