Two pieces of equipment you should think about renting

Most farmers cannot justify buying precision manure spreaders and conservation tillage tools. But they are affordable if you rent and share the cost with neighbours

by PAT LYNCH

Recently, I was doing crop plans with a poultry producer. His manure is concentrated and valuable and he was applying it at about three times the rate he needed to grow a crop of corn.

He was applying 210 pounds of usable nitrogen, 220 of phosphorus and 260 of potassium. When he should have been applying at three tonnes per acre, he was applying at closer to 10 tonnes per acre. The reason was simple. He had an older manure spreader that spread at about ten tonnes per acre. And it did not spread evenly.

Better Farming - February 2012