Fertilizer question

• Soil PH; What it means.

--->Paul

I use 34-00-00 (storeage I store it for years sometimes must be in bags and out of the weather.) No rain needed no need to plow in , should be none before a good rain would be better.
Rate : 50-60 lbs. /acre For second cut grass Takes two week to green up the field hield is about 15 -
20 bales more to the acre (600-800 lbs. ).

Alalfa is different, must be taking care of right would need to soil test and go from there.

Watch using too much N . You can get in the crop and posion the animals that you would be feeding. Better to go thought and do it for each cutting

P and K should be done once a year, like a 8-32-16; 6-
24-24; 10-20-20 high numbers if your putting on do it once , use less to handling 250/400 acre

One thing to remember is the thicker the hay harder to make. 140-150 bale to acre 1st cut is hard to dry and bale.
I aim for 100 1st. , 20 -50 2nd, same for cutting after etc.

Have A Good One !!

They are right on about soil test and PH

Here are a few way to see what your PH is.

1st. soil test , Good but not perfect. Go go around and test about 10 -20 places and mix it up, screen it, and what do you have, a mixed up mixture at best, a guess, in the ball park , but still not correct. Now if you have a level field and same soil through out, that test is Very Good. WE have a sand stone loam with a clay sup- base. But there are places it is very stoney and allot of clay in others, can change in 100' one to the other etc. not at all the same soil throught out.

SO saying all that. 2ND I use a PH tester and flags, yellow if it tests below 6.2 and pink if it test below 6.0 . The flags are used as a guide for the truck driver or the person spreading. Now following the directions no short cuts. The one I have you must use water and mix up a mortar like mud and test . But I was thinking and talking asking around if I can just do it after a good wet rain. Ground is muddy and should work, WRONG LOL I got it all wrong the ph . The 3 acres all tested 6.2- 6.8 good enough get by and line this fall . Not so the nice rain must have been sweet or something for I planted 3 acres of alfalfa and 6 weeks later retest to see why it was turning yellow and well the ph after following the directions tested 5.3 - 5.8 too low for alfalfa.

3 rd way I know of is to spot plant red clover, see if it grows your around what it should be for grass, if your to plant alfalfa better put a ton or two to acre of lime.

NC is touting its agronomic testing capabilities for everything from soil testing to tissue sampling to mulch analysis (mulch mainly for horticulture applications) and highly recommends getting a base profile of a field/area before application, an analysis of what is going to be applied, and follow-up testing to see what happens in the long run.

The state lab just happens to be conveniently accessible for me and JerryD due to our location but each state has a fairly convenient send-in-a-sample program available that everybody should take advantage of.

Tissue sampling is fairly new but there was an article int he newspapaer here this past Sunday about one tobacco farmer that started using tissue sampling during harvest and ended up with the best crop he had ever had in the barn. He was also able to save significant dollars on fertilizing because he started soil samples early and only fed as needed versus his traditional scheduled program.

What kind of soils are you on? If clay, you can maybe put it all on & be done with it. If sand, then splitting is much better. N likes to gas off if it doesn't get incorporated in some forms (like with a rain within 24 hours) so what are you putting on & when?

Are you getting any P & K on there as well? Need to maintain those as well. Could probably put those on now yet. N you are in a bad time, too cold for the grass to use it, too warm for it to sit over winter in the soil...

Around here, for 25 acres you call the coop, & eith pick up a spinner & apply yourself, or let them do it. Costs a couple bucks an acre for the spinner, but much cheaper in bulk that buying bagged fertilizer.

A fellow called 'Hay Wilson' over at>Link

Those salts really like water, I'd not want to store real long - depends on where & how you store it....

--->Paul