soil test

teddy 1223 · 29-11-2016 2:45pm #1

In this soil test does it need 15tonne of lime per hectares

Genghis Cant · 29-11-2016 9:33pm

Hi teddy,
There's nothing attached to your post above!

teddy 1223 · 29-11-2016 9:46pm

I couldn't manage to attach the page. But it said it needs 15 tonne of lime per ha, this land never got lime and it's also index 1 for p & k

pedigree 6 · 29-11-2016 9:51pm

I think you have to have 40 posts before you can add on attachments or photo's.
Either go on After Hours and complain about the Brits or go and do the word games in puzzles and quizzes;)
Or.... maybe you could type out as much as you can of the report.

Mooooo · 29-11-2016 9:51pm

Apple lime yearly at a rate of 2 tonne/ acre. It will take time to bring it up. With weather being dry could do it this week if ground your way is up to it

pedigree 6 · 29-11-2016 9:52pm

teddy 1223 wrote: »

I couldn't manage to attach the page. But it said it needs 15 tonne of lime per ha, this land never got lime and it's also index 1 for p & k

Sounds like hungry ground. Does it say anything about molybdenum in the soil?

The Cuban · 29-11-2016 9:58pm

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Sounds like hungry ground. Does it say anything about molybdenum in the soil?

Yep its Hungry ground but you will not be able to spread that much lime in one go or in one year.
Best divide up the applications over the 1st 3rd and 5th years then redo the soil test the following year to see how you are doing

patsy_mccabe · 29-11-2016 10:01pm

Teagasc say 3tonne/acre is the max for lime application.

teddy 1223 · 29-11-2016 10:19pm

Mooooo wrote:

Apple lime yearly at a rate of 2 tonne/ acre. It will take time to bring it up. With weather being dry could do it this week if ground your way is up to it

Yeah I'll get 2 tonne an acre out at the end of the week.

teddy 1223 · 29-11-2016 10:22pm

pedigree 6 wrote:

Sounds like hungry ground. Does it say anything about molybdenum in the soil?

It's hungry ground alright. No it doesn't say anything about molybdenum ( what is that by the way). This land wasn't really farmed the last few years

pedigree 6 · 29-11-2016 10:41pm

teddy 1223 wrote: »

It's hungry ground alright. No it doesn't say anything about molybdenum ( what is that by the way). This land wasn't really farmed the last few years

I bet it does say something about Molybdenum.
If you have high MO you can't increase the soil ph beyond 6.2.
It should give a number how much MO is in the soil and whether that's high or low.
If it's low you can spread the 15t, if high maybe 10t.

Going by what you're saying, spread the 3t for a start anyway. You could even go to 3.5 if you want.

Then you have to worry about the P and K requirements.

Actually what are you going to graze this with? I presume it's grazing ground.
You probably would be better going for the full plough and reseed if you're serious about it than bother with a field of scutch.

teddy 1223 · 29-11-2016 11:07pm

pedigree 6 wrote:

I bet it does say something about Molybdenum. If you have high MO you can't increase the soil ph beyond 6.2. It should give a number how much MO is in the soil and whether that's high or low. If it's low you can spread the 15t, if high maybe 10t.

This is what the sample shows, pH: *water 4.9 *buffer 5.50
Lime required: 15.00 tonne/ha
Soil P: * (mg/l) 1.4
Index 1
Soil K: * ( mg/l) 54
Index 1

teddy 1223 · 29-11-2016 11:11pm

The last few year's there was 1 cut of silage off it each year. This obviously took all the nutrients out of the land, it wouldn't of got much fertiliser

pedigree 6 · 29-11-2016 11:25pm

teddy 1223 wrote: »

This is what the sample shows, pH: *water 4.9 *buffer 5.50
Lime required: 15.00 tonne/ha
Soil P: * (mg/l) 1.4
Index 1
Soil K: * ( mg/l) 54
Index 1

Fair enough. It needs 15 so.

Dickie10 · 30-06-2021 11:49am

hi all i did soil test on 3 small fields , they havent got lime in 20+years. there showing 5.3 and 2 of 5.4 for PH Buffer.
However I am good Phosphorus for them all showing 4 index. Potassium has one field 4 , the next 3 and the next 2.

Any ideas what sort of tell tale signs that shows of my land in those fields?
why so high in phosphorus? those fields never get slurry.

What is a potassium source ?

blue5000 · 30-06-2021 2:00pm

Muriate of potash, 50%k, but don't apply it to grazing ground in early spring as cows wlll get grass tetany from Mg deficiency.

sandman30 · 30-06-2021 5:51pm

Dickie10 wrote: »

hi all i did soil test on 3 small fields , they havent got lime in 20+years. there showing 5.3 and 2 of 5.4 for PH Buffer.
However I am good Phosphorus for them all showing 4 index. Potassium has one field 4 , the next 3 and the next 2.

Any ideas what sort of tell tale signs that shows of my land in those fields?
why so high in phosphorus? those fields never get slurry.

What is a potassium source ?

Where did you get it tested?

Dickie10 · 30-06-2021 10:54pm

oldcastle lab , ill put up the report

sandman30 · 30-06-2021 11:10pm

Dickie10 wrote: »

oldcastle lab , ill put up the report

I thought it might be. Waste of time getting tested there. I'm testing fairly regularly and the results back from there made no sense, no consistency between years. Couldn't understand what was happening.

Anyway took 10 samples, but took double the amount for each sample, broke the cores up and divided the samples, sent 10 to teagasc and 10 to Oldcastle. Completely different results, the teagasc results were right, Oldcastle were pure muck.

Ignore the very high reading for P, if it is not what was expected, ideally get tested again elsewhere.

Dickie10 · 30-06-2021 11:17pm

Christ, thats disastrous when you go to the trouble of getting soil tests done. can you recommend any other places that do soil test? should i just give to teagasc advisor? i presume i need at least 2 ton lime to acre anyway, im sure they could get the ph right at least, those fields havent got lime in 20 years

einn32 · 01-07-2021 1:02am

Dickie10 wrote: »

Christ, thats disastrous when you go to the trouble of getting soil tests done. can you recommend any other places that do soil test? should i just give to teagasc advisor? i presume i need at least 2 ton lime to acre anyway, im sure they could get the ph right at least, those fields havent got lime in 20 years

Call the lab and tell them the background info. They might do a re-test or find an error.

sandman30 · 01-07-2021 9:45am

Dickie10 wrote: »

Christ, thats disastrous when you go to the trouble of getting soil tests done. can you recommend any other places that do soil test? should i just give to teagasc advisor? i presume i need at least 2 ton lime to acre anyway, im sure they could get the ph right at least, those fields havent got lime in 20 years

I find Teagasc good, but expensive. I think you're safe enough with the 2 ton of lime. I found the pH was slightly off, they said it needed more lime than it actually did, but the P was seriously wrong, testing index 4, when it was index 1 and 2. Soil tests are such a small cost in relation to the cost of fertilizer, that its worth having them done right.

White Clover · 01-07-2021 9:57am

sandman30 wrote: »

I find Teagasc good, but expensive. I think you're safe enough with the 2 ton of lime. I found the pH was slightly off, they said it needed more lime than it actually did, but the P was seriously wrong, testing index 4, when it was index 1 and 2. Soil tests are such a small cost in relation to the cost of fertilizer, that its worth having them done right.

It is important to do them at the correct time too.

Dickie10 · 01-07-2021 12:46pm

yeah im snookered a bit now because i have fertiliser applied in the last few weeks so it will throw it off. i will go and get lime out anyway. i put lime on a field 2 years ago and can keep grass down with sheep and lambs in march and april on it, drove grass out of it with no fertiliser, i will soil test that field now this week before slurry as it got silage off last week and see is there a jump in ph, i will send this one to teagasc

SouthWesterly · 01-07-2021 1:30pm

Was chatting to some guys at an organic farm walk last week in kerry.
They recommended this guy for full soil tests. https://apsbioag.ie/

einn32 · 01-07-2021 8:12pm

Can you show the results sheet?

sandman30 · 01-07-2021 8:20pm

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Was chatting to some guys at an organic farm walk last week in kerry.
They recommended this guy for full soil tests. https://apsbioag.ie/

They seem to sell fertilizer as well as doing the tests, personally don't think that's a good idea. Prefer if the lab is completely independent.

SouthWesterly · 02-07-2021 12:10am

sandman30 wrote: »

They seem to sell fertilizer as well as doing the tests, personally don't think that's a good idea. Prefer if the lab is completely independent.

From what I gather Leslie does a full soil test, testing for whats actually in the soil.

einn32 · 02-07-2021 12:18am

SouthWesterly wrote: »

From what I gather Leslie does a full soil test, testing for whats actually in the soil.

Are agri soil tests just for P, K and pH usually?

Castlekeeper · 02-07-2021 6:36am

einn32 wrote: »

Are agri soil tests just for P, K and pH usually?

Yes, and only test what's water solouble/ leachable, not for the total elements of the soil.

Leslie is straight and won't damage your land.

Castlekeeper · 02-07-2021 6:40am

sandman30 wrote: »

I thought it might be. Waste of time getting tested there. I'm testing fairly regularly and the results back from there made no sense, no consistency between years. Couldn't understand what was happening.

Anyway took 10 samples, but took double the amount for each sample, broke the cores up and divided the samples, sent 10 to teagasc and 10 to Oldcastle. Completely different results, the teagasc results were right, Oldcastle were pure muck.

Ignore the very high reading for P, if it is not what was expected, ideally get tested again elsewhere.

Did you ask them to explain the difference in results? I wonder is their methodology different and if there's something to be learnt from them.
There can be high levels of non water soluble but biologically available P and K in soils that a Morgan's test won't show.

They might be some chancers too of course!

Hard Knocks · 02-07-2021 9:51am

einn32 wrote: »

Are agri soil tests just for P, K and pH usually?

Use FBA labs they’ve 2 tests
Regular PH P & K and a more detailed option

einn32 · 02-07-2021 10:54am

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Yes, and only test what's water solouble/ leachable, not for the total elements of the soil.

Leslie is straight and won't damage your land.

Interesting. I guess leachable shows what need to be replaced. Cheaper then a full screen I guess. Still I thought it would be useful to get a full screen done on the soils for a few samples to fully understand what's going on.

On another note those anyone analyse groundwater/waterways on their farms? It could be one way to ascertain how much nitrates a farm is actually emitting in to waterways. It could lead to more robust data to allow individual farms have individual slurry closed periods etc. Just a thought. I always thought the nitrates vulnerable zones implementation in Ireland wasn't very satisfactory.

Castlekeeper · 02-07-2021 1:22pm

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Yes, and only test what's water solouble/ leachable, not for the total elements of the soil.

Leslie is straight and won't damage your land.

Sorry, I see my post could be misleading.
It should read;
"Yes, and they only test..."

A totals test with good advice and explanation is a very worthwhile exercise, they're more expensive, partly because of the time involved in giving the good advice.

dmakc · 08-02-2022 1:33pm

Hi, few q's (TIA);

We spread dung in a certain field (12-14 Tonne per acre) late Sept, then got soil tested late Jan (P = 4, K = 3). Would this reflect the dung application or is the K yet to peak? Had hoped to avoid K application for silage this spring.
Also spread lime (2T/Ac) late Sept, would this be reflected in the pH results for late Jan?
For a field with P & K both = 4, does P & K still need to go out for silage, or would N alone do?

Dickie10 · 09-02-2022 11:45pm

i have a field i will test soon , im thinking the ph is still low, how long after lime application does it take for nutrients to be released.

endainoz · 11-02-2022 10:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118608533#Comment_118608533

It could take a couple of years to be honest, the soil test won't be too accurate on ground that is recently limed either.

Hard Knocks · 11-02-2022 12:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118614666#Comment_118614666

How long after liming (ground lime) would want to be leaving for the next test?

endainoz · 11-02-2022 9:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118615159#Comment_118615159

Apparently it could take up to four years before you would get an accurate reading again.

Say my name · 12-02-2022 1:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118617851#Comment_118617851

I could be dead again then.😅

Had samples taken around the 10th/11th of January. Ground had gran lime and gypsum over the winter.

Neighbours had samples taken around the same time, same company. No lime or gypsum applied on theirs and results back for them a week or fortnight ago. Mise is still waiting.

atlantic mist · 12-02-2022 3:04pm

did you try gypsum before? any issues with cows digestive system after using?

done a full soil test here this year, CAN used religiously over the years no requirement for lime it seems the calcium in CAN has been enough to keep ph right

would you want to allow for a ton of lime per acre if using urea products this year? does everyone factor in additional lime costs if using urea?

Say my name · 12-02-2022 3:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118620741#Comment_118620741

On the gypsum. It's all new to me. But cows have been eating the swards where it was spread and no issue. Well washed in and off the leaf by now though.

endainoz · 12-02-2022 4:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118620376#Comment_118620376

Gran lime might not take as long as it's supposed to be absorbed by the ground faster, probably would still take over a year though!

Hard Knocks · 13-02-2022 10:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118620772#Comment_118620772

Who supplies Gypsum? Would you spread it with lime or instead of lime?

Say my name · 13-02-2022 10:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118626651#Comment_118626651

Spread it with the fertiliser spreader at 100kg/ac. Came from gyproc in monaghan which are owned by a french company.

It was hardship though.

soil test

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