THE compelling advantage of liquids over compound and granular fertilisers is enhanced and faster plant availability, flexibility and ease of handling and storage.
That was the pith of an address by Primaries CRT agronomist and Gnowangerup branch manager Tom McInerney at the company’s special “reveal” meeting last week at Ausplow Farming Systems’ head office in Jandakot.
According to Mr McInerney, who has been involved in trial work since 2013 with Nutrian and Ausplow, having the right equipment is pivotal for liquid delivery.
Using an Ausplow DBS/Multistream trial seeding rig, he added Friction Flow hoses to deliver his mixes from the tank to the DBS modules and has experimented with several delivery points at the knife point, seeding boot and at the rear of the press wheel.
Trials, which are replicated, include in-furrow fungicides, liquid limes and gypsum, liquid calcium, trace elements and liquid NPK.
Early work saw blockage issues with the calcium, lime and gypsum mixes, because of insufficient agitation in the tank to keep products in suspension.
That has been overcome and the Friction Flow liquid system has worked a treat.
Included in the trial work are comparisons between liquid and granular products and combinations of both.
“We are testing a range of nutrients, ameliorants and in-furrow fungicides in liquid form,” Mr McInerney said.
“That’s along with wetting agents, to assess how they can assist in improving crop establishment and activating herbicides, by maintaining more moisture in-furrow, particularly in drier conditions.
“We also want to identify benefits of in-furrow treatments in a dry year when moisture is lacking and therefore plant uptake of nutrients is slower.
“It will be interesting to see if liquids can trigger a quicker response and potentially provide greater early plant vigour and crop establishment in dry conditions.
“There is potentially a compromise between liquid and granular and we’ll be looking at that too.
“We’re not pushing any particular product or method but rather trying to think outside the square as to what might be more beneficial to plant establishment and growth.
“There is a lot of spin out there in the ag market place with a lot of suspect products, with little or no scientific backing or replicated trial work behind them, being pushed on farmers.
“We’re keen to throw those products into our trials in conjunction with current best practice and some new technologies to see where we are getting the best bang for our buck and help our clients make better decisions for their business.
“It’s a complex scenario but there are some positive signs to indicate that we might be able to tweak a few one and two per centers rather than trying to totally reinvent the wheel.
“I would characterise what we’re doing as identifying another tool for the toolbox in crop establishment systems.
“It’s all about looking for options to maximise profits.”
Ken Wilson
Farm Weekly's machinery writer.
Farm Weekly's machinery writer.
