soil analysis

Markmex

Well-Known Member
Hello lads, I recently got soil sampling done at home. I'd have to admit to not being too good at reading these things and I showed it to 2 lads who shouldbe fairly knowledgeable but they both gave me kind of different answers. I'm sure there are plenty of lads on here who would have a good grasp of this kind of thing so if anyonecould give me some advice that would be great.
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A lot of what is written there is irrelevant to a grassland farmer which I think you are, left to right , lime required is as stated, soil P, the figure under G is for grassland, OC is other crops, the rest is as under heading, requirements for grazing or silage.
 
If that was mine, 2t of lime all over now. Next year go with another 2t on Kathleen's field.

For fertilizer, keep going with 18-6-12 or similar if grazing topped up with slurry for silage.
 
Was sampling on Monday.

Writing on the waxed boxes used to be a pain, masking tape around the boxes made life much easier.

Nitrates means a new sample on every 5Ha every 4yrs (or assume Index 3) so had some gaps to update.
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Regards lime, 2 ton an acre max. It takes 3 years for it all to be fully available, so in your grazing situation, wait 3 years and retest.
 
Another thing that I learned about lime at discussion group this week is that spreading over 1 ton per acre locks up essential minerals in your soil including copper, iodine and selenium for up to 12 months. On grassland or meadow, Its better to go small and often than dumping a big amount out in one go.
 
Another thing that I learned about lime at discussion group this week is that spreading over 1 ton per acre locks up essential minerals in your soil including copper, iodine and selenium for up to 12 months. On grassland or meadow, Its better to go small and often than dumping a big amount out in one go.
Did they tell you that if you do not have your PH right you will have no grass to lock up anything. We went through all this back in the eighties. Blood and liver biopsy showing low levels of copper but no loss of production.
People make all sorts of excuses not to have their ph right. The cat ate my soil test is not a legitimate excuse. @Hardysplicer .
 
Did they tell you that if you do not have your PH right you will have no grass to lock up anything. We went through all this back in the eighties. Blood and liver biopsy showing low levels of copper but no loss of production.
People make all sorts of excuses not to have their ph right. The cat ate my soil test is not a legitimate excuse. @Hardysplicer .

The excuses I hear for not spreading lime are getting better every day
1. I haven't time (ring quarry, leave gate open, close gate, pay quarry)
2. I've urea to spread
3. I need the grass (ironic as you wont have any without it)
4. Id be better off spreading fertiliser (eh no you wouldn't)
this list is long and sad in a way.

Get simple things right and everything else falls into place.

I may write "A Wexican guide to growing a heap of grass with just Lime"
 
Regards lime, 2 ton an acre max. It takes 3 years for it all to be fully available, so in your grazing situation, wait 3 years and retest.

That was the old thumb rule for good reason.

Yet, I hear recommendations for 3tn/ac.....?:unsure:
 
That was the old thumb rule for good reason.

Yet, I hear recommendations for 3tn/ac.....?:unsure:

3T/Acre was never needed before as they spread lime rotationally

as a farmer said to me

"me uncle "xxxxx" had a standing order with quarry for 4 artic of lime every year, it was only a matter of where it went"

Low pH soil 3T hardly makes a dent in it and I find you need 2T acre in year 3-4 again

When its let get to low land just ates lime
 
Did they tell you that if you do not have your PH right you will have no grass to lock up anything. We went through all this back in the eighties. Blood and liver biopsy showing low levels of copper but no loss of production.
People make all sorts of excuses not to have their ph right. The cat ate my soil test is not a legitimate excuse. @Hardysplicer .

I think that's a bit out of proportion. We are well aware of the importance of having ph right for growing grass in the group. Most members in the group have spread lime in the last few years. It is something that the group advisor has put a lot of emphasis on.
In context, the talk was about fertility in cows. A number of us, myself included noticed fertility issues in our cows the year after we spread lime. A lot of my cows repeated and calving was delayed. This was down to the lime on the land with high molybdenum locking up the copper leaving it unavailable for use. This caused a lot of loss in production. Our speaker last night spoke about the research on how spreading lower amounts of lime per acre results in more minerals being available for uptake. The consensus was that spreading 1 ton per acre every 2 years was better than spreading 2 ton per acre every 4 years.
 
I think that's a bit out of proportion. We are well aware of the importance of having ph right for growing grass in the group. Most members in the group have spread lime in the last few years. It is something that the group advisor has put a lot of emphasis on.
In context, the talk was about fertility in cows. A number of us, myself included noticed fertility issues in our cows the year after we spread lime. A lot of my cows repeated and calving was delayed. This was down to the lime on the land with high molybdenum locking up the copper leaving it unavailable for use. This caused a lot of loss in production. Our speaker last night spoke about the research on how spreading lower amounts of lime per acre results in more minerals being available for uptake. The consensus was that spreading 1 ton per acre every 2 years was better than spreading 2 ton per acre every 4 years.
@Bog Man sense of humour is an acquired taste!!!!!

Would you not be better supplement copper, I understand your logic but in practice lads just do nothing rather than little and often

In ideal world your approach would be excellent, in practice will it happen
 
I think that's a bit out of proportion. We are well aware of the importance of having ph right for growing grass in the group. Most members in the group have spread lime in the last few years. It is something that the group advisor has put a lot of emphasis on.
In context, the talk was about fertility in cows. A number of us, myself included noticed fertility issues in our cows the year after we spread lime. A lot of my cows repeated and calving was delayed. This was down to the lime on the land with high molybdenum locking up the copper leaving it unavailable for use. This caused a lot of loss in production. Our speaker last night spoke about the research on how spreading lower amounts of lime per acre results in more minerals being available for uptake. The consensus was that spreading 1 ton per acre every 2 years was better than spreading 2 ton per acre every 4 years.
Your bang on there, we had a simular problem and it was due to mg deficiency, we only spread ca lime and it magnified the problem. We get ca/mg percentages on all our tests now because of it
 
We took out a piece of land and it got aluminum toxicity because of lack ofl lime . The advisor said it was only fit for growing Rotherdendums.
An experiment was done on our farm with various types of copper in water bolus and injection. What I learned was we got £3000 and a pile of troughs and fencing and ACOT got £50000 .
Phil Rogers from UCD was the lead researcher. After three years weighing every month doing liver Biopsy’s and blood tests on five groups of Cattle including a control Nobody suggested not putting out lime . Phil Rogers has a lot of papers published on Copper and minerals and he was the go to guy for the Government in the Hanrathy case in Tipperary and the Castlecomer case .
High Molybdenum grass will not be eaten by cattle particularly in wet weather.
There are lime kilns all over the country and they are there for a reason. In the past people went to great lengths to lime land drawing it in Horses and carts upto two days travel away . Seashells were spread on land trying to raise the PH .
Cows not going in calf and blaming it on High ph is a bit simplistic answer to a complex problem. We had high Molybdenum in fields tested by Matt Barlo yet other advisors were telling us we needed Sulphur in our fertilizer.
If you have high Molybdenum you are unlikely to need a lot of Sulphur .
Be careful what your advisors tell you because they often look at a specific problem without seeing the big Picture.
 
Think Marco has a good point above. I'd love to see mg levels. Then determine correct type of lime to spread. Incidentally I recall old timers saying that high molybdneum and copper lock up is a root cause of lameness in sheep. Something to do with the bond between the hard outer shell of the hoof and softer stuff inside it. High molybneum here and we always had to supplement copper and selenium.
 
Calcium Lime has no Mg
Mg lime has Calcium and Mg but too much Mg for me
I get quarry to blend it 50:50 when crushing and call it 2-way magic lime
 
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Got a few results back from recent soil testing, one filed is very deficient in lime as expected, was let go for a lot of years and we've recently taken it over. Recommended 18t/ha.:scared:
it is index 2 for p and k. got slurry and fertiliser and has been baled the last couple of years.
What is the best approach here?
we are going to cut it shortly and bale it to allow fresh growth.
also need to get fertiliser and slurry onto it as need to graze it or cut it this year.
would it be a good idea to put lime out now after cutting?.
If so should i put fertiliser and slurry out first or after lime and how long apart can i spread each.
we usually only do a bit of lime in autumn time so haven't had to worry about fertiliser and slurry.
 
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Got a few results back from recent soil testing, one filed is very deficient in lime as expected, was let go for a lot of years and we've recently taken it over. Recommended 18t/ha.:scared:
it is index 2 for p and k. got slurry and fertiliser and has been baled the last couple of years.
What is the best approach here?
we are going to cut it shortly and bale it to allow fresh growth.
also need to get fertiliser and slurry onto it as need to graze it or cut it this year.
would it be a good idea to put lime out now after cutting?.
If so should i put fertiliser and slurry out first or after lime and how long apart can i spread each.
we usually only do a bit of lime in autumn time so haven't had to worry about fertiliser and slurry.

If it was mine , I would spread the lime after cutting it . I don't know what reaction there would be if you put slurry out on top of the lime ?
The way I look at it is , you are in a bad way for lime , and not bad for P and K. The lime will free up your existing p & k. I would put 2 ton of lime now and 2 more tons in autumn 2020 / spring 21.

You can put on 8 ton to the acre now if you like , but the field will go into gruel. And probably cause an awful lot of animal health issues.
 
If it was mine , I would spread the lime after cutting it . I don't know what reaction there would be if you put slurry out on top of the lime ?
The way I look at it is , you are in a bad way for lime , and not bad for P and K. The lime will free up your existing p & k. I would put 2 ton of lime now and 2 more tons in autumn 2020 / spring 21.

You can put on 8 ton to the acre now if you like , but the field will go into gruel. And probably cause an awful lot of animal health issues.

max i was going to do is 3 ton/acre but maybe better go with 2ton.
I've heard slurry shouldn't go onto lime for a couple months for same reasons as urea.
I was wondering if i gave it a shot of slurry + fert after cutting and then a week or 2 later go with the lime. hopefully a good bit of the nitrogen would be taken up. :scratchhead:
 
max i was going to do is 3 ton/acre but maybe better go with 2ton.
I've heard slurry shouldn't go onto lime for a couple months for same reasons as urea.
I was wondering if i gave it a shot of slurry + fert after cutting and then a week or 2 later go with the lime. hopefully a good bit of the nitrogen would be taken up. :scratchhead:

It was the fact that with such a low PH , lime is more a limiting factor than the nutrients from.the slurry .
 
I'd have the same approach as jf850. Would not exceed two tonnes to the acre. If it's that deficient you will see a kick very early from it.
 
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