OT: Soil Samples came back.....

Got my soil samples back from UK yesterday. As expected, I need lots of lime, 1.5 tones per acre on two fields, 2.25 tons per acre on another. The surprise was all three fields need potash. One is 200lbs per acre, another is 150lbs per acre, and the third is 100lbs per acre. At $700 a ton, this is going to get expensive.

In the short run it will be but you can"t continue to "mine" the nutrients out of the soil and get any kind of production out of it. I have the same problem but I"m difficient in phosporous and I"ve been trying to build that up. It"s a slow process and an expensive one that resulted from the previous owner"s lack of management. With the exception of lime, you don"t have to do it all at once. You just have to putmore of the mineral on than the crop will uptake in the growing season. This way you can spread it over everal years. You can probably find some papers from you for your crops and spread the applications of potash out over 3-4 years. check with yur local county extension agent.

Potash is the cheapest of the three main nutrients. Not that long ago Potash was under a $100 per ton. I think we will be seeing it go even higher. China is buying up the known supplies. They have boughten several companies that own some of the bigger known deposits, world wide.

As for your soil fertility. You can spend the money now and have a better chance at good yields or lose money each year due to lower yields. You are going to pay for it either way. I choose to have good yields myself. Higher yields is the best way to lower the per unit cost. Your fixed cost are spread out over more units.

One thing to remember is that the Potash you spread this year will not be much use this year. Potash is a slow nutrient to break down and become available. I usually try to spread all of my potash in the fall. On any wheat or oat ground I spread it right after I harvest them, if I need it for the next crop. The earlier the better. Even on light snow will not hurt a thing as potash is heavy and does not wash like nitrogen. If you know you need it and the ground is solid enough to spread it get going.

Also needing 1.5 to 2.25 tons of lime is just about normal. Lots of lime would be 4-8 tons per acre. Then you have to split the application over two years. Your lime will also take several years to fully activate. I usually apply extra to get the up front boost I need plus a little more long term gain. If you are using high rate of nitrogen (corn) then you are using lime each year to balance.

What part of Kentucky are you in??? Much of northern areas have a high lime content in the soil naturally. Have friends in Mason county and they rarely have to apply lime.

any biomass fueled electricity generating plants in the area? There are about five here in NH and they sell the certified ash for about $20.00 per ton. Very high in K and it is also very alkaline.

See if you can find a source of wood ashes. I get them from a wood fired generating plant about sixty miles away. What it costs me is basically the trucking and paperwork.

A ton of wood ash is equivalent to approximately half a ton of lime, but also contains from forty to eighty pounds of potash. So if you need a 2 tons of lime per acre, and substitute ashes at four tons/ acre, then you have also covered most of your potash requirement.

My supplier sends me a "nutrient value statement" each year for the ashes I have bought. Last year I paid a little over $400, and the calculated value was over $1200. I disagreed with the price of lime they used for the calculation, but even so I feel it was well worth the money.

Wood ash is quicker acting than lime, and you see results in a month instead of six, but it also runs out a little faster. I am trying to catch up top the point where I can put on a ton per acre every three years.
Here is my supplier

Interesting. There was talk of a couple plants in the area but they never got off the drawing board. Maybe in the future.

Wow...appreciate all the good info. Unfortunately, I'm in eastern Kentucky, heart of Coal country. If it's not black, no one wants to burn it around here. So no biomass or wood fired plants that I know of, but I will keep my eye's open and ask around. Might be some in the central part of the state.

Lime prices aren't all that bad, I can get bagged powdered for $65 a ton, pelletized $150 or so. Pellet lime, from what I've been gathering is running around %85 RNV while the powdered is somewhere around %60 RNV. At that rate, I can't see the pellet's being worth it.

Casey- Kee's Farm Supply (Southern States) Grayson, KY has lime trucks and they will deliver and spread the lime over the fields. It's what most farmers use around here.

I don't know how far you are from Grayson but maybe there is a Southern States dealer in your area.

I'm in Eastern Kentucky, Johnson County, pretty close to West Virginia. Pretty much the entire state, except here in the east, has good lime content. I guess that's why I think 1.5 to 2.25 is a lot. Ground is pretty sloppy here right now, not been cold enough o freeze, if it does freeze or dries up, I'm on it.

I bought some cows a few years ago from a little place called Mays Lick, Ky. I think that was in Mason County. Beautiful country and were some pretty darned good cows.

I am in the next county north of you.

I'm about 45 minutes from Grayson. I called Kee's earlier. He quoted me $130 a ton on powdered lime. Oldfield's SS over in Morgan County has it for $65 a ton. Big price difference for some reason. My county extension office is suppose to have a Lime spreader for rent, at this point, that's my plan. I might give Kee's a call back just to verify.

Don't know of any pasture or decent hay ground for rent or lease in the area do you? Old timers have it all snatched up around here. I've been going to UK's Master Cattleman program at your extension office. Nice place.

I don't mind trying to help you out but, it's hard to trust too many around here with all the pill abuse that is going on. You know we are slap dab in the middle of the Oxy Triangle. I have been burnt too many times trying to help someone.

e-mail me and we can talk.

I understand completely about the drug thing. It appears that our new(been in office a little better than a year) sheriff is starting to keep some of his campaign promises and really crack down. His office combined with the help of most every other local law enforcement office has busted several including one of the "pill mills" pain clinic.

It's saying you don't have an email posted(no email). Mine should be on this post. Either shoot me one or post with yours and I'll respond. Appreciate it.

email sent.

(quoted from post at 15:00:36 02/14/12) I'm about 45 minutes from Grayson. I called Kee's earlier. He quoted me $130 a ton on powdered lime. Oldfield's SS over in Morgan County has it for $65 a ton. Big price difference for some reason. My county extension office is suppose to have a Lime spreader for rent, at this point, that's my plan. I might give Kee's a call back just to verify.

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How far does the lime have to come from?

Locally I can have it spread for $35 a ton, If I buy a truck load, but the source is only 35 miles away.

I could probably buy it cheaper direct from the quarry and have it spread by someone, but I've never had any luck getting someone to do that here. They always just put me off and put me off till it's to late and say will get to it next time. All of my prices are bagged products so I can handle them myself and spread it myself. But $35 a ton is a good price, I need just over 21 tons total.

Boy Casey guess 200 miles makes a diffrence .. Down in western part of the state Lime spreading is somewhere $ 24 to 30 $ per ton and have done some for as little as $ 20 a ton where they were applying 4 ton per acre. Of course farms are less than 40 miles from quarry.