A short introduction to small scale farming

The following short introduction is presented in order to prepare the Justiciar Knight for the fertiliser acquisition phase of his operation. Justiciar Knights will establish a cover and must therefore learn the very minimum about agricultural practices. You must learn enough about agriculture in order to pass any scrutiny checks the fertiliser clerk may present in the form of questions. You must learn to think, dress and act like a farmer and become confident through study of agricultural practises and your agricultural cover. Before you move forward with the acquisition phase you must determine several factors when establishing the cover.

You should rent a small isolated farm which has indoor/shed storage capabilities. It is optimal to place your “acquirement/storage base” in a rural area in a neighbouring country if possible, as fewer red flags will be raised by the store clerks towards foreign nationals as they will assume you will bring the goods to your country immediately. Just keep in mind; not all nitrogen based fertilisers are suitable as a component to a WMD – fertiliser bomb.

“What type of crop will you grow, how large is your field, how much nitrogen based fertiliser do you need per hectare?”

You want to choose a fertiliser intensive crop for your cover which, in regards to a climatic context, can grow in your country. A property with 10 hectare (100 000 square metres), planting the crop; sugar beets, will have a fertiliser requirement of 1060-1360 kilograms during a one rotation (100-130 days).

Common crops vs. fertiliser intensity

The overview is American so it does not necessarily reflect European crops

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service

Top agricultural products

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization

Different fertilisers

There are three types of different fertiliser nutrients which prices fluctuate considerably; nitrogen-, phosphate- and potash-fertiliser. Obviously, you will want certain nitrogen fertilisers. The prices of nitrogen fertilisers depend on the gas market so considering the fact that gas prises are crashing at the moment (2010) due to new technologies being introduced in the acquirement of natural gas from below ground, prices on nitrogen based fertilisers are plummeting.

Fertiliser prices

1000kg of nitrogen fertiliser costs approximately 620 Euros when buying in bulk.

Price is the average for April of each year when buying in bulk. Nitrogen prices are average prices of nitrogen nutrient in anhydrous ammonia, nitrogen solution, and urea. Phosphate prices are the P2O5 prices of superphosphate. Potash prices are the K2O prices of muriate of potash.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 661