Commercial Fertilize, Lime, or Chicken Litter???

[Big Cheese]

We are in the beginning process of putting fertilize on our pastures. We have access to buying all of the Commericial we want and also all the lime we want. We also will have access to some Chicken Litter later on in the summer. My question to y'all is which is better to use?? We haven't done a soil test (I'm planning on doing it but I don't know when I will be able too). We talked about maybe combining Commercial and Lime and spreading it out together? Just thoughts though. Also, how much Commercial Fertilize/lime/Chicken Litter would y'all put per acre? We talked about somewhere between 250-300 maybe up to 400 if we can afford it. Anyways, I would like to know any and all opinions/advice on this matter because this is something that I am not very familiar with.

 

[Rajela]

You really need to get the soil tested but you can't go wrong with 4 ton per acre of litter.

 

[Deepsouth]

You can't put lime and fertilize out together.

 

[Big Cheese]

I know I need to get the soil tested and I'm going to try too but my dad and uncle run the show so its whatever they say that goes and I was just wanting to get some information from you guys that I can share with them. They don't care about a soil test. I tell them we need it all the time and they say they know what we need.

The Commercial Fertilize dealer in our town has combined it from what we have heard that's why we have talked about it. He mixes it in the buggy or something I don't know the details.

 

[bird dog]

I sure wouldn't put them out together. You have to give the lime some time to work. Put it out now and fertilize in the fall.

 

[Big Cheese]

I sure wouldn't put them out together. You have to give the lime some time to work. Put it out now and fertilize in the fall.

I thought it would be better to fertilize in the fall. An older farmer in our area fertilized around Sept and he started feeding hay a month later then we did and stopped a month earlier. That sounds good to me lol.

It will be hard for us to do one now and one later...to much money. That's why we talked about mixing. Apparently its done by a few farms in our area.

 

[fenceman]

Do a soil sample. Ten bucks from tamu and their not in the business of selling fertilizer. I don't know about your area or what your fertilizing.but around here some of our native summer perennial grass don't respond much to fertilizer...timing is important. Fertilizer is one of the best investment you can make. But if done wrong or at the wrong time you might as well throw your money out in the pasture.

 

[bball]

You're pizzing in the wind with fertilizer if your pH is off..do the soil test, adjust the pH with lime if need be, then fertilizer this fall. You must have a base line of where your soil is starting before you can make the correct journey of improving it. The correct pH does wonders for curbing weed growth too.

 

[Rajela]

Around here if your going to put out lime we do it in the fall so it has all winter to get in the soil and then fertilize in the spring and possibly again the first of summer. A fall fertilize will be great for the fall cool season/winter pasture but not much help for the spring green up.

 

[JSCATTLE]

If it's actual ag lime you can't spread it with commercial. Two different spreaders. I use all three on my hay fields . I lime according to soil sample . Put atleast 2 truck loads of manure and top dress with nitrogen . Grass is thy deep right now . Soil sample just came back all I need is 50 lbs to the acre nitrogen. This year .

 

[Bigfoot]

Does broiler litter have the ability to lower PH? The gentleman that has broiler litter here, is as high on it, as chemical fertilizer. one of his selling points is that 4 tons of it, is equal to one ton of lime.

 

[Big Cheese]

I appreciate everyone's opinion here. That is why I asked the question. Keep it coming guys.

 

[Rajela]

http://www.noble.org/ag/soils/limingquestions/redirect/


http://deltafarmpress.com/lime-critical ... astureland

 

[Rajela]

Does broiler litter have the ability to lower PH? The gentleman that has broiler litter here, is as high on it, as chemical fertilizer. one of his selling points is that 4 tons of it, is equal to one ton of lime.

Litter contains calcium carbonate. The laying litter contains more than the broiler litter due to it needing to be there for egg production but they both contain it. Applying litter will prevent the need to apply lime.

http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G9340

http://poultrywaste.okstate.edu/Publica ... 246web.pdf

http://extension.uga.edu/publications/d ... mber=B1330

 

[ANAZAZI]

Does broiler litter have the ability to lower PH? The gentleman that has broiler litter here, is as high on it, as chemical fertilizer. one of his selling points is that 4 tons of it, is equal to one ton of lime.

Litter contains calcium. The laying litter contains more than the broiler litter due to it needing to be there for egg production but they both contain it. Applying litter will negate the need to apply lime.

http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G9340

http://poultrywaste.okstate.edu/Publica ... 246web.pdf

Anything containing lime will up the pH. Bird litter contains organic matter that has many benefits to the soil, a commercial fertiliser does not.

 

[Jogeephus]

I like all the micronutrients chicken litter gives you plus the added organic matter and when I could buy litter for $8/ton it was a no brainer but with the increase in fertilizer prices over the last few years demand for litter went up and so did the price. FWIW, I'm using commercial this year and am adding lots of micros to the mix.

 

[Dave]

Any nitrogen fertilizer either commercial or manure drives down your pH. The ammionum (NH4) is converted by the mircos in the soil into nitrate (NO3) which is the form of nitrogen the plants take up. That process leaves behind those 4 molecules of hydrogen in the soil. And hydrogen is what makes an acid soil. Layer litter has enough calcium to counteract this and actually even very slowly raise the pH. The other forms of manure are pretty close to a wash depending on how much Calcium they contain.
Applying lime and a nitrogen fertilizer at the same time will pretty much guarantee a chemical reaction that will cause the nitrogen to volatize off into the atmosphere. Nitrogen is too expensive and hard enough to keep where you put it to add an additional way for it to leave. I would never apply lime and a nitrogen fertilizer on at the same time.

 

[Toad]

I seldom fertilize but I'm a big believer in doing a soil test and then applying the proper amount of lime. Getting the soil PH correct and then unrolling hay in the winter has done wonders for some of my poorer pastures.

 

[tom4018]

Does broiler litter have the ability to lower PH? The gentleman that has broiler litter here, is as high on it, as chemical fertilizer. one of his selling points is that 4 tons of it, is equal to one ton of lime.

We use layer litter and our PH levels have stayed level or improved over the last several years with no added lime.

 

[littletom]

Most likely what they are mixing is quick lime and it is pelleted. Will cost 50-11 times more than ag lime. We use some on tobacco from time to time. You can test the chicken litter to see what you are putting on. I would not put store bought nitrogen on to late into fall. If the ph is bad out of wack you may not be happy with your results.