Plant nutrient removal calculator

Arthur Cameron, Principal Pastures Agronomist, Darwin

I was asked by Matt Dennis of E E Muirs in Katherine if I had a program to calculate the removal of nutrients in hay crops. Matt saw a need for producers to be aware of how much of each nutrient was being removed in hay, and the approximate amount required for the next hay crop.

As I could not find anything of this nature on the internet, I developed the plant nutrient calculator below. It can be used for any plant product, not just hay. It is an Excel spreadsheet, which is mostly locked, so that the integrity will be maintained for multiple uses. The only data which can be entered into the spreadsheet and changed are the nutrient concentrations in the plant product (as a percentage (%) or parts per million (ppm)), and yield in tonnes per hectare.

The output is kilograms of each nutrient entered removed.

Figure 6. Screen shot of the calculator.

A copy of this calculator can be obtained by emailing: arthur.cameron@nt.gov.au.

Visit the Northern Territory Government website for information on pasture crops.