I learned with the co-op in Brewster, MN, that some co-ops have scaled up with granular fertilizer rather than anhydrous ammonia.)
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| Screenshot |
Greg Fedoruk posted two pictures with the comment: "Can't wait for spring." The white tank would be amorphous ammonia because it is pressure resistant and the yellow bins would be at least phosphorus. He is injecting fertilizers into the soil. (There are three bins. Is he applying two other chemicals or is there a bin of phosphorous for each third of the implement's coverage?) Judging from the auger on the side of the bins, the yellow bins are carrying granular material.
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| John Deere 2510H Nutrient Applicator |
While driving east of Kankakee on IL-17, I spotted some field work being done.
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When I put away my John Deere Secondary Tillage brochure, I found a small brochure on the bottom of the pile for the 2510L Liquid Fertilizer Applicators. Note that the date on these pictures was June 3, 2016. So the farmer is adding the fertilizer after it has started growing. I've seen the term sidedressing.
Rather than buy a bigger tractor, he doesn't completely unfold the 2510L. It seems like John Deere could easily sell a cheaper version that left off the wings. Or maybe he has different fields with different soil conditions and this is a "tough soil" field.
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| At camera resolution |
Update:
This is the first time I have seen a planter of this vintage equipped for liquid fertilizer. I believe the two long bins are for granular fertilizer, and the four round bins hold the seed.
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| Big Tractor Power posted Sprayer Saturday: International 56 corn planter fitted with an IH chemical tank for liquid starter fertilizer. [Farmall 706] |
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| Ryan Semke posted Sidedressin corn |
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| Roger Kujawa posted The TPW serves Morton, IL on an irregular basis bringing in fertilizer to be off loaded. This is part of the ex Santa Fe branch from Pekin to Streator. Because of the track arrangement to get to Morton the train had to back into and out of town so the loco can be on the front of the train on the Norfolk Southern track to East Peoria. Here is the train backing out of Morton. |
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| Jerry Jackson posted A CSX fertilizer train with 100% CSX covered hoppers. Milledgeville, IL 2013. BNSF Aurora Sub. [I believe these are 3-bay covered hoppers. Since both grain and fertilizer trains use 3-bay cars, I don't know how to tell the difference. But this is a reminder that agriculture is an important customer for railroads because of fertilizer as well as grain, and corn byproducts such as ethanol, corn syrup, and DDGS (Dried (10-12% moisture) Distillers Grains with Solubles). (Distillers Grains are worth less if an ethanol plant removes the oil to make biodiesel fuel. DD can be shipped wet for less than 200 km.)] |
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| The Farmer's Life posted
Using The Climate Corporation FieldView Drive to map my anhydrous applications. I was able to test this last year, and I can see it's a lot closer to the final product now than it was a year ago.
In this field I'm putting a full rate of Nitrogen on the ends and where I'll have rows overlapping at planting. I do that on most fields. It just makes sidedress after the corn is up simpler. I'm also putting a lower rate down on the rest of the field because I saw some good results from splitting pre and post planting apps last year vs a single application. Just expanding that out to more acres.
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| The Farmer's Life posted Sidedress time! Giving corn another dose of tasty Nitrogen! [Too many interesting comments to copy them. The "posted" link should be public and there were no cuss words.] A video explaining a blowout of a hose after he took a break for lunch. |
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| The Farmer's Life posted Strategically placing anhydrous wagons foreasy pick up later. Mark Stephenson Im surprised you can pull two together. They cut hitch off the back of ours yrs ago and the Fertilizer company. Kristin Ketner Lykins I saw a couple people pulling 3 last week. 2 is my limit though! Andrew Ian Never been a fan to transporting it. From the stories other have told and what gpa always stressed. Danieł Horning I’m impressed the wheel spacing of the truck lines up with the rows. Or do you run over a little? The Farmer's Life All truck’s I’ve seen fit a 30” row well. Really tires or wheels that stick out from the body probably wouldn’t work. Jenny Mahaffey Hi, what are these? Just trying to learn! Blake Biermann Those are tanks of anhydrous ammonia that is used for fertilizer. A lot of farmers inject it into the soil either in the fall after harvest or in the spring shortly before planting. Some also sidedress it into fields of standing crops as post-emergence fertilizer, as he will be doing soon. The Farmer's Life Yep! It’s the most concentrated and usually least expensive form of Nitrogen. |
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| The Farmer's Life posted NH3 is chilly stuff! Boils at -28°F! Larry Baumgartner Been applying this stuff for 55 years. Started when I was 12 years old with a 3 pts rig. Started my boys when they were 12 but with 60 foot rig.They could park and rebook perfit. |
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| Bill Houck commented on the above post I love the smell of ammonia in the morning! |
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| Nick Schwarze commented on the above post Always liked changing tanks and shrinking dollar bills to the size of business cards with it |
In the early 2020s, "The Farmer's Life" converted from anhydrous ammonia to liquid fertilizer, but I did not catch his reason for switching. I do know that he bought a tanker trailer for his trucks as part of that conversion.
A video of an Anhydrous applicator by "The Farmer's Life." The video has a profile format, which I hate, and has wind noise, but it is informative. He also discusses why he plants cereal rye for a cover crop between the cash crops while he is driving the tractor.
Some details about fertilizing. With GPS, combines can measure the yield of each part of the field. The evolution will be to feed this data into the planter and application equipment to treat each part of the field differently.
2016 Update on Fertilizer Transportation It refers to tables and figures that are not provided! The comments on the posting are more informative.
Ask our agronomist: Nitrogen management
The "4Rs" of fertilizing: "right source, right rate, right time, right place." [CropNutrition]
This article shows what a big business fertilizer distribution is: Genesis plans huge fertilizer supercentre west of Regina
Midwest Fertilizer plant still going forward, Posey officials say (2-3 billion dollars)
I can tell spring fertilizer and planting season is coming because I'm seeing some advertisements. This is for Micro Essentials.
Aspire Potash Adds potassium and boron. Because I belong to some old tractor and combine groups, Facebook thinks I'm a farmer. I got another "suggested post" for Aspire. This is probably one reason why livestock farmers can save money by spreading thier manure back onto the fields, they put the trace minerals as well as major nutrients back on the field.
1.3B expansion of a fertilizer plant
In addition to different types of fertilizer, this unit must be doing pesticides and/or herbicides as well. But what really caught my eye was "mouse bait spreader." A video of the unit that can spread "3 dry products, 3 liquid products, mouse bait spreader" in one pass. "Roughly 300 litres of hydraulic oil a minute is required to run the whole system."
CropLife claims that corn also needs sulfur.
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| CropNutrition |
A proposal for a billion-dollar liquid fertilizer plant in Longview, WA, puts into perspective that fertilizer is a big business. It will provide only 100 "family wage jobs." That is a capital/worker investment of $10,000,000. I wonder how much of the equipment in the plant will come from USA vs. Japan, Germany and/or China.
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