Fertilizer cost

yesterday, I bought 2 tons of granular alfalfa fertilizer and became almost sick when they told me the total price. I've been using a foliar spray for last 5 years or so and got use to less cost, but the yields have been going down too. Granular use to be expensive. Now its 3x more!!!!!

Yep, I had to really cut back on quantity this year. Its over $500.00 a ton here. Every time the price of a barrel of oil goes up, so does the price of fertilizer. No rain and less fertilizer is working against us hard here. Hay crop is almost non-existent.

Paid $580 a ton in MN a couple of weeks back. Had to do something to get things growing. Put it down about 6 hours before a slow, soaking 1 inch rainfall, and the sun has been out with temps in the 80's-90's since then. Can't believe the difference in two weeks. In my situation ( and I realize they were ideal with the weather we had), it was worth the cost. Granted, I didn't like the cost, but it was worth it. First time I had bought fertilizer in almost 10 years. I believe last time it was about $200 a ton.

The way I see it, the price of alfalfa hay needed to double as the price of corn did. Obviously, there are alot less riding horses out there. Several of my customers have got rid of horses. In MD the race tracks are struggling more than ever( I'm in SE PA). As my yields go down, the weeds creep in. Its a bad situation. Whats a good suggestion, switch back to straight grass? How about buying broiler litter? The nice thing about alfalfa was it always grew when the rain was sparse, as it is every summer.

Yep, you caught it just right. If I had seen a chance of rain I would do the same thing. It is worth the cost in that situation. The weather did this 3 yrs. ago, the the next year it started raining in the spring and wouldn't quit long enough to get in the fields. I burned a lot of black rotting hay that year. Hope this isn't a repeat.

Alfalfa needs potash and lime. Most of the foliar feed fertilizers have a lot of nitrogen in them. It is not getting the needed nutrients to the root system. You need granular fertilizer to get the rates high enough to do any good. The best time is to apply in the fall but you can do it anytime.. I would start with 200 lbs of potash per acre and then two ton of lime. The lime I would wait until fall to put it on.

If your stand has a good bit of grass then apply a 100 of Urea with the potash. It will kick your hay crop in the butt. I just fertilized several of my hay fields right after first crop. It cost about a $100 per acre. As short as the hay crop is going to be around here it will pay for itself.

I am willing to bet that we have half the acres of hay we had just a few years ago.(North-Eastern Iowa) Too many acres went to high priced grain. Many of the strips have been torn out. If we get those big 4-6 inch rains there is going to be a lot of dirt washed away. The local hay market is booming. Common grass hay is going for $75-125 per ton. Good dairy quality alfalfa is in the upper two hundreds. Some of the dairy guys are getting western alfalfa trucked in for $290-320 per ton.

If you can get broiler liter I'd sure get it. I think hay prices will double, or more. There just isnt much hay out there, at least around here. From what I'm seeing there isnt much going to come in from anywhere either. Too much hay ground went into grain. Then we had cold weather up into May when the plants started going reproductive.

My yields are off 20-50 percent depending on the field. As to suggestions and recommendations. You've got to determine what blend of crops and bale packages brings you the most profit. For me, I decided what I need to make to do it and price accordingly. When fuel got high a few years ago I gradually raised my prices. Havent raised or lowered them since. Lots of people fuss, and lots dont buy from me, and thats ok. This is how I make my living and if it doesnt pay what I think I need to make then I can always rent to the grain guys and go do something else.

all good thoughts. Yes, need to raise price and put down some fertilizer. I put down 2 ton lime last year and plan 2 more this year. I think I may try broiler litter if I can get it reasonable. I'm trying to keep the 4020 & 4010 earning their keep but the global economy is not cooperating.

northvale,

Where in s e pa are you ? I'm 1000 ft south

of york county .

george

Best foliar fertilizer is Neptune's Harvest

I spread 100 tons of chicken litter on my meadows at a cost of $47 a ton delivered to SE OK. I spread it in April and cut hay in June. My yield was 2 round bales of hay per acre, about twice what I have been baling without fertilizing. Roy