Ball. Looking back, my Dad would fertilize his hay meadows but I though he was always stingy with it. Ag classes would tell us fertilizer was key to growing forage. In 1995 he had bi-pass surgery and that fall wasn't able to ride a tractor very long. He got everything set up to throw fertilizer on his oat ground and after I got off work I threw it out for him. Well he tells me to drive 30 apart like the spreader said. Got it all out and came in the house he asks if I got it all covered. Told him I ran out and needed another load for the other 20 acres. The man almost had a heart attack.....he said that was supposed to do all of it. That's when I realized his 30 feet is actually about 60 feet. Kinda made sense if you ever saw the hay meadows he fertilized and pastures he sprayed. :lol: He had also had soil samples taken and had the oat ground limed. Plenty of rain too. I have pictures of him, he was a little over 6 ft tall, standing in the oats before we cut it. The oats was up to his neck.
Long story, but I used that to affirm heavy fertilizer use was the way to go. I grew a lot of forage using $200 a ton fertilizer. Problem was it didn't stay their. It hit $400 a ton and I could still grow the grass but everyone still wanted to pay $20 for a roll of hay. Then I get to where I throw out a $500 ton of fertilizer, get a half inch of rain and it doesn't rain again for 6 weeks. Yep, you got it. Around here, fertilizer doesn't do a thing without rain. Not hard to figure that out. By the time 2008 - 2011 got through with us in Texas, I had sold 75% of my cows and gone through what was supposed to be a 3 year surplus of hay I had on hand at the end of 2007. Left me with severely over grazed pastures.
Finally started getting relief when 2012 rolled in. I gave some credit to the bounce back in some pastures to the unused fertilizer residual from the lack of rain. Also the decreased numbers chasing a blade of grass certainly made a difference too. I still have to fight the urge to get that fertilizer wagon and throw out fertilizer every spring when those dark green spots begin to show up in the regress. Certainly an obvious visual how much the pasture could use a touch of fertilizer.
I have a point and am getting to it. Has to do with over grazing. I also remember somewhere along the way, being told that in order to grow forage you have to have a strong plant and that plant has to have a strong root system. Photosynthsis in the leaf feeds the root and the root provides the leaf with the nutrients needed for photosynthesis. Essentially in any species so grass, the deeper and stronger the root system, the taller and stronger the forage.
As comparison, last year by now we had gotten around 32 inches of rain. Had an abundance of grass. This year we are at abou 21 inches.......and as my steps one would say....a crapton of grass. Yes we had a milder winter that I'm sure played a part. Point I'm trying to get across is I'm no longer overstocked and over grazed. I'm pretty sure that is the reason, certainly not fertilizer. It's still at the Co-Op.
Last year it quit raining in June. Didn't start again till late October. I'm definitely not hoping for that again but I am anxious to seen how this summer turns out going into it with the pastures in great shape they are.
Fertilizer isn't the answer I thought it was 20 years ago.
Keep the rains comming.
