Fertilizer Buggy/Spreader 101

[Brokenbear]

For those who may not have had the opportunity or thought about serious fertilizer applications read on as it is absolutely the cheapest way to have your plots and habitat projects successful .....you can have all the best equipment, seeds, lime, timing rain and luck in the world but no plant nutrition can be a game killer ..

Consider using your Coop (or local AG service center) for a one time (or more) fertilizer buggy rental (if you are not already) and use it to bring all your area up to snuff at one time..

I and my Coop are in a very rural farm area and even they have small medium and large fertilizer buggies/spreaders ..the Coop can take your soil samples reports and calculate the actual NET pounds of each of the elements you will need to get your soils balanced and productive ..

How you fill out your "expectations" on the form that will accompany your soil samples is very important ..in naming the actual crop involved and the yield you are expecting will all play an important part in getting the mix and poundage correct

My Coop does not scoff at my small orders ..buggy rental is like $10 ..and if you do not want to pull a loaded buggy they will deliver for like $20 ..I take mine back empty but they will also pick up ..

A 25/30 HP tractor will handle the small buggy with ease on level ground ..and the guy who delivers it will be glad to not only show you how it functions but likely help you hook it up

When you order the fertilizer they will ask how many acres you are wanting to fertilize (be sure to take them your soil sample)
They will also ask you if you want one pass or two to spread which I use the two pass system where I go over the field east/west then north/south to spread evenly


It will be the responsibility of the Coop personnel to set the buggy/spreader controls so that the the machine will spread over each acre the required pounds per acre

You as the operator only have to engage the the drive wheel (which delivery guy will show you) which is simply a boat trailer tire sitting on the spreader's tire running a sprocket n chain to move the belt the fertilizer is on to the spinning spreader which is of course run by your PTO from your tractor

Do not let the thought of using a spreader intimidate you as it is EAZY to operate ...and I can assure you it's a much much cheaper way to correct your soil health

Only one rule to follow when in operation ..well two.. no three ..no sharp turns ..sweeping curves only and slow down at ditch crossing and rough ground ..don't worry about slowing down as the belt feeding the fertilizer is slowing down when you slow down ..and if you move from one field to another field remember to disengage the boat trailer tire from the spreader tire so the fertilizer stops feeding ..then re-engage at the next field the boat trailer tire to feed the fertilizer

This is redundant to most all of you seasoned veterans of farming and plotting ..but there are surely new blood coming along every day that maybe ..just maybe not realize what fertilizer that comes in a bag sometimes is not all that much fertilizer and occasionally ..you have to get out the big gun to do the job ..

Bear

 

[khizzle]

For those who may not have had the opportunity or thought about serious fertilizer applications read on as it is absolutely the cheapest way to have your plots and habitat projects successful .....you can have all the best equipment, seeds, lime, timing rain and luck in the world but no plant nutrition can be a game killer ..

Consider using your Coop (or local AG service center) for a one time (or more) fertilizer buggy rental (if you are not already) and use it to bring all your area up to snuff at one time..

I and my Coop are in a very rural farm area and even they have small medium and large fertilizer buggies/spreaders ..the Coop can take your soil samples reports and calculate the actual NET pounds of each of the elements you will need to get your soils balanced and productive ..

How you fill out your "expectations" on the form that will accompany your soil samples is very important ..in naming the actual crop involved and the yield you are expecting will all play an important part in getting the mix and poundage correct

My Coop does not scoff at my small orders ..buggy rental is like $10 ..and if you do not want to pull a loaded buggy they will deliver for like $20 ..I take mine back empty but they will also pick up ..

A 25/30 HP tractor will handle the small buggy with ease on level ground ..and the guy who delivers it will be glad to not only show you how it functions but likely help you hook it up

When you order the fertilizer they will ask how many acres you are wanting to fertilize (be sure to take them your soil sample)
They will also ask you if you want one pass or two to spread which I use the two pass system where I go over the field east/west then north/south to spread evenly


It will be the responsibility of the Coop personnel to set the buggy/spreader controls so that the the machine will spread over each acre the required pounds per acre

You as the operator only have to engage the the drive wheel (which delivery guy will show you) which is simply a boat trailer tire sitting on the spreader's tire running a sprocket n chain to move the belt the fertilizer is on to the spinning spreader which is of course run by your PTO from your tractor

Do not let the thought of using a spreader intimidate you as it is EAZY to operate ...and I can assure you it's a much much cheaper way to correct your soil health

Only one rule to follow when in operation ..well two.. no three ..no sharp turns ..sweeping curves only and slow down at ditch crossing and rough ground ..don't worry about slowing down as the belt feeding the fertilizer is slowing down when you slow down ..and if you move from one field to another field remember to disengage the boat trailer tire from the spreader tire so the fertilizer stops feeding ..then re-engage at the next field the boat trailer tire to feed the fertilizer

This is redundant to most all of you seasoned veterans of farming and plotting ..but there are surely new blood coming along every day that maybe ..just maybe not realize what fertilizer that comes in a bag sometimes is not all that much fertilizer and occasionally ..you have to get out the big gun to do the job ..

Bear

This was my first year of using them and it was pretty easy. I tried to do the math on how many bags of fertilizer I was going to use and it just didn’t make sense how that was possible. Then a lady at one of the places mentioned that most folks rent buggies and then away we went!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wind Gypsy]

What's the smallest one width wise they have? I don't know if I could get one into my back plot.

 

[Brokenbear]

What's the smallest one width wise they have? I don't know if I could get one into my back plot.

I have seen the buggies no wider than a pickup truck that the individual I would say owned it but the smallest I have seen an AG service center use in commercial service is 7 to 7.5' wide ..but that does not mean those services around you might have even smaller buggies ...

Bear

 

[FarmerDan]

There might be a number of ways to get the benefit of bulk blended fertilizer to your location. But, it depends on the willingness of the management of your local coop or other close-by commercial supplier and/or your relationship with the same.

Assuming you are wanting to do the spreading, the fertilizer application, yourself use of a buggy is one option - discussed above. I was of the belief buggy rental was a disappearing option because of the liability involved. If you can rent one is a great way to benefit.

My coop has "nurse" equipment they use to feed production applications (10s to 100s of tons) . Keeps the "gator" in the field doing productive work while the other trucks run the highway. Because I have a couple of small fields they cannot access my coop will nurse my equipment - usually just a three-point-hitch mounted cyclone spreader on the back of a tractor. The coop goes as far as they can with their equipment where I meet them with mine. They auger fertilizer to me. I run to the field, spread it and repeat until we're finished. Sometimes they will just run an auger truck to a location on a Friday night, leave me the keys and I'll load my spreader and do the application early the next morning.

On occasion I've just backed the pickup under the bulk blend load out chute. There's a lot of shoveling involved on my end!

Talk to your supplier to see what they might be willing to do. And what they are willing to do doesn't happen in peak planting season. So, think ahead and keep tip-money available.