Farmers across the UK rely on fertiliser to achieve the highest yield with different crops. However, a lot of people use it inefficiently. It could translate to a great deal of waste and unnecessary expenses. The latter can be even worse due to high prices.

What we want to do here is look at some of the top tips for how you can use fertilisers more efficiently. It could save you a huge amount of money and resources. Plus, it could actually increase your output.

Look at soil nutrients and pH

The first thing to look at is the level of specific nutrients in the soil. A deficiency in one could have a big impact on how efficient nitrogen is. For example, a lack of sulphur and phosphate can lead to lower uptake of nitrogen.

In addition, the pH of the soil is very important. It will have a big impact on root development. So, if the soil is too acid or too alkaline it can mean roots don’t develop properly and limit nitrogen uptake. It can mean you waste a lot of fertiliser.

Nitrate leaching

One of the biggest issues is that nitrates can easily leach away. It is especially common when there is heavy rain and more nitrate than a crop can take up. What happens here is it simply washes away.

There are things you can look at to tackle this, including nitrification inhibitors. Cover crops are also valuable because they can capture the nitrogen rather than letting it leach away.

Fertilising rate

Often farmers will have a plan in mind for how much fertiliser to use. However, being too rigid here can be inefficient. It is a better option to be more flexible and willing to revise the rates up or down as necessary. There are lots of tools to help calculate nitrogen take up so you can then adapt accordingly.

Timing is everything

It is important to apply fertilisers at the right time if you want to use it as efficiently as possible. A good way to do this is to apply smaller amounts more often. You may be tied to specific timings with some products, but you can offset this with others like liquid fertiliser to get more flexibility on timings.

Accurate application

Another crucial thing here is to ensure you are applying fertilisers accurately. Poor accuracy can mean a lot of waste as products won’t get to where they need to be. A good thing to do is check your equipment, especially the spreader trays. You can even choose new technology that can reduce problems like overlaps.

Speak to us if you need to order fertiliser

We hope the advice above is useful and helps you to be more efficient with your fertilisers. A small improvement could save you a huge amount of resources and money. In fact, it is entirely possible to increase efficiency from as low as 40% to 60% or 70%.

Having easy access to high quality products and reliable delivery can also be very useful. JS Hubbuck Ltd is proud to help here. You can rely on us to give you the very best supplies and get them to you as quickly as we can.

So, if you need fertiliser, contact us. You get all kinds of benefits, including great prices and the high quality service you would expect from a family business with decades of experience.