Stocker Steve
Well-known member
I have two sections of pasture.
Great start. Need to add poly wire.It has not been a miracle turn around, but overall I am happy with the improvements in soil health and fertility.
I have two sections of pasture.
Great start. Need to add poly wire.It has not been a miracle turn around, but overall I am happy with the improvements in soil health and fertility.
Quick Google searchTheir hooves break up the roots.
LOL - Milk as a benefit????? That's a stretch. Saliva on the grass - someone had waaayyy toooo much time on their hand to research that.
Oh, I do. I have those divided many times overGreat start. Need to add poly wire.
I want to say when the dairies were dumping a lot of milk in the 90's farmers started buying it as a type of soil amendment-added calcium, etc...Quick Google search
How Milk Improves Soil Health
Milk, in surprisingly small amounts, can make multiple significant positive impacts on the health and productivity of your entire garden.underwoodgardens.com
Milk was used pre 1900s it would appear.
Cow Spit
What Makes Grass Grow Back Fastest – Trampling, Clipping or Cow Spit?
Troy started this piece, Kathy Voth added some, and Jim Gerrish shared his observations. And with all that, we’re still not sure we have an answer. Troy: The heifers moved ahead into a fresh …onpasture.com
Lots of info on both on the ol interweb.
BINGO - my point being is unless you are a dairy farm with excess milk to get rid of - what good is that information??? And it is not research - I believe it's observation. I am NOT saying it isn't good fertilizer. It is probably super great - just not something that a beef producer will/should benefit from. If you are referring to the little white bubbles on the ground after a calf nurses, than I guess I would have to be pretty desperate for fertilizer.I'm not sure I want my cows milking so much that there is enough hitting the ground to make a significant change in my pastures.
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word...Mob grazing mimics the vast herds of buffalo that once roamed the prairies, like a giant lawn mower they moved through an area eating as much as possible and trampling the rest. The manure was trampled in and with it grass seeds, firmly planted at a shallow depth with fertilizer incorporated just waiting for the next rain to start germination.
Milk is an excellent fertilizer/ foliar feed, works at rates as low as three gallon per acre. Can't let it stand in the sprayer though.Their hooves break up the roots.
LOL - Milk as a benefit????? That's a stretch. Saliva on the grass - someone had waaayyy toooo much time on their hand to research that.
Next step is to test the nutritional value of your forageI have two sections of pasture. Each section is about 50 acres, both have woods on them making them about 40 acres of pasture. I let my neighbor hay the place for a few years before I came home. I did not appreciate the harm that caused until I got back. Live and learn. The first thing I did since coming here was to lime everything bringing the pH to about 6 to 6.5.
I was covered up in broom sedge.
After getting the pH right I started putting 200 pounds of triple 19 on the north side each spring. I mow it once a year after the fescue has produced mature seed. The broom sedge is all gone and the fescue has crowded out all the weeds. That grass is beautiful. I have about 10% white clover and Bermuda there too.
I was experimenting.
I did not put out fertilizer on the south side. I did lime it and mow it like I did the fertilized north side. I feed hay on the unfertilized south side. I have one spot at the top of a hill where I feed every day during hay feeding season. I drill pearl millet there every spring. The cows love the millet. I get 4 or five grazes on it.
I drilled red clover and vetch on the south side about a month ago. It is up pretty good. I have a robust amount of recurring white clover on both sides. I am probably wasting time and money drilling because it is hard to keep cows off it during the winter. I have a 10 acre spot I will not let them on this winter if I can help it.
Yesterday I put 75 tons of chicken litter on the south side. I expect rain tonight.
It has not been a miracle turn around, but overall I am happy with the improvements in soil health and fertility.
Probably good advice, but I would not act regardless of what the test results were.Next step is to test the nutritional value of your forage
I have bought hay for the last 3 years. different suppliers. I also bale as much hay as I can. My cows will leave others hay to go to mine. I have baled weeds rough stuff, everything trying to get a quarter cleaned up. They eat most all of it. I bale it as soon after cutting as I can. If it has green weeds only better. My cows will eat anything I bale. My new Vermeer 504R tells me everything I bale is either 29% moisture or WET...Probably good advice, but I would not act regardless of what the test results were.
This is my 6th winter feeding my own Bermuda. The cows hold up fine.
This is the first year to bring in hay, and what I brought in is even better than my own hay. My own hay got set back by hungry army worms. I had an unprecedented three invasions this year.