Manures of various types are the best fertilizer - they have many micros in them. Most realize that now, and so manure costs enough, and is hard enough to haul, that either you can get it or not. If you live next to bigger livestock operations that have more livestock than owned land, you are in luck. If not, you have little oppertunity for the $$$ involved in hauling it. I only get 6% or so of my land covered with manure from my small herd of cattle, wish I could grab some of the hog or dairy manure next door or turkey manure from farther away (too far) but just doesn't work out - the hog/dairy fellas still haven't filled up their own soils with P & K so they aren't selling yet.
Commercial fertilizers are probably the best value for the dollar; you have to watch your soil micros then.
Plowdowns and cover crops are third - they use up resources and time to create N or pull up P & K from deeper in the soil if any is down there. But rarely do you get exactly what you need from them - they are helpers to conserve or recycle the stuff you've already addd to your soils over the years. The time lost tho growing them instead of a full season crop is very expensive - many don't seem to comprehend this. For example I enjoy and do plant plowdown clovers, slfalfas, and radishes with my oats which I think helps me; but oats only pays 1/2 as much per acre as corn or soybeans would 'here' and my growing season is too short to consider any cover crops with beans or corn - so yea I use plowdown crops for fertility, but I pay a big price to do so, and only on 2-3% of my land - it's an expensive way to go! It only really adds N if you have a legume in it and they need to grow a long time to set nodes and replace N in the soil - no plowdowns _add_ P or K, tho some help to keep in place or pull up a bit of P & K from deeper in the soil. The organic matter they add is helpful, but small amount takes many many years to make a difference.
Adding organic P & K is just plain expensive, because it's a specialty product with artificial limits upon it, and you get charged more for the same basic product you can get from the commercial products - if you have personal reasons to want to pay more for these that is fine, but they won't be 'cheaper' in any way shape or form which is your question.
Pretty much your options. Hope you can find manure for a good enough price, or go commercial. Add plowdowns-covercrops if/when they can fit into your crop rotation, and go with organics if you can justify their higher costs somehow.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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