PHASED RELEASE - MICRO NUTRIENT RICH  - ORGANIC BASED

AUTUMN FERTILIZER FROM SHEPPY LTD.

What is it

This fertilizer has been designed to be efficient in energy and farm management time. The product is a fibrous powder, rather than granular, delivered to and spread on farm by farming contractors at an all inclusive price.

What Does It Do

Leaching or volatilization is reduced through phased release reducing waste. Humic substances are best described as nature's plant vitamins. They are responsible for many positive effects, the main ones being to: stimulate bacterial activity, enhance root development, increase vitamin content of plants, reduce effect of drought and flood, improve plant health, enrich take-up of micro nutrients, upgrade soil structure and fertility, help to suppress fungal diseases, increase plant respiration rate. By providing you with enhanced agronomic value with greater efficiency of NPK nutrients, it can also help you in your contribution towards improving the environment.

Recomendations

Sheppy produce a "10 P2O5 - 15 K2O" and a "14 P2O5 - 14 K2O" and recomend 675 kg/ha, minimum. The recommendations below are calculated to achieve full yield and maintain, improve or reduce soil P and K according to the soil index.  The approach firstly identifies the amount of nutrient removed by the cereal crop grown (the 'maintenance' amount) and then makes additions to this if necessary (soil fertility adjustment), according to the current soil index level.

Nutrient Offtakes

The Information in the attached table is essential for farmers and advisors, and the P2O5 and K2O values can also be found in the Fertilizer Manual (RB209), 8th edition, 2010.  The values shown are the agreed best estimates of the quantities of phosphate (P2O5), potash (K2O) and guidance on the magnesium (MgO) removed in harvested crop products and in by-products such as straw.  These are the offtakes of P2O5, K2O and MgO per tonne of fresh material harvested; to maintain the nutrient fertility of the soil the total offtake must be replaced, through the use of fertilizers and manures.

Guidelines for calculation of PHOSPHATE, POTASH and MAGNESIUM removal by crops 

 * Offtake value is per tonne of grain or seed removed but includes nutrients in straw when this is also removed and weight is unknown.
** The magnesium offtakes are based on very limited data and are for guidance only.
*** Use these values when straw weight is known.  Potash content of straw can very considerably - higher than average rainfall between crop maturity and straw baling will reduce straw potash content.  Information on non-cereal straws is limited so values should be used only as a guide.
n/d = no data.

Extract taken fromThe Potash Development Association's leaflet Nutrients in crop material 8/10

Commentary on Research Project Pot experiment at CTO Ghent Belgium.

We had been considering the impact of various organic and mineral based additives to our specialist range of fertilizers. We wanted to asses the effectiveness of several different formulations to enhance the performance of the mineral raw materials. We had previously used CTO in Ghent Belgium to carry out such experiments. There are excellent laboratory facilities at CTO including three computer controlled phytotrons (plant growth rooms) with light moisture and temperature all controlled, these facilities enable laboratory experiments to evaluate the effects of the different formulations and provide directly comparable results with a level of accuracy that would not be possible in a field experiment. In addition CTO have an EU licensed laboratory for detailed analysis of the mineral content of the plant material grown under each of the different treatments.

The experiment was carried out using 5 different fertilizer treatments
A Mineral Fertilizer no additions
B Lignite base C Polycat Base
D Compost base bl Control - no fertilizer

The Fresh weight and dry weight for three successive harvests of grass were analysed. The fertilizer with our formulated base produced the highest yields after three harvests which approximately equates to a full growing season.

The trial demonstrated that the addition of our formulated base to the mineral fertilizer produced a better yield than all the other fertilizer treatments. The micronutrient take up was at least as effective per kg of dry matter as the other treatments and a significant higher content of selenium was noticed in the first harvest, this is considered important for the health of animals.

We have postulated that the improved performance of the mineral fertilizer with our formulated base is due to the phosphate content of the formulated base being soluble in NACW and not water (proved in laboratory tests). This means that the form of phosphate in our formulated base is not so readily soluble as for instance in Triple Super Phosphate, thus being held in the root zone of the plant for longer than other highly soluble forms of phosphate traditionally used in mineral fertilizers. This characteristic is also important environmentally ensuring less phosphate leaching into water courses, a concern associated with traditional mineral fertilizers and that the phosphate from our formulated base is not leached away and becomes available for the next growing season.

We also believe that the elemental carbon present in the our formulated base at about 5% is very useful in helping other plant food nutrients to be held in the root zone and delivered to the plant efficiently.

Phosphates used in fertilizers are mined and are a finite resource. All food production requires phosphate. Recent research suggests that existing known phosphate resources will struggle to cope with an increasing world demand within 20 years and are forecast to  run out within 100 years, therefore any 'recycled' waste phosphate material which can be used safely should be actively encouraged.

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