Soil test results
Apr 27, 2019 12:39:20 GMT -5
via mobile
Shawn, Debbie Lincoln, and 5 more like this
Post by simplynaturalfarm on Apr 27, 2019 12:39:20 GMT -5
I had all of our farm soil tested in 5 acre blocks. Well that would be I took 20 samples from every 5 acres and sent them in. Yeah it took me a long time .
Anyway, I found results really interesting.
A. Best soil samples were where I tested alone. Worst were kids and dh. They were fast and sloppy and had some unique and wildly varying results compared to mine.
Last year we grazed 18 acres of a brassica, forage oat and Italian rye mix we seeded. We had taken soil tests year before to compare and they low levels of phosphorus and extremely high potassium (highest u could go on bar graph) and ph Of 8.3
After grazing cows on it for a year, ph is down to 7.1, organic matter is up .5 and phosphorus is in high instead of low. The mix had 40% roots and was grazed to ground with cows on it til Jan 1st.
The land the neighbor sprayed without our permission after we planted legumes, was planted to a mix of barley, sunflower, forage soy and sorghum in end of June. Sorghum went to seed as cows found it unpalatable at every height.
cows grazed it from late July til mid November when it froze. We bale grazed it also. It was not fertilized etc at all.
It was moderate last year in potash and phosphorus , and this year phosphorus and potassium are very high. No samples were taken near bales we grazed.
West 6 acres that had residual chemicals that our brassica mix would not grow in and not even weeds were growing in, was seeded to sorghum/ Sudan hybrid in July that cows grazed poorly once ( they jyst did not like sorghum or Sudan even when grazed at good height). It was mowed come fall and seeded to winter rye with no tilling etc.
Organic matter is .5 higher but now extremely low in phosphorus.
So, everywhere I mob grazed well, the soil ph came down from 8 + to 7.2 ish and the fertility is at optimal or high.
Where cows didn't graze and did just cover crops of Sorghum / Sudan's because of atrazine is extremely low in phosphorus.
Where neighbor farmed is high ph and high potassium with low phosphorus and lowest og even though he is no til.
So... If you made it this far, sdmilkmaid and others, why does the soil company have recommendations for potash fertilize when every sample was almost extremely high? Their levels are very low, low, optimal moderately high, high and extremely high. Why would you add more if it's all extremely high.
This just goes to show you what tremendous benefit animals add to soil!! And the root/ brassica mixes really do tremendous things to phosphorus. I'm going to do some buckwheat cover crops this year to try to improve it in the really low areas - I've used it before, and it is such a fast growing crop so leaves me time to plant something for cows, and easy to manage and bees love it.
Also, all the literature says crops grazed by cows have an 80% return of nutrients, which shows that cows still have a mildly negative effect and still have fertilizer requirements or in a few years you will have completely used up tree nutrients.
Last 20 years, that has NOT been my experience with intensive rotational grazing ( nor many soil experts - which I am not!), but I' ve only done good soil tests for a few years now. I'm really excited to see how things improve with years of management and mixed farming .
And best of all, 11 soil tests only cost me $90. Compared to fertilizer costs, that is pretty minimal. And I found out that not only do my cows not like sorghum/ sudans nor do really well on them, but they aren't doing a lot for land compared to the root mixes. I'm trying a couple other mixes this year to compare also.
Anyway, I found results really interesting.
A. Best soil samples were where I tested alone. Worst were kids and dh. They were fast and sloppy and had some unique and wildly varying results compared to mine.
Last year we grazed 18 acres of a brassica, forage oat and Italian rye mix we seeded. We had taken soil tests year before to compare and they low levels of phosphorus and extremely high potassium (highest u could go on bar graph) and ph Of 8.3
After grazing cows on it for a year, ph is down to 7.1, organic matter is up .5 and phosphorus is in high instead of low. The mix had 40% roots and was grazed to ground with cows on it til Jan 1st.
The land the neighbor sprayed without our permission after we planted legumes, was planted to a mix of barley, sunflower, forage soy and sorghum in end of June. Sorghum went to seed as cows found it unpalatable at every height.
cows grazed it from late July til mid November when it froze. We bale grazed it also. It was not fertilized etc at all.
It was moderate last year in potash and phosphorus , and this year phosphorus and potassium are very high. No samples were taken near bales we grazed.
West 6 acres that had residual chemicals that our brassica mix would not grow in and not even weeds were growing in, was seeded to sorghum/ Sudan hybrid in July that cows grazed poorly once ( they jyst did not like sorghum or Sudan even when grazed at good height). It was mowed come fall and seeded to winter rye with no tilling etc.
Organic matter is .5 higher but now extremely low in phosphorus.
So, everywhere I mob grazed well, the soil ph came down from 8 + to 7.2 ish and the fertility is at optimal or high.
Where cows didn't graze and did just cover crops of Sorghum / Sudan's because of atrazine is extremely low in phosphorus.
Where neighbor farmed is high ph and high potassium with low phosphorus and lowest og even though he is no til.
So... If you made it this far, sdmilkmaid and others, why does the soil company have recommendations for potash fertilize when every sample was almost extremely high? Their levels are very low, low, optimal moderately high, high and extremely high. Why would you add more if it's all extremely high.
This just goes to show you what tremendous benefit animals add to soil!! And the root/ brassica mixes really do tremendous things to phosphorus. I'm going to do some buckwheat cover crops this year to try to improve it in the really low areas - I've used it before, and it is such a fast growing crop so leaves me time to plant something for cows, and easy to manage and bees love it.
Also, all the literature says crops grazed by cows have an 80% return of nutrients, which shows that cows still have a mildly negative effect and still have fertilizer requirements or in a few years you will have completely used up tree nutrients.
Last 20 years, that has NOT been my experience with intensive rotational grazing ( nor many soil experts - which I am not!), but I' ve only done good soil tests for a few years now. I'm really excited to see how things improve with years of management and mixed farming .
And best of all, 11 soil tests only cost me $90. Compared to fertilizer costs, that is pretty minimal. And I found out that not only do my cows not like sorghum/ sudans nor do really well on them, but they aren't doing a lot for land compared to the root mixes. I'm trying a couple other mixes this year to compare also.