Spreading 46-00

[youngbro]

Probably not the right topic room, but no one reads the others.

Was just curious if anyone has any experience doing this ahead of their drill??

Would a 8" spacing with 1" vertical openers move enough dirt?? What if you heavy harrowed behind spreading, then seed??

How much loss would a guy expect to lose by spreading ahead?? Could you spread now??

Thanks for any help!!

[freewheat]

The only time i've done this, it rained the night after i spread, and before it was seeded. Worked very well. I feel even if it had not rained it would have worked well though. To me, as long as the granules are covered with soil, it will work. BUT this is for my wet area, where spring rains are about as frequent as days that end in "Y"! If you can't be sure of a post seeding rain in a reasonable time frame, it may not work as well. As far as spreading now, I have heard yes do it, and no don't. I have no idea if it should be done.

Sorry about my limited details. it is a practice i have watched with interest however.

[SASKFARMER3]

We did it about 20 years ago or more, But at that time were using shovels. 8 inch spacing moves a lot of dirt and should cover the 46. Its cheapest way. Have neighbors that get the Esso to blow on their N most years and then they seed seems to work out fine. But were in a wet area!

[cottonpicken]

Last year,my mid row shanks had problems clearing some flax stubble,so i took everysecond one off and fixed the hose to just simply blow on fertilizer every 48 inches and every 48 inches fertilizer was being properly placed.

I could not see any fertilizer behind the drill and could not see any difference in the crop.

A second air tank does not take much power to pull,hydraulic capacity is the limiting factor.

So i think theoretically you could spread fertilizer in front of your drill with your drill.Putting some fert down with seed would also help.

I'm not an agroligist so i would get a few opinions about this.

[macdon02]

can you do it now.... yes if you have enough snow say 2-3 in min. and not too much either about 1 ft max. As long as the snow is not crusted over the prills will drop close to half the distance through the snow and will be locked in place, however we prefer to go right in front of drill, we use 3/4 in opener on 10in space, we own a floater and have seeded canola with it putting the whole blend down with the seed, heavy harrowing behind. will you lose any N, good question possibly some but we did two 1/4s this year that were too dry to drill( they were alfalfa last year) we didn't get a rain for close to a month after, we put a 60-25-10 blend down and got a 30 bus crop and the fert was covered by dust mostly. to tell the truth only the low spots grew off the start, it looked terrible till July and was a month late in the fall, but we usually need 60 lbs to get 30 bus up here, so I am quite sure we got the majority of the N, just an extreme case but everything worked out.

[furrowtickler]

We are set to start spreading on monday, 5th. Starting to get jittery with the recent snow but still less than 6inches in the stubble. We have also spread 46 just ahead of the air drill,10" spacing with 3/4" knives, worked very well. Last year we top dressed the winter wheat after the spring snow - not good - no rain for 50 days after. 2 years ago top dressing the winter wheat worked great, 1/2 inch rain afterwards. IMO, it is a gamble no matter what you do but before seeding at least your odds are better as far as efficiency.

[poorboy]

With the ground frozen, is there not a huge risk of the Urea running off or to the low spots, if we get a fast, warm spring melt?

My local dealer will store product till spring for a reasonable cost, which would allow the snow melt to occur before you float it on.