fertilize time

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I had this mixture spread on 82 acres of hay ground a few weeks ago.

Mix 1
100# Urea 30# AMS 200# Potash
Price: $82.75 per acre

and on additional 28 acres of hay I had this mix spread

Mix 2
50# Urea 30# AMS 180# MAP 200# Potash
Cost per acre spread $129.83

I'm getting another 125 acres of hay spread this week with 2 tons of litter per acre at:

60# N 40# P 40# K per ton apprx
$76 spread per acre

Fertilizer is up a little bit from last year and I'm trying litter for the first time so we will see. I hate this time of year, it's spend spend spend for a while...


 
I spread tuesday, 487 a ton for 30-10-10, no rain, a good dew /frost this morning, which probably hurt more than helped.
 
It ain't just going to vanish.unless it don't rain for a few weeks...if it don't rain for a few weeks that 1000.00 will be the least of our worries. .....
Got a well on a place sucking air right now.
Got 3/4 inches this evening....finally. Seems like a month ago since I dumped the money on the ground.
 
Great you got some rain!!
I put 12 ton down and about 4 days later we got .6 over a two day period - woohoo. Unlike Texas - we are not used to going very long without rain. Our ground is designed to be watered every 3-4 days. Last year we were in drought and starting out that way for us again this year. We had LOTS of snow, ground stayed frozen - but, we got a super warm day of rain and all the snow went down the ditches, hills - not into the ground, which was still frozen.
 
Just hauled in the bales on 15th this, from a short 30 acres. 93 large bales. I have a mix of brome, orchard grass , crown vetch and
Reeds canary. What you get depends on where you cut. Reeds is mostly in water ways but cows will spread it if cut too late. This
year I grazed it down then let it come back before haying it. May take another cutting off 12 of the 30 and put the rest back in the
grazing rotation. What I put on for fertilizer is above in a previous post. I make it a policy to only hay once a year. Plus 100 degrees
tomorrow so will need to keep an eye on conditions. The few Reeds bales I have will be used for backup for the cows as it is too coarse
for the calves until above 800 lbs.
 
How do you justify $560 urea with current beef prices ?
I don't figure beef prices. I figure hay prices.
The biggest majority of my hay is sold. And hay is expensive here. The large amount of hobby farms and horse people will pay what it takes. Fertilizer is a needed to get both quantity and quality.
 
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Shaz where are you getting your litter? And secondly how did it turn out for you?
Chicken littler is amazing, it will make the grass do back flips while growing. There is one draw back I have seen here in Texas. Some of the feed they feed the chickens whether in the litter or left over from feeding will give you some unwanted weeds. Red rooted pig weed for me. Then eventually you'll have to spray it to get rid of it
 
Years ago the wife staked out a small garden in the barnyard. Among other things she planted beets
and never said anything about it. I found out about it when I told her that I had killed the red root
pig weeds growing there. I got no reward.
 
Got 3/4 inches this evening....finally. Seems like a month ago since I dumped the money on the ground.
Finally dried out enough to get it cut Friday. Tuesday it got 2/10ths rain and super high winds that either blew the windrows apart or lumped them up. Baled it today, got to the house and within 5 minutes a shower came through... Yeah, not in the forecast until the new HURRICANE hype. Now I have to decide if it's worth listening to or cut some more. Recent rain patterns do tend to tell me to proceed with caution. It's already showered twice with a 0% chance and missed once by a small distance.
 
We got all our hay put up. I don't own any hay equipment other than the spears on my tractor! Guys had a few breakdowns, but got er done. 506 in-line wrapped baleage. With all the cutting back we have done with the herd, I think that is enough for our winter feed. Normally run around 50 breds --- down to maybe 38? I will build back up. I have 13 Jan/Feb born heifers - well 11, 2 are sold along with a fall heifer, bred spring heifer and a dam to one of the calves.
Gotta quit selling the factories!!
 

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