Intensive grazing

[cowboy43]

We just had 15 inches of all tropical rain , no lighting , will that put nitrogen into the soil or does lighting have occur to produce nitrogen?

 

[Jogeephus]

We just had 15 inches of all tropical rain , no lighting , will that put nitrogen into the soil or does lighting have occur to produce nitrogen?

Yes. It takes energy to convert it to a soluble form. Any energy will do it but lightening is really effective. BTW - snow is known as poor man's fertilizer.

 

[HDRider]

We just had 15 inches of all tropical rain , no lighting , will that put nitrogen into the soil or does lighting have occur to produce nitrogen?

Yes. It takes energy to convert it to a soluble form. Any energy will do it but lightening is really effective. BTW - snow is known as poor man's fertilizer.

Dad always said that.

 

[Jogeephus]

I know several 500 cow dairies that do this. Divide there place into multiple pastures and simply rotate cattle and irrigate. Requires water and quite a bit of fertilizer as well to keep it working.

These guys are in others states, different climates and etc.
One in California, another is the Winecup Gamble ranch.
Sage is a problem on the Winecup.
Thistle and others weeds I don't recognize in California.
They say they use zero fertilizer or chemical.
Fertilizer comes from the manure, urine and trampling of organic matter.
The rotation frequency depends on rainfall, but these are big places with lots of ground.
But they say they are running more cattle and pastures are improving and increasing stocking rates.

I find it interesting

I think what they are seeing is more of a conversion of plant population to a more grass dominated structure. Same thing happens in my area. Man, with its belief in the mis-guided Smokey Bear philosophy, has altered the landscape by excluding fire. Fire is a necessary component in maintaining our natural grassland understory. The omission of fire has allowed weeds - non grass, non leguminous species to dominate the landscape. In lieu of fire, herbicides are used to mimic fire to give that burn-down effect although this is expensive and often only partially effective. IMO, if people would understand how nature would manage the lands and work with nature you would see grazing quality increase. The bottom line is your land will only produce a set amount of biomass per acre each year - what this consists of depends totally on how you manage the land or mismanage it.

 

[Jogeephus]

We just had 15 inches of all tropical rain , no lighting , will that put nitrogen into the soil or does lighting have occur to produce nitrogen?

Yes. It takes energy to convert it to a soluble form. Any energy will do it but lightening is really effective. BTW - snow is known as poor man's fertilizer.

Dad always said that.

I've read where its estimated that lightening can generate 10,000 tons of soluble nitrogen in one day. If you think of this soluble nitrogen as a pollutant wafting around in the atmosphere it disperses from the source like a pollutant only and floats around till its picked up by water and comes to the earth via rainfall or snow.

Also, you know the sweet smell rain leaves in the air - and I think snow has its own smell to ....don't know much about snow ... but this is the fresh oxygen that has been freed from the bound insoluble nitrogen in the atmosphere so in other words that smell is letting you know this reaction has taken place. However, you can't smell the nitrogen but by smelling the oxygen or ozone you know the nitrogen has been freed. Sometimes more than at other times but I think on average we get about 15-20 lbs of N per inch or rain and I forget how many inches of snow is equal to an inch of rain.