Farming in a high Molybdenum area

Conmaicne Mara

I believe I farm in a high Molybdenum area, apparently I'm sitting on top of about 50 million tons of that and copper which is a bit of a concern.

My more immediate question, before I chain myself to a rock and chant "We shall not be moved" in front of the mining equipment, is what effect does this have on sheep in particular? How, or what do I test to find out if I have too much of something, or too little of something else?

Thanks

(Wanted a little more exposure on this issue so posted in the general Farming section).

Milked out

You can get a detailed soil analysis done, will measure trace elements and in the report it gives a ratio of what everything should be as well as your own results and I think suggestions on corrective actions. It's costly tho, 200yoyo a sample, sample needs to be at least 500g. The advisor here took a sample from some heavy ground here, have no results yet but he sent it to this crowd, http://www.glensidegroup.com/ its the albrecht soil survey.

munkus

IAS labs fo a detailed soil analysis for 45 euro.

High moly area here and biggest problem is the lack of copper. Inject everything.

sheebadog

Would also do well to keep soil ph less than 6 Con.
Copper and zinc tend to tie up to a high degree when the ph is over 6

Sami23

sheebadog wrote: »

Would also do well to keep soil ph less than 6 Con.
Copper and zinc tend to tie up to a high degree when the ph is over 6

How do you reduce the pH in soil ?

sheebadog

Sami23 wrote: »

How do you reduce the pH in soil ?

Don't spread any lime or gran lime.

I think you can reduce the ph with massive doses of sulphur, but I'm not sure on that.

Conmaicne Mara

sheebadog wrote: »

Would also do well to keep soil ph less than 6 Con.
Copper and zinc tend to tie up to a high degree when the ph is over 6

Yes, I think 5.8 is the number I'll be aiming for, though with a starting position of 5.1 I imagine it'll take a while, there is also the issue of the very top of the soil and it's PH which is something I must get more concrete info on. I believe that layer of soil has it's PH raised faster than below.

razor8

Got my soil tested a few weeks ago and for the crack of it I did one test for molybdenum and got the result back today and all it says is 5.51mg/kg. Can anyone interpret if it is high or low?

munkus

razor8 wrote: »

Got my soil tested a few weeks ago and for the crack of it I did one test for molybdenum and got the result back today and all it says is 5.51mg/kg. Can anyone interpret if it is high or low?

One of my fields is 27 ug/l . The scale provided was 5 (very low) to 50 (Very high). I'm in the high bracket. Copper and Zinc are gimped.

blue5000

Con you can get 4g copper boluses for sheep. Am also in a high Mo area and get a good response to those copper boluses in suckler calves. Did you ever test after?

Oldtree

Got mine tested by sending away a bag of grass to Johnstown to do a herbage test. Picked a bit here and a bit there to get an average in the bag, had to be careful that no soil got into bag. wasn't expensive but can't remember cost, phoned them to ask I think. The result was very high as in a limestone area. Was advised (like poster above) not to spread lime and supplement copper.

When I did some research on it on the web I found out that in extreme cases animals can suffer hair loss or even abortions.

As mentioned by poster above extra copper is a remedy.
http://www.teagasc.ie/newsletters/farmingtips/2009/cattle-20090113.asp

previous thread here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056900420&page=2

Mad4simmental

Oldtree wrote: »

Got mine tested by sending away a bag of grass to Johnstown to do a herbage test. Picked a bit here and a bit there to get an average in the bag, had to be careful that no soil got into bag. wasn't expensive but can't remember cost, phoned them to ask I think. The result was very high as in a limestone area. Was advised (like poster above) not to spread lime and supplement copper.

When I did some research on it on the web I found out that in extreme cases animals can suffer hair loss or even abortions.

As mentioned by poster above extra copper is a remedy.
http://www.teagasc.ie/newsletters/farmingtips/2009/cattle-20090113.asp

previous thread here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056900420&page=2

Do you find many of your animals holding hair ect every year?

Oldtree

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Do you find many of your animals holding hair ect every year?

It was when I was deciding what to do with the land, so along with other issues decided not to keep animals. The problems mentioned above are what I discovered could happen as a result of serious copper deficiency. I tried baleing for a while but was very worried about the high molybdenum levels. Then I decided to (don't cry) plant trees for a 10 year or so rotation for firewood for the home. There are only a few fields that would be suitable for grazing the rest (very soft even in high summer) silage and the majority is semi-natural woodland on limestone pavement. So a small unviable 30 acre holding really. Am planting an orchard too

Conmaicne Mara

blue5000 wrote: »

Con you can get 4g copper boluses for sheep. Am also in a high Mo area and get a good response to those copper boluses in suckler calves. Did you ever test after?

No test done yet, "to do" list becoming excessive, keep getting distracted by other issues. Copper colus would be the way for me to go alright due to holding/hill movements, if deficiency exists.

Milked out

The lad that did our samples said clover was good for high molybdenum areas, if clover suits sheep or hills I wouldn't be to sure ofnow tho