FERTILISER MARKET 2024-5
Despite two European wars, poor northernhemispherecropsduetoa wet winter, increased food poverty and global political instability fertiliser prices have shown a downwardtrendduring2023-4.
Dominant factors on nitrogen being the weak gas price as a result of the mild winter and uninterrupted supplies from Qatar and US Gulf regions. Whilst the price for phosphate and potash is very much related todemandandcropprices both of which have been weak.
Law’s is working closely with major global producers to create stable pricing through the winter 2024/5 although there is reason for uncertainty over the coming year especially as both European conflicts may escalate and impact on major gas producing nations and trade routes. Certainly the cost of shipping continues to be double pre war levels largely due to high insurance costs.
Law’s aim to mitigate phosphate and potash volatility by manufacturing alternatives from UK sourced byproducts using its own compaction granulation technology to produce a 50% per unit saving over imported minerals.
SOIL MICROBIOLOGY INNOVATIONS AT
LAW’S
The interconnectedness of soils, plants, animals and human health is a concept that sits at the heart of good farming. The political interest via SFI initiatives only adds to the importance in managing and monitoring the dynamic and living ecosystem that supports all plant life.
Soil biology and the intricate web of life beneath our feet is very important for key functional processes such as nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition and soil structure improvement.
Infield Testing
Due to the high cost and instability of sampling for soil as well as soil type and seasonal fluctuations it is advised to undertake an audit using practical observations combined with Law’s analytical processes:
Soil structure and aggregation
Earthworm activity and presence of soil fauna
Plant root health
Decomposition of organic matter
Colour and smell
Law’s tests:
● Soil microbial and fungal concentrations
3 million/gm microbes= 40% plant nutrient + water uptake
● pH and enyzmic activity, mineral levels P K, Mg
SOIL HEALTH ACTION PLAN
Cultural: cultivations, cropping, soil structure, drainage
Chemical: manage pesticide loading
Soil: pH, mineral fertility, soil conditioning agents
Balance organic and organic fertilisers
BETTER OILSEED RAPE WITH LAW’S STARTERS
Oilseed rape is an important crop in maintaining effective cereal rotations but it has never been more difficult with weather fluctuations, soil and airborne pest attacks and timeliness demands.
Bulk, delivered and spread granular blends tailored to soil fertility can provide an opportunity to supply readily available nutrients to encourage rapid seedling development to develop into a winter hardy plant as quickly as possible:
N, P, K, Mg, S + B
Law’s bio-fertilisers can help improve plant resilience to stresses such as pest and soil disease attack and these products can be cost effectively added to granular blends for one application.
Laws Soil Conditioner: v club root, free living nematodes
Laws Granular Repellent: winged insects and beetles
Unloading granular nitrogen at Methil
Law’s Soil Conditioner
A multi modal soil conditioning agent that works by improving the rooting microbiology of the topsoil and increasing the resilience of roots to abiotic stress such as waterlogging, drought and pest attack. A totally safe product to operator, soil and the food chain the raw materials combine trace elements with organic compounds that have been shown to improve soil and root health to allow for crop growth under a range of challenging soil pest environments.
Soil pest and diseases as well as poor soil health are normally very expensive and difficult to address usually involving highly toxic compounds. Law’s Soil Conditioner provides a multi-action approach to improve rooting, soil quality and yields without any risk to the operator, environment or crop.
The granular compound can be applied near the developing seed or mixed with broadcast fertiliser and applied before planting.
APPLICATION RATES (kgs/ha) SOIL HEALTH
GOODPOOR
Broadcast75125
Placed2575
+ Repellentadd 25add 75
SFI OPTIONS WITH LAW’s
Soil sampling available with organic matter and ecological markers + pH,P,K,Mg.
Accurate soil nutrient management plans incorporating organic sources.
Range of repellents to replace pesticides to conform to non insecticide farming
Contact the sales office for prompt reliable testing.
� FREE
DELIVERED & SPREAD FERTILISERS from Law’s
Inhouse chain : sampling – advice – manufacturing –delivery – spreading – monitoring
Using bulk leads to free spreading compared to bag deliveries
Modern computer controlled spreading units with self loading capability
Accurate spreading over any terrain
Top dressing maize near Wisbech, May 2024
A variant of Soil Conditioner with added oily odours can act as a biofumigant and improve resilience of root systems to wireworm, leatherjacket and other soil pests and diseases.
Soil Borne Stresses ameliorated with Laws Soil
Conditioner BASIC REPELLANT
Fusarium Beetles
Rhizoctonia Wireworm
Damping off diseases Chafer grub
Nematodes: FLN /PCN Aphids
Club Root
Potash reduces pests and diseases
The uptake of K is generally greater than any of the other essential macronutrient in modern crops, being essential in most plant processes. All plant water is a potassium solution and plants are 8090% water. Unlike other minerals K does not become part of any plant constituent and largely remains soluble in the sap available to be mobilised around the plant.
The importance of potassium necessitates early application in the base, additional early top dressing on light soils and foliar application during periods of weather or pest stress.
3 roles in plant defence:
Strengthens mechanical defence Reducing attractive metabolites to pests Stress signalling and hormonal changes
Laws Potash Solutions (winter cereals) Tailored K added in the base70kgs/ha17/acre Added to 1st topdressing30kgs/ha7/acre
Foliar Applications @ T2/T32kgs/ha1.50/acre For risk assessments and other crop K plans contact Law’s
All life on earth depends on phosphorus (P) due to the dominant role in storing and moving biochemical energy from photosynthesis and in its core role in the genetic materials DNA and RNA. Plants have evolved technology in their roots to absorb very low concentrations of P and if a developing seedling is short of this vital mineral it will expend 80% of its available resources in developing a root system to find P.
Therefore, continuous crop production requires application of P from external sources in order to replenish the P taken up by roots and removed in the harvested portion of the crop.
The dominance of imported P products for world agriculture based on rock P has raised concerns over the geopolitical dependency on only a few countries where the economically mineable rock P may be exhausted in 200-400 years.
Law’s Recycled Phosphates: Laws P Plus
Most of the phosphorus used in fertiliser comes from phosphate rock which is finite and non-renewable and due to its reactivity is strongly fixed in the soil and then only becomes slowly available over time. Law’s P is not water soluble and so remains in a bioavailable form for solubilising by root exudates or soil ecology for uptake steadily during the lifecycle of the crop and extremes of pH.
This is especially beneficial for slow growing crops or scenarios where there is rotational maintenance of soil P indices.
BENEFITS OF LAWS P PLUS
50% cost of water soluble imported phosphates
Spreads to 24 metres
Recycled ingredients conform to Regen agriculture with a low carbon footprint
Contains carbon, sulphur and trace minerals
Recycled sources of K are available for tailored PK plus compounds
Law’s Tailored Foliar Feeds
Law’s are the only UK factory that can tailor make foliar feeds responding to site specific factors such as stress or crop growth stages
All crop minerals can be supplied in solution anywhere in the UK in any quantity within 24 hours.
Importance of copper in plant nutrition: Cu is involved in a range of proteins that are the basis of energy production within plants but also essential to natural plant defence with the role of copper in lignin for stem strength and in producing a range of self defence chemicals.
Using Laws Foliar Copper (8%) @ 5litres/ha reduces yellow rust, take-all and ergot in wheat.
CONTACT
GRANULAR FERTILISERSFERTILISER SPREADING
PRODUCTS AS YOUR ONE STOP SOLUTION TO ALL NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS SERVICES
NITROGEN FERTILISERSAGRONOMY
FOLIAR FERTILISERSOIL SAMPLING AND MAPPING
BIO FERTILISERSCROP NUTRIENT PLANNING
PESTICIDE ALTERNATIVESPEST AND NUTRIENT RISK ASSESSMENTS
STARTER FERTILISERSCHALK SPREADING ORGANIC FERTILISERS AND BIOCIDESORGANIC FARM AGRONOMY
REGENERATIVE MINERALS (NEW)LABORATORY ANALYSIS (NEW)
CONTACT MARCH, CAMBS MARK LAW 01354 740740 07710 324463