Need Pasture Fertalizer Advice

Brady · #1 08/10/11, 12:55 AM

I have a 3.75 acre cow pasture that I have been haying in the summer. It is pretty poor and only yeilds about 1 ton per acre. I had soil tests done and they recomended 4.2 ton per acre of limestone plus fertalizer. I got prices today from a local supplier and kind of choked!

What kind of returns can I expect if I shell out the big bucks? Thanks, I'm a greenhorn when it comes to this.

Catalytic · #2 08/10/11, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brady

they recomended 4.2 ton per acre of limestone

Holy crap! I'm scared to get my soil tested now!

greengrow · #3 08/10/11, 01:41 AM

What sort of species do you have in your pasture?

It sounds like your ph is very low, this will not help most grasses to grow and should pay back your investment in the limestone quickly. There are alternatives.

It may help to know what the figures are, and you soil type.

Brady · #4 08/10/11, 02:07 AM

I have a mixture of grasses (mostly Kentucky blue grass and orchard grass), red and white clover, and dandelions and other weeds. The soil PH is 5.4, N=0ppm, P=7ppm, K= 99ppm, Ca= 803ppm, Mg,=74ppm. The soil has good drainage. It is not clay and it is not sand. I get a lot of moss over the winter.

SCRancher · #5 08/10/11, 06:52 AM

That's a lot of lime - hopefully your local supplier is not lowes or home depot.

When I bought my property it needed 2 ton per acre on my 40 acres of pasture - it didn't really cost all that much - I don't remember the price now but I do remember having priced it at lowes first. The company I used (a local farm supply store) even spread the lime for me.

Soil test 4 years later still showed PH between 6.2 and 6.5.

sammyd · #6 08/10/11, 09:10 AM

good lord get that lime on there

greengrow · #7 08/10/11, 02:31 PM

Yep get the lime on like last year. The clover should help with the N, but the low ph is your main issue.

Once the ph is back up to 6.5 to 7 then you will get more hay. If you have the cash after applying the lime but not for all the fert then go with a little N and P, the K is not so bad.

Brady · #8 08/10/11, 03:08 PM

Price I got was $230/ton from a local farm supply. That works out to about $2500 just for lime. Add fertalizer and I'm up to $3000. If I double the grass output it would take 5.5 years to pay for $3000 worth of hay. Doesn't seem worth it. Anybody think I can triple the output?

genebo · #9 08/10/11, 04:43 PM

That's a lot of lime! Your soil must really be acid. No wonder your grass doesn't do well.

Lime is slow to get into the soil. It can take a year for the effect to be seen. In the meantime, rain can wash away some of it before it gets to work. You could be better off putting on half the amount and doing it in two applications. My feed dealer charges $6/acre to spread it, so it shouldn't cost much more.

Check with your State agricultural agency or water quality board. Here in Virginia, the State will help pay for things that help control erosion. Grass is one of those things that are good for erosion.

We get extra credit here for converting crop land to grass land. I planted oats one fall, then cut and baled them the following spring. Oats qualify as a crop, no matter what you do with them, so the next year, the State helped me buy fertilizer, lime and seed to plant grass.

What was really nice about the deal was that the people in the State agency were really knowledgeable about grasses. They helped me chose the best varieties to plant for my area and soil type.

In exchange, I had to agree to maintain the acreage in grass for the next 4 years, without any further help. If I decided to plant turnips there during that time, I'd have to give the money back. Grass only for 4 years.

SCRancher · #10 08/10/11, 05:11 PM

230 per ton?????

Pass and find another supplier - I think I paid 27ish per ton spread.
They had like 4 tractor trailer loads dumped on the farm then they brought in a loader and floater truck to spread it.

I may be off on the exact $$ I paid by up to 5.00 per ton but that's it.

greengrow · #11 08/10/11, 05:35 PM

You need another supplier,

What sort of lime stone was it they wanted to supply you with?

There are several products out there, you just need one that will add up to the same nutrilising value as the limestone.

Some forms especially the finer they are the faster they can work, but then they can also be leached faster two.

francismilker · #12 08/10/11, 10:27 PM

Not too old here................And certainly no expert...............BUT, are you sure he said "per acre"? That's more lime than I've ever heard of in any instance of application.

Brady · #13 08/11/11, 12:42 AM

I'm glad to hear there may be more affordable supply houses for lime. I guess I need to start making some calls. The soil test was done by the University of Massechusetts. I had 2 areas tested with slightly different results so I don't think the limestone recomendation is a typo. It seems like an awful lot to me as well.

mozarkian · #14 08/11/11, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brady

Price I got was $230/ton from a local farm supply. That works out to about $2500 just for lime. Add fertalizer and I'm up to $3000. If I double the grass output it would take 5.5 years to pay for $3000 worth of hay. Doesn't seem worth it. Anybody think I can triple the output?

That seems a little pricey, by Missouri rates anyway. Early this year we spread a pellitized lime and fertilizer mix on our pastures and garden --about 8 acres total(can't remember the tonnage or ratio but it was a buggy load at the recommended rate based on our soil test) -- cost about $650 and I thought that was outrageous. But our pasture has held good this year, with less weed growth and I know that it has helped tremendously. We do not cut hay though, only pasture.

SCRancher · #15 08/11/11, 01:17 PM

I went to the place that I got my lime from a few years ago to buy some chicken feed. I checked on the price of lime. It was $50.00 per ton and that includes spreading on your fields.

Just because I was at the store and the prices were listed... 34-0-0 pellitized nitrogen was 521 per ton and 17-17-17 was about 621 per ton.

greengrow · #16 08/11/11, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by francismilker

Not too old here................And certainly no expert...............BUT, are you sure he said "per acre"? That's more lime than I've ever heard of in any instance of application.

It is a lot of lime but his ph is very low.

A low ph leads to lock up of essential nutrients, increased leaching of P, and a reduction in the fixing of N.

hence by increasing the ph to a more nutral level then the soil and the mircobes there in should be better able to support better plant growth.

When taking a soil sample from a field ideally you should travel a W patteren across the area taking many small samples to build up an anverage or that whole area.

Catalytic · #17 08/12/11, 05:56 PM

Checked my co-op while I was getting salt today, it's around $32/ton for lime, you have to have a $100 minimum for them to do it for you, but they lend (FREE) spreaders that can be pulled behind a truck with smaller orders.

Brady · #18 08/13/11, 01:59 AM

I'm just getting nowhere with this. I went to the local farm co-opp and they refer me to their retail store. Tell the store I need 16 tons and they say talk to their agronomy dept. Agronomy wont answere the phone or return messeges. I found another place. They said the "lime guys" would be contacting me. Nope. Anybody out here in the Northwest know how can provide lime and spread it?