Fertilizer Usage?

[Stocker Steve]

Ran the numbers, and I will be cutting back on N this year due to the higher price. Still plan to hit a couple paddocks once to jump start some early grazing.

Do you have a favorite cool season grass for low input grazing?

 

[dun]

There's really only about one combination of cool season stuff that will last, KY31 and clover. That's as low input as you can get becuase the fescue will persist forever, take abuse and come right back.

 

[shaz]

Same here. I'm going to use chicken litter everywhere possible but I can't in alot of places. I'll have to buy some potash this here...(bummer)
It's mostly a fescue /clover operation. I have some bermuda that cows won't eat.
This doesn't really help huh?

 

[dun]

Same here. I'm going to use chicken litter everywhere possible but I can't in alot of places. I'll have to buy some potash this here...(bummer)
It's mostly a fescue /clover operation. I have some bermuda that cows won't eat.
This doesn't really help huh?

Ours prefer KY31 to anything, even some alfalfa orchard grass hay that I got one time. The good thing is they're a cheap date

 

[novatech]

In our area annual rye works well. It will scavenge up the N and put it back in where it will be reused by the warm season grass. Great cover crop and forage. It also aids in soil health.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I used to grow alfalfa with reed canary like some of the dairy guys but I can not justify the renovation cost unless I go into a corn/alfalfa rotation...
I have some tall fescue. It can winter kill in this country.
I have some tall fescue/meadow fescue/OG blends. The meadow fescue does not persist forever and it seems like the OG takes over. OG likes a lot of N also.

So reed canary or OG seem like the longer term deal, if you can keep enough clover in it. Have have tried some Kura with it but it is difficult to establish.

How often are you able to frost seed successfully into your fescue?

 

[dun]

How often are you able to frost seed successfully into your fescue?

Any year that I graze it short during the early winter it frost seeds great.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Do you see any soils or conditions where OG is a better forage than fescue?

 

[dun]

Do you see any soils or conditions where OG is a better forage than fescue?

Since our cows will barely eat OG and it doesn;t persist like fescue I wouldn;t plant it (for us) at all.

 

[cowboy43]

How many dollars per cow can you invest in fertilizer on pastureland and still make a profit? In our area with irratic rainfall it does not seem profitable to fertilize pastureland.

 

[TexasBred]

How many dollars per cow can you invest in fertilizer on pastureland and still make a profit? In our area with irratic rainfall it does not seem profitable to fertilize pastureland.

Cowboy I"m probably less than a hundred miles north of you and I look at it as "I can't afford not to fertilize". Faster grass, stronger grass, more grass and grass longer. Occasionally it can get real dry but most years the grass does well. Maybe it is that much dryer where you are tho...I'm not that totally familar with the area.

 

[shaz]

How many dollars per cow can you invest in fertilizer on pastureland and still make a profit? In our area with irratic rainfall it does not seem profitable to fertilize pastureland.

It doesn't really work here either. I've dump out enough nitrate in prior years to realize I'd better seek a more organic alternative. I think I spent 33% of my gross income on nitrogen in 2009. I still made a profit but I really couldn't buy beer with it.

 

[Stocker Steve]

How many dollars per cow can you invest in fertilizer on pastureland and still make a profit? In our area with irratic rainfall it does not seem profitable to fertilize pastureland.

Depends on cost of other feed vs. $/#N divided by # usable grass /#N

Lots of conflicting and confounded data on # usable grass/#N.

Usually pays here early in the spring when you can get about 25/1 with "improved" grass varieties.
Usually does not pay if you have a high legume content or un improved grass varieties.
Never pays if it is hot or dry or semi dormant.

 

[highgrit]

When applying liquid nitrogen or ammonium nitrate fertilizer you have to apply within 12 hours of a rain for best results. If I don't get a rain within 24 hours, I feel like I have wasted half of what I put down.

 

[agmantoo]

I am a no commercial fertilizer user. When fertilizer went to $880/ton that cured me. I do fertilize 20% of the farm once every 5 years using chicken litter. As stated many times previously by me, my herd is fed endophyte infected fescue and legumes year round barring drought. At this time I am already seeing some compensatory gain in a few first calf heifers that dropped approximately one BCS during Winter. Here is the herd today. This area was grazed as recently as early Dec 2010. Due to criticisms in the past I will add a disclaimer. "Your results and mine may not coincide."

 

[highgrit]

Looks like some arrow leaf, do you use red clover also? Cows look great to me. How long you going to let them graze there for? My land won't grow clover that good yet.

 

[kenny thomas]

agmantoo, how long did it take you to get to this point? I really like the things you are doing.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Chicken industry tanked locally
I do have some manure from the pens that I spread- but that doesn't help much
I read some old articles from the 40=50;s- they were ecstatic with the introduction of Lespedeza. Back then there was no real fertilizing of pastures going on. As fertilizer became more widely used Lespedeza lost favor(it doesn't like fertilizer).
I think we are going to have to go back in time and grow grass without fertilizer again.

I have to help my pastures out- we have crawdad soil. Without some help it will regress back to broomstraw which maintained the the only local industry(making brooms) around here 60 years ago.

In my bigger pastures
I have clover for the early summer and
I am trying Lespedeza this year for the summer.

Sure was a pretty sight seeing the grass POP after being covered in chicken manure. Its funny it was just 3 maybe 4 years ago that they were so worried around here about what we were going to do with all the chicken manure and how land was going to be over fertilized (ie water pollution)-- times keep on changing.

 

[hayray]

No way buying any commercial fertilizer for hay ground or pastures. High prices back in 2008 broke that habit for me. I have 50 ton loads of barnyard manure hualed in to various fields and try to put on 10 tons per acre every two or three years using my spreader. I don't see buying fertilizer on a corn growers pay scale but getting paid a hay producers salary.

 

[hayray]

P.S. Most of my pastures are volunteer brome, orchardgrass and reed canary. I have tossed in some Italian ryegrass, red clover, trefoil and timothy by frost seeding or clear seeding after growing rape and turnips.