7000 JD planter

Hello, wondering what are the advantages of liquid fertilizer versus dry fertilizer in regards to a 7000 JD planter. If you were to buy one which has more advantages?

Depends on who you ask whether there are advantages or not.

Liquid is a lot more dangerous because it can spray and get in your eyes. It just sticks to you and makes a mess if it leaks. You practically have to stick your face in the auger or dump a bag on your head to get a damaging amount of dry fert. in your eyes.

Liquid needs specialized handling equipment no matter what, pumps, tanks, hoses, valves. Dry just needs an old trailer or pickup truck if you go with bags.

The advantage to liquid is that there's no heavy lifting. No slinging bags, no fighting with augers.

I think you'll get your planting done faster with the liquid due to faster turn around times, not speed in the field. I'd hate to think of loading bagged dry fertilizer into a planter so that means a fertilizer tender (not cheap) vs a tank and a pump (cheap). Liquid fertilizer will be more immediately available to the plant. That's important because the planter delivers the starter fertilizer. I have my dry fertilizer(for corn) spread in the fall based on GPS soil test grids that the spreader adjusts for. Then liquid at planting time followed by more dry and foliar when corn is 8-10' tall. You'll be making a mistake if you try to put it all on at planting time. I put on somewhere between 10 and 20 gallons per acre at planting time based on soil analysis and the kind of yield I shoot for. About 200 bpa.
PS. If you go liquid I recommend a piston pump, not squeeze.

dry costs less, you get alot more p&k for the same money

I can only speak of the local experience but most farmers seem to
prefer dry as they feel there is a benefit to having potash in the
band. Much less expensive to do that with dry fertilizer than liquid.
Each system has its maintenance issues as far as I am concerned.
Keeping either system clean on a daily basis does the most to
minimize these issues.

Neither, if your no tilling spread your starter and then knife in your N. If your conventional till spread starter and urea and work it in. The benefit gained from banding the fertilizer isn't enough to go through the hassle. Much less time consuming to plant and not mess with starter on the planter.

I worked for a seed company years ago and that's all they spread was liquid. If you don't keep the liquid agitated it will settle out and you won't get the same dosage over the entire field. We had to clean out a many a tanker truck because the driver never kept the tanker agitated or didn't know what valves to have open when agitating. I've seen the potash in those tanks 12 inches thick and hard as plaster and we had to chip it out then have it lifted out the man hole with a rope and bucket. Let alone having a fresh air supply pumped into the tank for osha standards.


Dry fertilizer being dropped with a planter is better than broadcasting it with a spreader. Broadcasting throws the larger heavier particles farther than the smaller ones. If it's a windy day makes dry spreading even more of a challenge to get an even spread on your fields.

I'm just posting this from my personal experiences.

I have never used a liquid fertilizer system, but we have a dry fertilizer setup on our 7000. It is very simple to use. Compared to those nearby who broadcast, we end up using half the fertilizer and get similar yields. It does take more work. We get a custom blend from our elevator and haul it around with a wooden barge box 3-4 tons at a time, and shovel it onto the planter. Some planters have fertilizer augers to load the boxes, and some guys use gravity boxes with augers to handle the fertilizer. You can make any system expensive if you try..... I haven't seen bagged fertilizer for 20+ years around western MN. Either liquid or dry will corrode things, even if you keep it clean. Liquid just strikes me as more complicated since you can't apply all your fertilizer in one shot like you can with dry. But as I said, I've never used it either.
Lon

I use the dry fertilizer. Crop supply company blends exactly what I want, then they bring it out 10 - 12 ton at a time in their tender truck. They dump it into my gravity wagon that has a hydraulic auger attachment on. Works great. KEEP THE WAGON PAINTED AND CLEAN THROUGHLY WHEN DONE!! I think dry is quite a bit cheaper. I haven't done my prepay yet for 2014, but I understand it might be a good amount cheaper than last year. My blends use 0-0-60 and 11-52-0. Typically equal amounts of each. I have also at times added urea and also a gypsum pellet. The gypsum has sulfur and calcium in it. I try to get about 200 - 250 pounds of this mixture on per acre and have went as high as 300 pounds per acre. Probably do a 3" by 4" placement. Typically a dry fertilizer band has to be away from the germinating seed. This is the only fertilizer application method on the majority of my land for the past 15 years. I really wouldn't call my application method just starter fertilizer, but more like starter/deep placement. I was fertilizing beans with the planter also, but now I am relying on carry-over nutrients from the corn crop. Not enough experience yet to make a judgement. I do have Yetter fertilizer openers that can cut a slot six inches deep. The traditional JD fertilizer openers work well also. Some research says that you can cut fertilizer recommendations by 50% when it is banded verse broadcast. This is because 1) the plant can reach it easily and 2) it tends to be concentrated making it more available rather than being attached to the soil particles. It does take more time. I believe the regular fertilizer hoppers hold 550#. I do have hopper extensions which can add about 400# per hopper, so I go to the field with about 2 ton. Generally take the wagon to the field. Filling my planter is fast and labor free as I do have the hydraulic auger on the wagon and one on the planter. You do not necessarily need an auger on the planter. If you don't have many acres of corn I know people using a gravity wagon and 5 gallon buckets. Dry fertilizer will vary in density, therefore you really need to see how it goes through your planter. I take the hoses off of the hoppers where it comes out of the augers and hang a bucket there. Then I go out on the road and mark off 1/100 of an acre based on your width of planter. Lower the planter just enough to engage the clutches or drive wheels. You only have to do this with one hopper on the planter. Weigh what you catch in the bucket, multiply by how many openers you have, and then multiply by 100. I like to use 1/100 of an acre over 1/1000 as it is more accurate. Use a GOOD scale with small graduations to weigh the sample!! Drive at a typical field speed. Make sure the hopper is at least 1/2 full for a representative pack. Make sure you are calibrating with the same fertilizer you will be using. A wet to at least a normal spring is always the best for dry fertilizer as it needs to dissolve into the soil. Good luck on your decision.

Dry has many advantages. Cheaper, stays mixed, set up all 3
major and the minor fertilizers without fear of them separating,
and so on.

Liquid is easier for a big operator to handle.

Now, there is also pop up starter, a small amount of liquid
placed in the row on the seed. This uses special low salt liquid
fertilizer, and of course needs to be liquid.
But I think you are talking about starter fertilizer, placed 2
inches away or more from the seed?

Paul

Paul

Only problem with that is phosphorus doesn't move around in the soil. Plant roots have to find it. Phosphorus requirements for modern day corn and soybeans turns out to be considerably more than previously thought.