Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Spreading lime on land

Options
124»

Comments

  • Options
    #92
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    FYM is just slurry plus straw when you think about. Often wonder if you could get cheap straw, say half rotten stuff, how would the economics stack up for spreading it on poor land.

    'The Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Galway, As they sailed beneath the Swastika to Spain'



  • Options
    #93
    Buford T. Justice XIX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,633 ✭✭✭✭Buford T. Justice XIX


    Keepgrowing wrote: »
    Where do ye guys stand on the value of FYM?
    Love the stuff here, wouldn't be mad about the spreading under the cattle but love spreading the end result on ground.

    Converted a tillage farm to grass in 05 and it took 5 yrs to get up to the poorest performing paddocks on home block. Spread all our FYM on it for the 5 yrs, turned it inside out. One particular paddock was growing 8 tonne for 2 yrs after grassing has grown 18 as last Sunday. It's probably on target for >20 tonne this year.

    We now concentrate FYM on the bottom performing 25% each October. A figure I've somewhere in my head is that each 4*4 bale of barley straw imported has €5-6 of P value. Am I off my rocker?
    We still bed the dry stock on straw. We look at straw as quota free P and spread on the poorest land each year. Slats are handier from a management point of view though.


  • Options
    #94
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,929 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    Keepgrowing wrote: »
    Where do ye guys stand on the value of FYM?
    Love the stuff here, wouldn't be mad about the spreading under the cattle but love spreading the end result on ground.

    Converted a tillage farm to grass in 05 and it took 5 yrs to get up to the poorest performing paddocks on home block. Spread all our FYM on it for the 5 yrs, turned it inside out. One particular paddock was growing 8 tonne for 2 yrs after grassing has grown 18 as last Sunday. It's probably on target for >20 tonne this year.

    We now concentrate FYM on the bottom performing 25% each October. A figure I've somewhere in my head is that each 4*4 bale of barley straw imported has €5-6 of P value. Am I off my rocker?

    There is definitely value in it that cant be measured on paper, plant diversity is another way of getting life back into soil fast


  • Options
    #95
    Mooooo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,611 ✭✭✭Mooooo


    Local contractor here does 16mth bulls on straw bedding when inside and even tho they have barley rotating around the farm they never plough in the dung, claims there's more out of it spreading on top of the land in the autumn


  • Options
    #96
    Dawggone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,506 ✭✭✭Dawggone


    Fym is not just N-P-K+S.

    It feeds the bacteria in the soil and adds OM, unlocks micro elements, creates a correct balance in the soil etc etc.

    Ploughing down is not the best way to use it. Spread in autumn and watch it disappear with worm action. Extraordinary natural fertiliser.

    The older mixed farming systems of bygone days were the perfect soils...


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #97
    Dawggone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,506 ✭✭✭Dawggone


    yosemitesam1 wrote: »
    There is definitely value in it that cant be measured on paper, plant diversity is another way of getting life back into soil fast

    +1.


  • Options
    #98
    Keepgrowing
    Registered Users Posts: 2,485 ✭✭✭Keepgrowing


    patsy_mccabe wrote: »
    FYM is just slurry plus straw when you think about. Often wonder if you could get cheap straw, say half rotten stuff, how would the economics stack up for spreading it on poor land.

    No even close. Never see worms coming up to drag it down. I'd gladly swap all our slurry for dung


  • Options
    #99
    rangler1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,497 ✭✭✭rangler1


    patsy_mccabe wrote: »
    FYM is just slurry plus straw when you think about. Often wonder if you could get cheap straw, say half rotten stuff, how would the economics stack up for spreading it on poor land.

    It's probably the combination that works. mix the slurry with the straw and turn it a few times.....must say the dung outa the sheep shed is rocket fuel when it's turned a few times and there wouldn't be a lot of sheep dung in it


  • Options
    #100
    jfh
    Registered Users Posts: 2,262 ✭✭✭jfh


    rangler1 wrote: »
    It's probably the combination that works. mix the slurry with the straw and turn it a few times.....must say the dung outa the sheep shed is rocket fuel when it's turned a few times and there wouldn't be a lot of sheep dung in it

    Agree with this,


  • Options
    #101
    White Clover
    Registered Users Posts: 4,559 ✭✭✭White Clover


    Slurry/dung is a very variable fertilizer. It mostly depends on what the animals are being fed while they're on it.
    Feeding silage only which has come off of low index fields will produce very poor slurry/dung compared to feeding a high concentrate diet/silage from high index fields.

    Animals do not make p&K.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #102
    Dawggone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,506 ✭✭✭Dawggone


    rangler1 wrote: »
    It's probably the combination that works. mix the slurry with the straw and turn it a few times.....must say the dung outa the sheep shed is rocket fuel when it's turned a few times and there wouldn't be a lot of sheep dung in it

    There's a guy that comes in here to 'turn' fym to accelerate decomposition. €100/hr for the service. Money well spent.


  • Options
    #103
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    rangler1 wrote: »
    It's probably the combination that works. mix the slurry with the straw and turn it a few times.....must say the dung outa the sheep shed is rocket fuel when it's turned a few times and there wouldn't be a lot of sheep dung in it
    Dawggone wrote: »
    There's a guy that comes in here to 'turn' fym to accelerate decomposition. €100/hr for the service. Money well spent.

    Its accelerating the breakdown of carbon in the straw. "strawy" dung has a high C:N ratio requiring more n and time to break it down turning it allows microbes to work faster. After a week or so after turning thats why it get f**king hot in the heap.


  • Options
    #104
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    Mooooo wrote: »
    Would any of ye use the albrecht soil analysis?

    Got it done once, its just another way of trying to put the same numbers to something.
    Work of RB209 guidelines here tbh.
    http://www.ahdb.org.uk/documents/rb209-fertiliser-manual-110412.pdf


  • Options
    #105
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    Keepgrowing wrote: »
    Where do ye guys stand on the value of FYM?
    Love the stuff here, wouldn't be mad about the spreading under the cattle but love spreading the end result on ground.

    Converted a tillage farm to grass in 05 and it took 5 yrs to get up to the poorest performing paddocks on home block. Spread all our FYM on it for the 5 yrs, turned it inside out. One particular paddock was growing 8 tonne for 2 yrs after grassing has grown 18 as last Sunday. It's probably on target for >20 tonne this year.

    We now concentrate FYM on the bottom performing 25% each October. A figure I've somewhere in my head is that each 4*4 bale of barley straw imported has €5-6 of P value. Am I off my rocker?

    About £14/ton we worked it out a few years ago in one of the fertiliser spikes from a few samples taken to convince big boss we would win out in a straw for muck deal. Its not the npk even its the soil health and aiding to head off any temporary defficiencies in crops at the start. Looked at it here, but some farms have crazy regiemes of using various metal mineral seed dressing and folliar feed as standard practice rather than as needed.
    I do remember reading something about these metals making an environment more suitable to the spread of genetic data amoung diseases in cereal crops. Something to do with more carrier pieces of dna being created or summat for some clever person to worry about.

    In the real world, would be a little warry of longterm effects of such high levels all fertiliser use on land. ///////what ye have been upto for the last 30/40 years getting more precise with technology in later years has never been done in history on the dairy side of grass growing maxxing out input quotas or nearly so.


  • Options
    #106
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    To add another dimension to all this, trees are a huge contributor to soil health too. Leaves decompose and add valuable minerals to the top of the soil. Grazing animals eat the grass in near the trees and deposit the minerals as dung further out in the field.
    I kid you not!

    'The Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Galway, As they sailed beneath the Swastika to Spain'



  • Options
    #107
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    patsy_mccabe wrote: »
    To add another dimension to all this, trees are a huge contributor to soil health too. Leaves decompose and add valuable minerals to the top of the soil. Grazing animals eat the grass in near the trees and deposit the minerals as dung further out in the field.
    I kid you not!

    Evergreens/firs do the opposite, acidic nature of their needles destroy soil!


  • Options
    #108
    Farrell
    Registered Users Posts: 2,262 ✭✭✭Farrell


    Waffletraktor wrote: »
    Evergreens/firs do the opposite, acidic nature of their needles destroy soil!
    A sheep farmer I knew many years ago, maintained that evergreen/firs were polluting the rivers & lakes with their needles, resulting in dead fish & disease to humans & animals


  • Options
    #109
    Dawggone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,506 ✭✭✭Dawggone


    Waffletraktor wrote: »
    Evergreens/firs do the opposite, acidic nature of their needles destroy soil!

    A form of allelopathy.


  • Options
    #110
    Dawggone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,506 ✭✭✭Dawggone


    Farrell wrote: »
    A sheep farmer I knew many years ago, maintained that evergreen/firs were polluting the rivers & lakes with their needles, resulting in dead fish & disease to humans & animals

    He's right they do pollute waterways especially if (like Irish Gov.) you're thick enough to plant them right up to river edge.


  • Options
    #111
    Never wrestle with pigs
    Registered Users Posts: 1,447 ✭✭✭Never wrestle with pigs


    Did you ever hear if this mob dawg?

    http://www.howtogarden.ie/soil-renew-soil-health/

    He told me it was big in France, it's a concentrated om pellet as far as I can see.

    He sells it in one tonne bags that do 15ac a year and says it will drive grass roots deep into the ground and eliminating the need to spread P&K.

    I think it worked out at €100 AC sounds a bit too good to be true to me.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #112
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,929 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    Never wrestle with pigs wrote: »
    Did you ever hear if this mob dawg?

    http://www.howtogarden.ie/soil-renew-soil-health/

    He told me it was big in France, it's a concentrated om pellet as far as I can see.

    He sells it in one tonne bags that do 15ac a year and says it will drive grass roots deep into the ground and eliminating the need to spread P&K.

    I think it worked out at €100 AC sounds a bit too good to be true to me.

    You could make your own that would be at least as good or better, look up aerated compost and compost teas both aimed at boosting beneficials in the soil but not a cure for everything


  • Options
    #113
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,929 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    Waffletraktor wrote: »

    In the real world, would be a little warry of longterm effects of such high levels all fertiliser use on land. ///////what ye have been upto for the last 30/40 years getting more precise with technology in later years has never been done in history on the dairy side of grass growing maxxing out input quotas or nearly so.

    I think a lot of our 'sustainable grass based production' is based on a lot of unsustainables, will be a case of whether changes are forced by eu, soil, disease, economics or a combination


Advertisement