Fertilizer Prices

Help Support CattleToday:

I have been talking with organic gardeners who do things on scale about alternative fertilize options.

They've talked fermenting organic materials, compost teas, some other stuff too. There are other options out there. Just a matter of trying something new and scaling them up. Folks are having some success in doing this.

Found a very knowledgeable young man that just moved here from AZ. Going to get him to help me treat a 25 acre hay lease we have. See how it goes.

I think we need to start looking at biological fixes/corrections though. Animals need to be put back on hay/crop ground for their impact. Feed hay back onto the hayfields. Organic matter is everything I do believe.
There is a lot of good info on the net on that subject of soil health. Ray A. Gabe B. Dr Elaines soil food web.
I started planting multispecies cover crops. Legumes to capture N, turnips for compaction. cereal rye.
Main goal is to try and graze year around or at least 10 months a year and build soil heath.
Will see how it works out, it is a process but with fertilizer prices the way they are. Plus adding N fertilizer lowers PH which leads to more lime which cost more.
 
There is a lot of good info on the net on that subject of soil health. Ray A. Gabe B. Dr Elaines soil food web.
I started planting multispecies cover crops. Legumes to capture N, turnips for compaction. cereal rye.
Main goal is to try and graze year around or at least 10 months a year and build soil heath.
Will see how it works out, it is a process but with fertilizer prices the way they are. Plus adding N fertilizer lowers PH which leads to more lime which cost more.
Absolutely is a downward spiral.

I stopped haying on our property 3 or 4 years ago and graze them intensively. Those depleted hayfields now look better than the neighbors hayfields and they spend large amounts of money on theirs. Ive spent zero dollars, just a little time. I'm a believer.
 
Bird dog, had a buddy buy 22 acres adjoining him 3-4 years ago.Run down bahia and lots of broomsedge. Had been hayed for years without any nutrients returned. Convinced him to soil test. Auburn University results said he needed lime and P and K. Fertilizer was cheaper then, so he sprung for the recommended amounts. 9 months after application, he tested again. Excellent response put him in the upper medium to high range. That summer, took 2 cuttings of hay off. Didn't need the hay, just had excess pasture he didn't want to waste. Bahia had thickened and broomsedge appeared to be weakening. Took another sample 6 months later. Test was virtually identical to the first one before the fertilizer application. 2 cuttings of hay had depleted all the fertility that had spent so much to inject! His new rule is no more hay cutting on his place, he'll buy in all his hay( he only feeds about a bale/cow/year). At a producer's meeting at Auburn last spring, an economist said that, at the current price of fertilizer and the current price of hay, there was more value in the N,P,K in the hay than the cost of the hay, forgetting the nutritional value of the hay to the animals.
You hit the nail on the head. 2 cuttings had depleted all the nutrients he had added. If you are growing Bermuda, two tons (4 - 1000 lb. rolls) per acre removes 100 - 40 - 85 out of the ground. If you do not replace the nutrients, the stand weakens and broomsedge bluestem begins to invade. I live in East Texas and we continually fight low pH with our sandy soils so liming has to be figured in every couple of years.
 
Absolutely is a downward spiral.

I stopped haying on our property 3 or 4 years ago and graze them intensively. Those depleted hayfields now look better than the neighbors hayfields and they spend large amounts of money on theirs. Ive spent zero dollars, just a little time. I'm a believer.
Thats my goal to stop haying!
Are you using any cover crops?
 
Thats my goal to stop haying!
Are you using any cover crops?
I definitely want to get away from feeding the amount that I am. Currently I buy it from other producers and I lease some hay ground.

I haven't gotten to play with cover mixes yet, mostly due to dry weather during summer and fall. I hate to throw the money away. Buying hay is a sure thing for me. Not including moving it home, I bought for $25 and $30 a roll this year. It's never as good feed quality as I make myself though.

I would like to try grazing some covers. Ideally I'd like to finish some animals on them. I read you can really put some gain on them.

Back to fertilizing hay ground. I think rotating hay ground and pasture year to year could be a good practice too. I'm debating haying my excess pasture this year assuming I have some. Feed it back on the same ground.
 
Last edited:
I have contemplated many times now to go to grazing my hayfield. The problem is my hayfield is bottomland that I wouldn't dare graze in the winter because of how wet it is. Also, no shade, no fence, and I would have to establish the watering. Basically, I have a field that is only usable during the warm season.
 
I haven't gotten to play with cover mixes yet, mostly due to dry weather during summer and fall. I hate to throw the money away. Buying hay is a sure thing for me. Not including moving it home, I bought for $25 and $30 a roll this year. It's never as good feed quality as I make myself though.

I would like to try grazing some covers. Ideally I'd like to finish some animals on them. I read you can really put some gain on them.
I planted 3 acres this fall, was late because of no rain until end of oct. should be ready for spring grazing.
I hay neighbor's field and want to buy the rest I need so I can convert more to winter and summer cover crops.
Have been reading up on the finishing on covers.
 
Hp, I plant oats and Rye grass on a another pasture every year. It gets grazed some and then hopefully baled up in late April. If this works, that provides me with almost enough hay for the year and I graze the bermuda hay field. Last year it didn't due to a dry spring so the Bermuda hay field was baled in June. It did okay producing 141 4 x 5 1/2 rolls on 50 acres. Hay has a protein level of 6%. I can buy 30% tubs and feed this hay and the cows do fine. As high as fertilizer was last year, low protein hay and tubs seemed like the way to go. My fall calving cows get thin every February regardless as their calves approach weaning time. This year will be no different. They recover quickly during the spring flush and their calves are removed.

I much prefer the oat hay and I usually get most of what I need from the 43 acre patch where it is planted. Last year was the first year in six where the field didn't produce. I may need to bale up both fields this year to build back up some reserve. When you have to have 8 or so acres per AUM, it takes a long time to get pastures back with urine and manure. I roll out my hay and this helps some, but still only covers a small percentage of my acreage a year. My hay is kept under a shed so the cows leave very little to incorporate back into the soil.
 
Kenny, I, too, was stunned at Silver's OM numbers. Explains a lot.
I was also stunned. The reason I tested was that I couldn't get a stand of hay to last for very long. Alfalfa in particular was starting to feel like a wasted effort. Looks like the biggest problem is mostly some imbalances. But I hired an independent consultant with no affiliations to any fertilizer outlets to guide me. I'm not looking for huge outputs, but I want my soils to be in good health long after I'm gone.
 
Annuals can be very high yielding and also very expensive. Think corn. SS based mixes pencil out the best here in summer. Oats and brassica based mixes pencil out the best here in fall. And these mixes do a lot more for the soil biology then mono crops.

Making balage with annuals just adds more cost. So, you need to put together a "forage chain" plan for an extended grazing season. Ideal situation would be to graze calves or finishing animals to maximize VOG. This kind of feed is way too good for cows.

Grazing annual mixes is a fast way to increase OM, but buying in hay may to cheaper. Run the numbers.
 
Last edited:
Plowing in any form is the absolute enemy of organic matter. Soil test any field. Plow and disk it and wait about 2 or 3 weeks. Soil test again. The organic matter will drop and nitrate numbers will go through the roof.
 

Latest posts

Top