Park House Services believe that organic waste materials can play an important role in improving soil fertility whilst ensuring environmental protection through spreading plans and risk maps, crop nutrient management, soil management and good agricultural practice when applying materials to land.
We hold Environmental permits that allow us to apply organic wastes to land for agricultural of ecological benefit.
Our trained staff can calculate application rates based on the waste, soil analysis and crop nutrient requirements.
We then complete the relevant application forms for the Environment Agency and once we receive confirmation from them, we manage the delivery, stockpiling and spreading operations.
Organic Waste
Farmers and growers have been using organic materials to improve the soil fertility and grow crops for generations, these days there is better control of the application of wastes to land than there has been before. The aim of these regulatory and voluntary controls is to provide nutrients to the plants and soil with increased awareness and protection for the environment.
Soil Organic Matter (SOM) is fundamental to the maintenance of soil fertility and function, as well as being an important carbon store. However, there is some evidence that soils in the UK may be losing SOM/carbon and this could have implications for climate change. Protecting and enhancing SOM levels will have beneficial effects for overall soil quality/fertility, carbon storage and erosion control. Moreover, the Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy has a target “to halt the decline in soil organic matter in vulnerable agricultural soils by 2025, whilst maintaining as a minimum, the soil organic matter of other agricultural soils, taking into account the impacts of climate change” (Defra, 2002).
Organic wastes include: manures, bio-solids, composts, some food and drink preparation wastes (vegetable peelings, washing waters) and plant wastes (bark, sawdust, shredded plant material) provide benefits to the soil by providing additional organic matter, nutrients, pH amendment and micro nutrients to the soil.
The application of these materials to land saves manufactured artificial fertilisers and diverts material from landfill, recovering plant nutrients and organic matter through application to the soil.
The benefits of adding organic material soil include:
- Can improve crop yields.
- Improving rooting depth, root penetration and root mass, allowing plants to exploit more of the soil depth.
- Offers slow-release crop nutrients including Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Sulphur, Magnesium and Calcium. This improves soil nutrient levels and reduces the requirement for additional artificial fertilisers.
- Improves soil structure for better workability and better crop establishment in arable and grass reseed situations, saving on fuel use, machinery wear and time.
- Improves the soil structures ability to withstand trafficking from field operations such as silage making, muck spreading and harvest operations.
- Extends the conditions during which the soil can be worked and reduces fuel consumption by improving soil workability especially on heavier soils. This is especially useful on heavier soils.
- Improves water infiltration and retention making soils more stable and less prone to soil loss by erosion in heavy rain.
- Improve field capacity, (the equilibrium level of water in a soil after the soil has been allowed to drain naturally for two days). The addition of organic matter to the soil will improve this by adding retentive pore spaces.
- Extends the wilting point in a field’s water budget, when the roots cannot extract any more water and the crop begins to start show signs of drought stress. Adding organic matter to land improves both the field capacity and AWC (see below) reducing the likelihood treated soils reaching wilting point unless exposed to prolonged drought.
- Improves Available Water Capacity (AWC), the available water capacity of a soil depends on the abundance of pores within the soil capable of holding water either directly in the pore space or as a thin film wrapped around soil particles. AWC represents the difference between the field capacity and the wilting point, it is the crop available water content in the soil.
- Improves the efficiency of inorganic fertilizers, reducing the overall quantity needed by improving the quantity of cation exchange sites in the receiving soil.
- Improves soil microbial, fungal & invertebrate activity, which further improves nutrient recycling and soil structure.
- Helps soil warming in spring by increasing air pockets within the soil, this means that soil fauna become active earlier promoting a longer growing season and recycling more organic nutrients that become available to the growing crops.
Sulphur for Agriculture
Historically, Sulphur deposition on farmland from the atmosphere was adequate for most crops in the UK thanks to coal fired power generation and domestic coal use.
The switch to low Sulphur coals and natural gas in power generation and a dramatic reduction in domestic coal use, has led to a marked decline in this ‘free’ source of Sulphur.
As a result, applications of Sulphur to crops have become an essential part of nutrient management planning for farmers and agronomists.
Soils at risk of Sulphur deficiency are typically:
- Loamy and coarse silty soils in areas with >200 mm rainfall between November and February.
- Clay, fine silty or peat soils in areas with >400 mm rainfall between November and February.
*RB209 Sec 2, page 12.
Diagnosis of Sulphur deficiency includes paling of young leaves and stunted growth, in OSR pale petals and interveinal yellowing are a signal of Sulphur deficiency.
Tissue analysis is useful in cereals, OSR and grass however the results may arrive too late for remedial action.
Grain Quality
Sulphur supports Nitrogen in the production of proteins, important for high crop yields.
In breadmaking wheat, protein production and protein quality are important for loaf volume.
In brassicas, Sulphur is in glucosinolate compounds, giving them their characteristic peppery taste and reduces the potential of immature rapeseed which attracts a market penalty.
Maize Silage Quality
Sulphur in conjunction with Nitrogen is important in improving protein production in the plant, this is necessary to produce sugars and maximise both dry matter yield and starch content.
Grass Quality
In grass, Sulphur is probably more important for improving the protein quality of grazing and silage than increasing yields, this is important in getting as much production from grass and silage as possible and reducing bought in feed costs.
Sulphur recommendations from the Fertiliser Manual RB209.
- Cereals: 25-50 kg SO3/ha.
- Oil Seed Rape: 50-75 kg SO3/ha.
- Peas and Sugar Beet: 25 kg SO3/ha.
- Potatoes: 25 kg SO3/ha in the seedbed
- Grass for Silage: 40 kg SO3/ha prior to each cut. The 2nd and subsequent cuts being most sensitive*.
- Grass for Grazing: 20-30 kg SO3/ha in Spring and mid-season*.
- Maize Silage: 20-50 SO3 kg/ha (MGA – Maize Growers Association) even on medium/heavier soils
- *RB209 Sec 2, page 12.
Alternative sources of Sulphur for agricultural use are available, these include gypsum and various other wastes such as Ahlstrom liquor.
The reduction of atmospheric deposits of Sulphur onto UK agricultural land is driving a need for Sulphur fertilisers.
Sulphur can become one of the main limiting factors to crop yield, where it is important in the uptake and utilisation of Nitrogen.
Ahlstrom not only supplies valuable Sulphur; the material is also an important source of Potash and Sodium.
Advantages of Sulphur for Agriculture
- Grain quality for milling wheats.
- Improves Nitrogen use efficiency, helping the plants make better use of applied fertilisers and organic wastes.
- Increases yields even where there are no signs of deficiency.
- Improved skin finish on potatoes.
- Sulphur is essential for the formation on amino acids, the building blocks for proteins.
Telephone, e-mail or contact us via this website for more information on how you can fill your sulphur requirements today.
Case Study
Clean Water Cake
This is produced from the treatment of drinking water. The waste consists mainly of the fine peat particles that are carried in the water as it drains from the catchment areas in the uplands to the reservoirs before it is treated. The main benefits to agricultural land are Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Sulphur and organic matter.
Applications are used to reduce the amounts of artificial fertilisers used and improve soil organic content.
The waste also provides secondary nutrients such as Calcium and Magnesium and micro-nutrients: Copper, Manganese, Molybdenum and Sodium which contribute to the soil reserves.
This material has little odour and can be spread on land both grass and arable land. We apply water cake to land at various application rates based on crop need.
Park House Services NW Ltd are currently, finding available land for stockpiling and spreading, sampling the waste & soil, completing the relevant forms for the Environment Agency, tracking deliveries, managing the stockpiles on farm and applying the wastes from various water treatment works.
For solid wastes we spread we have recently invested in Ktwo bio, waste spreaders with a combination of beaters and spinning discs to achieve an even accurate spread of material on land.