soil fertility

Greengrass1

Father is chuffed here. We reseeded a silafmge field here 4 yrs ago and always got poor crops off it.
This year we have pH right -6.6
Have spread straight P and after second cut spread straight potash on silage ground..says he can't believe the grass on the field.
Kicking himself now after all the yrs he spread straight N to save money.

I'll keep ploughing on with the p and k but getting brilliant results .
.anyone else gone through a similar experience with some tips/knowledge on bringing up soil fertility?

Robson99

Have spread straight K here with good results. Never spread straight p. What % is in it?

Greengrass1

Robson99 wrote: »

Have spread straight K here with good results. Never spread straight p. What % is in it?

11%.
We put out 16 units of it in grazing ground and 32 on silage ground.
Going with compounds all yr now

onyerbikepat

I see Goulding have all sort of ratios in their fertilisers.
Something like 15.10.10 would help bring up low P levels and then say 0.7.30 if K was low.

http://www.gouldings.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Gouldings_Product_List.pdf

Greengrass1

I think from now in first round will be CAN.
then straight p and k and another bag if CAN on next round and pasture from then on

Robson99

Never seen bags of straight p

Greengrass1

Robson99 wrote: »

Never seen bags of straight p

I got it of grassland agro formally timac. Dear stuff. But good stuff

severeoversteer

the choice of fertiliser blends in most merchants yards isn't great I think

18-6-12
can
urea
24-2.5-5
27-2.5-5

these seem to be the only thing in most merchants


they might have something with sulphur if you are lucky

mahoney_j

U got to put back in what u take out,first round here is always urea,2 18 6 12 late march then n+ sulphur ,sweetgrass for sumner then in August 2* Richland and can or urea till mid September.silage ground gets n p an k on every round.slurry also in spring and September/October

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

U got to put back in what u take out,first round here is always urea,2 18 6 12 late march then n+ sulphur ,sweetgrass for sumner then in August 2* Richland and can or urea till mid September.silage ground gets n p an k on every round.slurry also in spring and September/October

Yep. We were trying to keep costs down but just shooting ourselves in the foot. Will be soil testing every 2 yrs now and making sure is. It definitely pays putting it out.

Robson99

Soil testing and reseeding are the two least preformed practices on Irish farms and yet are potentially the two most profitable exercises that can be carried out each year. IMO. A soil test costs 12.50. The price of a half a bag of manure

Greengrass1

Robson99 wrote: »

Soil testing and reseeding are the two least preformed practices on Irish farms and yet are potentially the two most profitable exercises that can be carried out each year. IMO. A soil test costs 12.50. The price of a half a bag of manure

The amount of ****e grass the drystovk farnrs in this area graze is phenominal. I wouldnt bed cows with it in the winter its that ****e.
Like wire. Than then they moan about how much monetmy dairy is making

Deepsouthwest

Spread another 80t of lime today, have spread over 300t in the last 16 months, and still have another few loads to do later in the summer. Took soil samples last spring (2013)and was v disappointed, but not surprised with my ph. Spent too long fooling around with granulated lime because of its "convenience". Will sample the whole farm again nxt spring, hopefully will see a rise.

Greengrass1

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Spread another 80t of lime today, have spread over 300t in the last 16 months, and still have another few loads to do later in the summer. Took soil samples last spring (2013)and was v disappointed, but not surprised with my ph. Spent too long fooling around with granulated lime because of its "convenience". Will sample the whole farm again nxt spring, hopefully will see a rise.

Really. We have our pH at 6.6 from using bag lime

Deepsouthwest

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Really. We have our pH at 6.6 from using bag lime

Apparently 5 times more expensive, and only lasts one season

Greengrass1

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Apparently 5 times more expensive, and only lasts one season

Ye that's about it. The stuff we spread brings a lot if trace elements with it and helps worm casts.
We'd walk around here now and 20 days after cows have been in paddock the dung pads are all chewed up and its only the crust left

nhg

Greengrass, is it the Physolith you are talking about?
Used it on last years reseed, sprayed off 10acres yesterday for this years reseed project, plan on using the physolith again (this 10acres got 3/T lime last year in the farm blanket spread)