What fertiliser to use on meadows.

Matty6270

Hi. I'm going spreading fertiliser this weekend but not sure what to go for. Every year I put out 18-6-12. I got the field soil sampled back in late 2013 but not sure how to read them. The ph was 5.1, K-117. p- 1.61. Any ideas.also I might but on some watery slurry

White Clover

Matty6270 wrote: »

Hi. I'm going spreading fertiliser this weekend but not sure what to go for. Every year I put out 18-6-12. I got the field soil sampled back in late 2013 but not sure how to read them. The ph was 5.1, K-117. p- 1.61. Any ideas.also I might but on some watery slurry

It's in poor shape Matty. Probably all scutch and weed grasses. Best start with the Ph, maybe 3 bags per acre of gran lime for now and follow up in the autumn with 2 to 3 tonne of ground lime per acre. It'll take a few years to sort the ph by applying lime every 2 yrs until you get the ph upto 6.3.
Watery slurry is more water than slurry so you can imagine how good that is.
You'd need to apply 40 units of P and 120 units of K per acre. It wouldn't be worth applying any more than 75 units of N per acre.

Matty6270

Thanks white clover. How many bags to the acre and what fertiliser. Thanks

White Clover

Matty6270 wrote: »

Thanks white clover. How many bags to the acre and what fertiliser. Thanks

Something like 4 bags of 10 10 20 and 2 bags of 19 0 15 per acre . Throw out the watery slurry too. It'll be expensive silage at that.
You'd buy silage cheaper.

Matty6270

Omg. That's a lot for the price cattle is making. So my 2 bags of 18-6-12 days are over

Matty6270

Would Cut swarth or pasture swarth be no good

White Clover

Matty6270 wrote: »

Would Cut swarth or pasture swarth be no good

Worse Matty!

A good first cut of silage takes 100 units of N, 20 units of P and 120 units of K. This is assuming that your p & K indexes are at 3.
Your p is very low.

2 bags 18 6 12 is 36 units N 12 P and 24 K... You can see now that you were leaving the soil a bit short.

It's all about getting the soil right.

Edit: If you could get pig slurry it would give u a good start.

Matty6270

No pig slurry around ere. I just think for this year maybe slurry and 3 bags of 10-10-20. Is the 19-0-15 similar price. And if I went with the 3 bags would my silage be good enough

jack o shea

I spread slurry on ground I'm closing for silage how long before fertiliser can go on it? What bout gran lime on top of all that?

Matty6270

Or can you buy straight k. Is that expensive

White Clover

Matty6270 wrote: »

Or can you buy straight k. Is that expensive

Your K is index 3, which is good. Just need to maintain it. Its the P and Ph you need to improve.

White Clover

jack o shea wrote: »

I spread slurry on ground I'm closing for silage how long before fertiliser can go on it? What bout gran lime on top of all that?

Give it a week Jack. Work away with both then.

st1979

With increase in pH by spreading lime you may unlock so p in the ground so your test is really bad now but lime may lift it a bit

Matty6270

So would it be a good idea if I I got a guy to spread lime now with d fertiliser. A round 2ton per acre. Would it be still OK to cut in June do

orm0nd

Matty6270 wrote: »

So would it be a good idea if I I got a guy to spread lime now with d fertiliser. A round 2ton per acre. Would it be still OK to cut in June do

leave the lime until autumn , it plays havoc with silage presevation & you really won't see the benefit of it this year anyhow

Username John

I found the table in the link below, detailing how of of the N, P and K is available or the various pH levels very interesting...

Now - I know it's from gouldings and they'll obviously push their own agenda too. But still...

http://www.gouldings.ie/ni/grass-growth/seasonal-management-tips/liming/

jack o shea

Is it okay to put out gran lime now for silage? Will it work in 6 or 7 weeks?