applying anhydrous? How hard, is it worth the savings?

Lighter soils, 30" rows. I DO NOT have a tractor with a good cab, but my uncle would do over 600 acres every year in the 80's with a 806 open station. Urea at $600 ton, anhydrous looks a little more attractive.

Do you have sidehills? Pulling an anhydrous tank through corn with fairly steep sidehills can be a little frustrating becaust the tank will be drifting downhill. How wide are your tractor tires? I finished sidedressing with urea last week and it was a little frustrating on some of the sidehills I have. 18 inch wide tractor tires in 30 inch rows don't allow a whole of room for compensation. The applicator was a two wheel trailer type and it drifted more than I wanted to see. A long four wheeled anhydrous tank will drift even more. If you're on fairly flat land you won't have to worry about that.

As far as cab or no cab goes, if you have a cab with the air intake on the back of the cab like Case or 86 series IH you might get wattery eyes sometimes if you let out some smoke with a tail wind. Around here a lot of anhydrous was applied with cabless tractors years ago without anyone getting hurt. Jim

I had a close call about 20 years ago and swore I would never apply the stuff again.Hose broke.

I switched to liquid N and dry (urea) and never looked back.

Yes Nh3 is cheaper but life is too short.

Your call I guess. Millions of acres are applied every year and there are a few accidents every year.

Your call.

Gary

The gap in savings between anhydrous and other nitrogen sources have narrowed in recent years but you still want to get the price quotes on each source and then do the math. Anhydrous has to be knifed in and the power associated to do this means making smaller width passes versus liquid nitrogen (sprayer with stabilizing agent or can be cultivated or knifed in) or urea (with stabilizing agent if not incorporated) with a broadcast spreader.
Farmers here have gradually moved away from anhydrous here due to the increased time per acre to apply plus the adverse effect on the soil in terms of reduced organic matter. Organic matter is important to the soil as it helps keep it more "loose" and easier for roots to move in the topsoil layer as needed. There is also the issue of fewer non farm neighbors that people unfamiliar with the strong vapor find it very offensive if they get a whiff of it. An accidental release could make for damaging relationships with the neighbors if they are overcome or a pet is seriously injured. If somebody's intent is to cause harm (vandalize) to your equipment there is less chance of a serious hazard happening with a fertilizer spreader than a hose or valve that would be associated with ammonia. While there would be less chance of personal injury with liquid there is great environmental risk if a hose or valve is damaged causing leakage. If you have to apply ammonia or liquid near somebody that is not friendly it is best to get the job done then promptly get the equipment out of there. If you are rained off remove the equipment from the site till you can resume application.

If you don't have a rate controller, you would be much better off hiring someone who does. Much too easy to under or over shoot the rate without one.Either way it could hurt your bottom line.

I don"t like applying Anhydrous in standing corn. I thing it is too volatile. I would use 28%. Do you have a field sprayer??? I have just put hoses on the nozzle holders and let them hang down to the ground. You can cover a lot of ground that way. Urea spread on top of the ground will loose much of the nitrogen it it does not rain real soon after you apply it.

Called the coop and told them to hit the feilds with urea asap if they can before the rain ends this week. Corn in places is 18" high. I am on sand and apply very little pre plant fert due to leaching, seems to work. Just with the rain and the chicken manure that damn corn is taking off on me. Was laid up in bed for 7 days with 102 fever and everything got away from me. Have 2 larger feilds that we did not get pre emerge on and are just a mess. Sickest I have been in my life, hope the week in bed didnt hurt my yeilds too much.

I may have to look at some thing like that. I do not have a sprayer but as I need to start trimming off custom stuff I am shopping for one.

Nothin' to it if ya have good guess-rows.

Keep your wits about ya when you're filling.

Allan

Will the local coop apply it for you? The savings on the nh3 may make it viable to have someone apply it. I kinda had a close call one night that got my attention on it. See what it is to hire it done and do the math. I just had a few fields sidedressed and man is that corn green and happy now. Let me rephrase that, it might be under water we just got 2.5" in 2 hrs.

Most fertilizer distributors have what is called "super U" which is urea treated with a stabilizing agent to keep it from volatilizing till the rain water can soak it in. Of course it costs more per ton but the savings from reduced loss and timely application more than offset that cost.

Ammonia vapors within the confines of a cab tractor are NOT fun. I used to apply 600 acres of anhydrous per year with an open station Int 966. One year I used a cab tractor and got ran out of that cab more than once. I personally like the open station tractors MUCH better for applying anhydrous. Keep your head screwed on straight when you use that stuff. Good product, but very dangerous.

Applying anhydrous is not that hard and you do not need a cab.

BUT!

You need good equipment and you need to match the equipment to the tractor. I used to pull a 550 gal side-dress applicator with 5 shanks on 36” wide rows with a D17.

HOWEVER… since you have never applied anhydrous ask the local co-op if they custom apply anhydrous. It would be worth paying then $8-12/acre for custom application.

Anhydrous can be very dangerous if you have never applied it before.

PLUS… it depends on the quality of the equipment that you have.

I always rented equipment from a local co-op about 16 years ago the morons got rid of their side-dress applicators and the only thing available was tool bars. The smallest they had was a 7 knife job that was made from a super heavy duty double frame unit that was originally part of a 13 shank unit.

This thing was heavier than ****.

I hooked it up to my 930 Diesel and was fine until I hooked up the 1000 gal nurse tank 85% full. I couldn’t keep the front of the tractor on the ground.

The local co-op was run by low wage idiots.

Unknown to me the hoses were to short when the tool bar was in the ground, First pass the hoses for the shut off valve decoupled and I couldn’t shut off the anhydrous valves.
So I pulled the emergency shut off rope, it was rotten and broke. Needless to say I got gassed, big time!!!

I was sick for years with breathing problems, that’s why I suggest that you know your equipment and if at all possible since you have little or NO experience with anhydrous I suggest you consider custom application.

I’m not trying to be critical, just cautious; I don’t want anyone to go through the years of health problems that I have suffered from because of rented junk anhydrous equipment.

It is not like it use to be years agoc. The tool bar has a ground speed senser so they is no more guessing on your speed. They is a monitor that allows you to set two units the headland and the filed. We use less on the headland. Works good for us. Just be careful and everything will be ok.