Richardin52
Well-known member
If there's no information as to when to apply for the best results and you make a couple test plots please let us know what your results are.
Milk and fish oil as fertilizer for pastures
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TexasBred
Well-known member
Till-Hill":r1ukwrci said:
MUN levels any higher needs to have his overall ration re-balanced. Just a bit lower would be even better. A lot of things can cause "spikes" in MUN but as long as it is consistent these are not factors.
Raw Milk works. It's not a complete substitute by any means, but what is. I don't spread kelp, but I do use it for mineral and it's light years better than any other mineral I've ever used. I mix on halves with straight salt, and keep a few trace blocks around. They do real well. You can get waste milk if you look around. A few gallons goes a long way.
It also makes for good entertainment if you have some hogs around. You want to see an old sow lose her mind, pour a few gallons of rank buttermilk out on some funky old fruit.
It also makes for good entertainment if you have some hogs around. You want to see an old sow lose her mind, pour a few gallons of rank buttermilk out on some funky old fruit.
TexasBred
Well-known member
Redhides":2mv6sv9v said:
Kelp meal has only one mineral with any meaningful level and that is iodine. The other "traces" of the various mineral are miniscule at best. You're wasting money. Put it in your horse ration and it will hold down lathering tho ;-)
I understand your skepticism. Kelp does contain "miniscule" levels of toxic metals, but that's about it. Powdered Kelp contains beneficial quantities of iron, magnesium, calcium, chromium, the iodine you mentioned and contains to a lesser degree zinc, selenium and copper along with a higher alginate content. It also has been found to have mercury binding properties. Further, seaweed supplies many of the ultra-trace minerals such as germanium, iridium, rubidium and others of which we have yet to grasp the full heath benefits. In addition to its trace mineral content, one hundred grams of kelp also contains 1.7 grams of protein, and vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K. It is particularly rich in folic acid. It also contains many other phytonutrients found in plants, along with soluble fiber. It even contains some fatty acids, including a modest amount of omega-3 fatty acids. Kelp is also one of the few natural sources of calcium in a readily available form.
As context, kelp is the sole source of sustenance for about a million organisms, has been used in Eastern cultures for thousands of years because of it's empirical health benefits. Our early New England settlers used it as soil amendment. It's also widely known that kelp is over 90% equal to human blood....a virtue of more than modest concern to the species one step up the food chain from the bovine.
It's also hard to overstate that it was the primary source of mineral supplementation for cattle and sheep on the British isles for over a thousand years. Considering that those animals are the foundation of a decent Beef Carcass here in American and everywhere else the world, it's worth noting. It's also the saving grace of that glorified Alpo cattle y'all love in Texas (Braymer's & Bevo's). I waste money every day, particularly on rye in a bottle and 12 ounce miracles. But not on kelp. :tiphat:
As context, kelp is the sole source of sustenance for about a million organisms, has been used in Eastern cultures for thousands of years because of it's empirical health benefits. Our early New England settlers used it as soil amendment. It's also widely known that kelp is over 90% equal to human blood....a virtue of more than modest concern to the species one step up the food chain from the bovine.
It's also hard to overstate that it was the primary source of mineral supplementation for cattle and sheep on the British isles for over a thousand years. Considering that those animals are the foundation of a decent Beef Carcass here in American and everywhere else the world, it's worth noting. It's also the saving grace of that glorified Alpo cattle y'all love in Texas (Braymer's & Bevo's). I waste money every day, particularly on rye in a bottle and 12 ounce miracles. But not on kelp. :tiphat:
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
dun":epd96x6l said:
My friend Terry Gompert was working on this with some Missouri boys before he passed. Try to goggle him.
Therry was a fan, but he tended to be a optimist by nature.
Theory was that the milk kick started the soil biology, which then makes more N/P/K available w/o paying a middle man and a trucker to deliver chemicals. :banana:
I think this would work best on some ex row crop or fallow neglected ground.
Spraying the milk and fish oil brings earthworms to the surface of the soil for dinner. The fish oil does great as a low-no burn nutrient too. The milk may have a value for the grass, but I feel that you are calling the "Ground keepers" to the surface. Mix a cup of alfalfa pellets in a two gallon bucket, let it sit for three days, then pour it on the ground, and you will see a difference where you poured that mixture. Of course alfalfa makes a type of alcohol that plants take in that forms basal root growth; but it brings in earthworms from surrounding areas that can get to it. Pour it on roses, or branched plants and you will see new limbs forming from the main stem. Like the fair coming to town with all of the 4-H Chicken tents, and Funnel Cakes, we all love to eat. Worms love alfalfa tea and pellets too for those who have gardens. It gives them muscles. I think the Alfalfa tea makes them crazy the way they slash around. Usuually they are pretty quiet.
Without earthworms, you would not have anything growing. If earthworms are given something to eat, they will come to the surface, bringing new, richer nutrients to the top, and can add as much as .02" of soil to your land a year if you feed them. I have a feeling that the milk and fish oil is exactly where this is going. Earthworm casings is the richest nutrient plants can ask for besides water. Charles Darwin studied Earth Worms before he studied all of us monkeys. :banana:
Charles Darwin said when he comes to an area where there is no vegetation growing, only soil, he knows the earthworms have not reached the soil yet. It may be desert land, or waste land. But it is not inhabited by earthworms.
But more important, they are aerating the soil to bring in the oxygen to the roots, and tunnels for water to saturate down into the soil. Studies show where the mechanical aerator destroys more than it helps because underneath the surface of the soil, there is a city of earthworms, dung beetles, bacteria, microbes, etc... that keep the soil healthy, to make it work. Once you have run a $14,000 aerator across your pasture, you have busted up everything the earthworms have worked to build, and what the purpose of the milk and fish oil brings to your pasture. It takes time for the worms and the bacteria and microbes to reproduce/build and put this city together, the tunnels to the surface for food from old grass leaves and such..... But if you have over grazed pastures where cattle stomp your soil hard and the roots of your grass are only 1" deep because the grass is 1" or less, then it will be difficult to get things in shape below. Short grass gives no shade to the roots and no shade to what is below. It will always just dry out the ground if it stays packed from over grazing. It will not matter how much fertilizer or work you do to it. Check this site out and look at the number of earth worms in each crop per square meter.
http://www.css.cornell.edu/courses/260/ ... co%202.pdf
It shows for tilled crops and no till crops.
I live in West TN, and no-till was forced on the farmers here, because of soil erosion, and they DID NOT like it. But after they started the practice, and saw when they did not till the fields, only cut into the soil when they planted; this left a solid mulch for the next years crop, and the ground became loose and the farmers said they could pick the soil up in their hands and it had the texture of a fine potting/gardening soil. They were very pleased with the results. So, with the clay/loam soils, they increased the top soil with a mulch, and stopped cutting up the "Underground City," leaving the earthworms to work their magic, and it paid off. It left them with much less hours of work too.
Here is an Earthworm site that is from Charles Darwin's site. Click on the left hand side and it will give you information of how the earthworm can process 2-20 tons of dung and plant litter in your pasture and other info.
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science- ... Earthworms
I would say if you have a chance to spray that milk and fish oil, go for it. But make sure you don't overgraze your pastures, because you are taking care of what is underground. If you mess this up by over stressing it afterwards, you will not reap the rewards. Nature knew what to do with it before we came along. I think in the long run, you will have a much, much healthier pasture. You know you have a good pasture or hay field when you have soft mole runs through it!
Chuckie
Without earthworms, you would not have anything growing. If earthworms are given something to eat, they will come to the surface, bringing new, richer nutrients to the top, and can add as much as .02" of soil to your land a year if you feed them. I have a feeling that the milk and fish oil is exactly where this is going. Earthworm casings is the richest nutrient plants can ask for besides water. Charles Darwin studied Earth Worms before he studied all of us monkeys. :banana:
Charles Darwin said when he comes to an area where there is no vegetation growing, only soil, he knows the earthworms have not reached the soil yet. It may be desert land, or waste land. But it is not inhabited by earthworms.
But more important, they are aerating the soil to bring in the oxygen to the roots, and tunnels for water to saturate down into the soil. Studies show where the mechanical aerator destroys more than it helps because underneath the surface of the soil, there is a city of earthworms, dung beetles, bacteria, microbes, etc... that keep the soil healthy, to make it work. Once you have run a $14,000 aerator across your pasture, you have busted up everything the earthworms have worked to build, and what the purpose of the milk and fish oil brings to your pasture. It takes time for the worms and the bacteria and microbes to reproduce/build and put this city together, the tunnels to the surface for food from old grass leaves and such..... But if you have over grazed pastures where cattle stomp your soil hard and the roots of your grass are only 1" deep because the grass is 1" or less, then it will be difficult to get things in shape below. Short grass gives no shade to the roots and no shade to what is below. It will always just dry out the ground if it stays packed from over grazing. It will not matter how much fertilizer or work you do to it. Check this site out and look at the number of earth worms in each crop per square meter.
http://www.css.cornell.edu/courses/260/ ... co%202.pdf
It shows for tilled crops and no till crops.
I live in West TN, and no-till was forced on the farmers here, because of soil erosion, and they DID NOT like it. But after they started the practice, and saw when they did not till the fields, only cut into the soil when they planted; this left a solid mulch for the next years crop, and the ground became loose and the farmers said they could pick the soil up in their hands and it had the texture of a fine potting/gardening soil. They were very pleased with the results. So, with the clay/loam soils, they increased the top soil with a mulch, and stopped cutting up the "Underground City," leaving the earthworms to work their magic, and it paid off. It left them with much less hours of work too.
Here is an Earthworm site that is from Charles Darwin's site. Click on the left hand side and it will give you information of how the earthworm can process 2-20 tons of dung and plant litter in your pasture and other info.
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science- ... Earthworms
I would say if you have a chance to spray that milk and fish oil, go for it. But make sure you don't overgraze your pastures, because you are taking care of what is underground. If you mess this up by over stressing it afterwards, you will not reap the rewards. Nature knew what to do with it before we came along. I think in the long run, you will have a much, much healthier pasture. You know you have a good pasture or hay field when you have soft mole runs through it!
Chuckie
