# Volatilization with Liquid N



## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Had the bulk of my N put on last monday along with herbicide. We have now been stiffed on 4 chances for measurable precip. Just curious as to how much volitization loss there is with liquid N. Max temp we had was 75 the day it went on, but it has been breezy on several days. Got the wind with the front, just not the rain.


----------



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

With UAN, and no precip to take it down or physically working it in, there is a good chance quite a lot of N is already gone. Banded UAN is much less susceptible to loss than broadcast sprayed.


----------



## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I've always figured in 25% loss in granular and a hair over 10% loss in liquid in that time frame.

I just had the most perfect timing. I bought a load of granular fertilizer Tuesday. The Nitrogen was delivered fresh as I was sitting there. I loaded my bulk bags and parked it and spread it yesterday. It is raining today


----------



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

BWfarms said:


> I've always figured in 25% loss in granular and a hair over 10% loss in liquid in that time frame.


Treat urea with Agrotain and your N loss drops dramatically. I think Agrotain lasts 21 days? If no rain to take it down in that timeframe, ya got bigger problems!


----------



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

stack em up said:


> Treat urea with Agrotain and your N loss drops dramatically. I think Agrotain lasts 21 days? If no rain to take it down in that timeframe, ya got bigger problems!


My understanding is that urea looses about 10%/day until rained on, meaning that after 5 days you have lost 50%. Agrotain about doubles the life expectancy, meaning that you have lost 50% after 10 days.

I always treat with agrotain just in case.

Ralph


----------



## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

UAN is half urea and half ammonium nitrate. The urea part is volatile as ammonia, much more so than from ammonium nitrate. Agrotain can be added to UAN and will help prevent the loss of ammonia from the urea part. Estimates for the duration of protection from volatilization if no rain vary but at the recommended rate of Agrotain addition, ammonia volatilization is claimed to be prevented for about 12 days.


----------



## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback. We've had two decent rains in the last three days and this morning you can see a clear line of more green and less green at the edge of spraying. I guess I am getting a decent amt to be effective since I only had 40#/ac applied. Dap and muriate go on tomorrow


----------



## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

This is a interesting topic for me, this year I'm going to spread 10-26-26 and apply liquid N, I don't yet know if it's straight N or a mixture Helena carries, my question is at what rate I can apply it per ac, I normally apply about 20-30 gallons of water per ac when spraying weeds...


----------



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

SCtrailrider said:


> This is a interesting topic for me, this year I'm going to spread 10-26-26 and apply liquid N, I don't yet know if it's straight N or a mixture Helena carries, my question is at what rate I can apply it per ac, I normally apply about 20-30 gallons of water per ac when spraying weeds...


It all depends on what your cation exchange capacity (CEC on soil test is) Take the CEC times ten gives you a rough idea what "holding capacity" of N your soil can hold. A CEC 20 will hold about 200 pounds of N.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

SCtrailrider said:


> This is a interesting topic for me, this year I'm going to spread 10-26-26 and apply liquid N, I don't yet know if it's straight N or a mixture Helena carries, my question is at what rate I can apply it per ac, I normally apply about 20-30 gallons of water per ac when spraying weeds...


Are you applying this on Grass Hay ? Can you get a custom blend of dry fertilizer.Why wouldn't you put all your N down with your dry fertilizer . Most of the liquid N here is 30% UAN .


----------



## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

I have Fescue hay fields and pastures ...

The only option for N is urea, and it's been sitting in a open bin for who knows how long. For the last 2 years I have blended the max NPK they say they can blend , I don't know the numbers off hand, but I never see any evidence of N, no green up, no jump that should be seen.

I buy bulk and spread it myself, last year I intended to send a sample off but just didn't find the time. Even a farmer friend has noticed little results using straight urea from this same place, and without driving a few hours this is the only plant..

I always spray weeds around now to the end of the month so I'm going to give this a try and see if I get better results...


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

SCtrailrider said:


> I have Fescue hay fields and pastures ...
> 
> The only option for N is urea, and it's been sitting in a open bin for who knows how long. For the last 2 years I have blended the max NPK they say they can blend , I don't know the numbers off hand, but I never see any evidence of N, no green up, no jump that should be seen.
> 
> ...


 Sounds like a good plan be careful. I have seen Grass hay and cereal Grains Showing massive burn on them, Where guys used herbicide and UAN this year. And some of that was on our own farm as well. I don't know why you see so much burn this year maybe due to the dry weather and a mild Winter.. I can almost guarantee at this stage of the game If you were to use 15 to 20 gallons are UAN and mixed something like 24D with it ,it would burn things to a crisp. Here you could have done something like that 3 to 4 weeks ago but not now and I would think you're warmer. On our farm if I had to do some grass fields With herbicide and wanted to add liquid nitrogen I would do 10 gallons of UAN and 10 gallons of water per acre. Cutting the uan with water helps . DO NOT ADD SURFACTANT.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

I applied herbicides and liquid nitrogen much earlier but did not apply at all on the 1st pass. I am streaming on second pass UAN yesterday and today.


----------



## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Update for today: While not based on any quantitative evidence, my grass is darker green than normal and I applied the same amount of N that I usually do. Normally, I put fertilizer on between March 21 and April 5 but this year it was on March 9 42# liq N followed a week later with 23# N as Dap. almost looks like I put litter on it. So, my assumption on a qualitative basis is that I got more N into the plant.


----------



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

Hayman1 said:


> Update for today: While not based on any quantitative evidence, my grass is darker green than normal and I applied the same amount of N that I usually do. Normally, I put fertilizer on between March 21 and April 5 but this year it was on March 9 42# liq N followed a week later with 23# N as Dap. almost looks like I put litter on it. So, my assumption on a qualitative basis is that I got more N into the plant.


One way to see if it made a difference would be to leave a test strip with no N, or a different form of N, and then pull tissue samples. It'd be kinda fun to see how grass reacts to different N sources.


----------

