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Little River, TX | Dave, For a number of years I used a really old Clark "cotton" AA applicator. It had a tank mounted on the machine and took as long to fill from nurse tank as it took to apply 400 - 500 lbs/A of AA. Old technology that worked after a fashion.
Each season required as much time getting ready to run as we used it for application. I would run AA for three or four days. Now my neighbor comes in and puts all my AA plus my guess for 11-37-0 down the slots, just in passing. Takes maybe 4 hours. The major advantage is pulling the nurse tank behind the tool bar, rather than having to fill a 500 gallon tank 8 times over 4 days.
Now the secret of AA into a hay or pasture is having a clay soil with at least a 30 CEC. That CEC will tie the NH4 to the clay particles. If you NEED to fertilize after each cutting Anhydrous is not for you.
For top dressing after each cutting the ideal is Ammonium Nitrate. Here that is from the Good Old Days and we now are offered a Urea - Ammonium Sulfate mixture as a substitute.
Another thing about Anhydrous is it is slower and more costly to apply than spreading a dry nitrogen fertilizer. True the anhydrous it's self is less costly per pound of Nitrogen, but the application cost is about double per hour for spreading.
The here - there thing is a major consideration.
In theory we can apply; 10 lbs of N for each CEC value. With my 50 CEC conventional wisdom says I can apply 500 lbs/A of N and expect any unused to still be hanging around come the first frost. One time I applied N at 1,200 lbs/A on a small plot of 50 CEC ground. After seven years I felt the need to apply nitrogen again. That is more than double the conventional wisdom.
My friends in the East Texas Sandy soils assure me that after 6 weeks all the nitrogen applied, THERE, is gone. Regardless of the amount applied.
TAMU in their finite wisdom tell us it is not economical to apply more than 125 lbs/A N to a pasture or hay meadow at any one time. TAMU's sandy soils maybe have a 10 - 15 CEC.
The best to you and your efforts. | |
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Form of N on grass
