Wrestling Taipans and Wasting Money

1. Storage is a pain

Storage for cumbersome one tonne bags takes up a lot of room in your shed that could be used for other more productive activities - or even save you building the shed in the first place. Anyone who has stored fertiliser knows that your shed and surrounding ground often suffers. Worse yet, if you are tight for space, moving your machinery outside to store the fertiliser leaves everything exposed to the elements.

Comparatively you can get a 27,000 litre molasses grade tank at around $5000 that doesn't rust, corrode or take up shed space to store your liquid fertiliser. It can be outdoors, easy to drive your fertilising rig right up and exceptionally easy to use.

2. Clumping & even distribution of nutrient

How many times have you had to break up clumped granular fertiliser in your hopper? Have you noticed your nutrient settling out unevenly in your bags or hopper? When this happens, you’re hitting the paddock and spreading the nutrients unevenly onto your crop.

3. Bag lifting costs you money

Lifting bags costs you time - whether that’s your own time, or an employees. How many hours a week do you waste filling the hopper? And don’t forget, the bag lifter itself needs to be maintained - would your bag lifter pass a machinery inspection or WHS audit? Pumping up a tank is faster and far, far easier and safer.

4. They can injure or kill workers

One of the big things growers tell us about is the worry they feel from having their workers or themselves placed in danger, when they’re under or near one tonne bags hanging from a bag lifter undoing the straps to load. Comparatively, our LiquaForce growers say it is considerably easier and safer to connect a camlock, start a pump and fill up. Like filling up at a servo. Have you ever read the safety requirements for handling and PPE on the back of a fertiliser bag tag? Check them out next time you are handling a bag.

5. After the job is done it is not done - cleaning up process

“After the job is done, it is not done”. When using one tonne fertiliser bags there’s still time and money to be wasted in the gathering of bags, rolling them up and delivering them to a waste management plant which could be miles away from the property. Some growers have told us it saves them significant amounts of time, not having to be concerned with bag disposal. Just apply the liquid fertiliser to the paddock and walk away - job done!

6. So many snakes (& rats)!

How many times have you spooked a taipan or a horde of rats out of empty (or from around full) bags? Farmers and workers are faced with the real danger of tangling with deadly snakes or contracting “weil’s disease” [leptospirosis] from rat urine when collecting these bags from the paddock or shed for delivery to a recycling depot. As we all know it is very common for these animals to take refuge in or under one tonne bags.

7. They are harmful to the environment

We all know plastic isn’t too great for the environment regardless of recycling endeavours or if they get washed down the creek. The elimination of these giant one tonne bags is a win - win situation both for the farmers operation and the environment, as more and more micro size plastic particles are being found in the world's oceans from the breakdown of these types of materials. Don’t let these bags kill off your crabs!

What are your thoughts on using one tonne fertiliser bags? Are you as tired of them as we are? Let us know on Facebook or shoot us an email to discuss how you can switch to liquid fertiliser and be done fertiliser bags.