Fertilizer vs spreader question?

Folks asking for knowledge and advise on understanding "type" of fertilizer vs 3 pt spreader settings. Chart shows coarse grain, medium grain and fine grain fertilizer. How tell which grain fertilizer you have? What is the most common grain fertilizer used to fertilize pastures? Could not find a good explanation on "Google".

This is a subject to discuss with your local extension service, and/or your local suppliers. They understand your local conditions.

I don't think I would be to concerned. Just set it for the medium. That should be close enough for pasture fertilizer. Afterall your not out there trying to win a yield contest.

PerryJosh64,
I have commented before on this. My experience is with a LELY PTO Spinner.
My take is that a fertilizer spreader will spread a certain VOLUME of product per a certain time depending on the setting.
My spreader had a gate which opened to allow the product to pass. This was accomplished by 2 steel rings that rotated creating openings.

You need to determine the density of the product you desire to spread. My fertilizer dealer listed the density on the bill when I got a custom mix.
Grain size does NOT give you any idea of what weight the fertilizer is per unit of volume. (e.g. Urea has large grains that are not very dense)
I found density listed as pounds per cubic foot.

At first, I created a spread sheet with gate setting on one Axis and weight per acre on the other Axis. I had a nice line for each fertilizer type I
spread. They were separate lines though.
When I converted to VOLUME instead of weight, I had one line for all fertilizer types when I held the PTO speed and Ground speed and other variables
constant.

In addition, you need to realize that the spreader pattern may change with lighter or denser product.
Changes to PTO speed, Ground speed, Spacing, etc. will also change the amount of product spread per acre.
HTH
Keith Williams

To get a modest job done, set it on medium and check out if you are spreading about what you want per acre over
time. You will get pretty close. Its best to set for a half rate and then spread, come back and drive down the seams
the second time so you get a pretty even spread across everything.

To be real accurate, different fertilizers have different densities, weight per volume, and need to set things differently
for different blends depending on what they weigh. This and considerations on how far each product will fly based
on its size and weight can make a pretty darn complicated calculation beyond what I can explain here; I typically
follow what the man tells me on all this myself, dont do the math either.

Paul

You will find more variables than that
when using a broadcast spreader. Ground
speed and how wide you drive are big
variables. All of them say to run a test
strip and run a check, weight vs area.
Also they never spread evenly at the
advertised spreading width. I always cut
the rate in half and the spread width in
half and cover the area twice going in
different directions, especially important
on lawns.

Never heard of such a thing. Those charts are usually calibrated for density, not how coarse it is.
The fertilizer plant can tell you density. They have a little hand held balance beam scale that you
can balance on a jack knife for that.

I've seen the charts on the various Italian-made spreaders and they all mention fine, coarse, medium. May be an 'over there' thing?

I would think that the Co-op selling the fertilizer would be able to help guide you on this. Based on the product you are purchasing, and the soil test results
you are trying to get to.

Folks just for FYI not asking what kind of fertilizer to spread on fields, just looking for understanding of the terms (course, medium, fine) reference fertilizer type that Faza spreader manual uses as they are not terms I am familiar with. Yes I ve asked the folks two different fertilizer places and both gave me the "uh" face with one saying "guessing" coarse since it AG grade fertilizer. Going by the county Ag office is good idea and will try that this week. Granted it s probably just gonna come down to trial & error until I get smart on it but fertilizer ain t cheap and just would feel better about equipment knowing and trusting the manual instructions .

(quoted from post at 16:26:59 11/14/23) You will find more variables than that
when using a broadcast spreader. Ground
speed and how wide you drive are big
variables. All of them say to run a test
strip and run a check, weight vs area.
Also they never spread evenly at the
advertised spreading width. I always cut
the rate in half and the spread width in
half and cover the area twice going in
different directions, especially important
on lawns.

Click to expand...

...run a test
strip and run a check, weight vs area. " this is my method, then adjust for rate you want.

I think the problem is only your fertilizer spreader company knows what they are saying, its not a common way to describe fertilizer. Maybe could understand if they
were saying fine medium or coarse seed, but it doesnt really fit for fertilizer applications?