Who doesn't fertilize?

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Bigfoot

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I only fertilize what I'm going to cut for hay. I do try to move my hay fields around. If there was enough hay here for me to buy, I wouldn't even fool with hay. I've got some crab grass, that I hit with a little N along the way, as long as we're getting rain. I hadn't fertilized my fescue pastures in a long while. I'm stocked at about a cow calf pair per acre and a half of pasture. If it's a wet year, I seem to have enough grass. If it's a dry year, I'm usually glad I didn't fertilize.
 
I have not fertilized my pasture. I would to some extent if it was not so steep. I guess I could use the 3 point hitch cyclone spreaders.
 
Bright Raven":2uoeia7d said:
I have not fertilized my pasture. I would to some extent if it was not so steep. I guess I could use the 3 point hitch cyclone spreaders.

You grow some pretty grass to.
 
We have not fertilized on dad's place ever. He did put lime one time in the last 5 years. Never soil tested. The grass gets pretty thin in places later in the summer even in wet years. It could use the fertilizer for sure.
 
I generally only fertilize my hay fields. I did fertilize my pasture this year since we lost a lease. We've had a bunch of rain but I've ran way more cows for way longer than I expected. It definitely paid off this year.
 
I can't grow anything without fertilizer. My yard and anywhere else I have to mow the grass grows good without fertilizer. And rubber and carbon monoxide sure makes the grass grow on the side of the road.
I learned this year you can't buy grass with fertilizer, and rain is the best fertilizer know to man kind in the south.
 
You can estimate #DM/#N pretty well, but then what is the additional grass worth at that time of year?

If you are losing money on your cows - - it would may be more helpful to reduce the herd, rather than increase it by fertilizing. :nod:
 
If I were to cut hay I'd prefer to fertilize it....other than that I lightly fertilize some winter pasture. Roughly 35 acres oats/ryegrass used for winter grazing. Last ear I put out 3 1/2 tons 30-10-10.

Stocker Steve...I concur wit your post....except you don't have to be loosing money for it to pay off.
 
I have not fertilized in about seven years now....rotational grazing and adding plant diversity with an emphasis on legumes and deep rooted crops....

behind grazing now I am sowing a cover crop mix with Pearl Millet, cow peas, sun hemp, okra, buckwheat, broadleaf mustard, chicory, sunflowers and I forget what else....

in fact I just added to my blog about the paddock sown this weekend...

http://www.pdfangus.com
 
Okra? First I've head of that one.

I do believe in stronger deeper roots....and you don't necessarily get those just from fertilizer.
 
We limed most of our pastures as we acquired them.
Used turkey litter for a while, but now bale graze about 3 paddocks per year.
Put 40# N and 25# S on a few paddocks for early spring (before biology warms up, and late fall (after biology cools down) grazing.
 
1982vett":c33ocgwm said:
Okra? First I've head of that one.

I do believe in stronger deeper roots....and you don't necessarily get those just from fertilizer.

the sun hemp is a deep rooted summer annual legume that adds a lot of nitrogen.

my first year trying okra....it is supposed to be a deep rooted broadleaf plant....it is a small part of the mix we used this year..... and maybe I will get some to put up for soups and such...

Chicory is a deep rooted perennial plant that I really like....the critters do too....I have one old gelding that will walk from chicory to chicory when he goes into a new field...the calves and the goats seek it out as well and they graze it to the ground. If allowed to rest it comes back nicely....and quickly...but it can not stand continuous grazing....the patch in my old garden plot is well over six feet tall and really pretty with the blue flowers and yesterday it was just buzzing with pollinators and butterflies... that patch early spring was barley and orchardgrass and ryegrass, then vetch and crimson clover took over and now all you can see is chicory...I am going to try to just let it go till fall just to see what it does...
 
I know a lot of people despise weeds in pastures.... :shock: ...I do to to a certain extent. But when I have them I try to convince myself that it is natures way of cultivating the soil. If you have ever tried to pull-up mature weeds you've found that some of them have some pretty hardy roots that run deep. When these plants die they turn into organic matter....hence a cultivation effect that adds organic matter deep into the soil....course they also rob nutrients and moisture from desirables so the evil probably outweighs the good.
 
I don't even fertilize my hay field (or at least haven't since 2011; I later figured out that the 8 rolls I made that year cost me $300.00.....each), but my situation is unique. My field makes more than I can use without fertilizer, and it isn't fenced and doesn't have water, so grazing isn't an option. Knowing that my hay quality is probably pretty low I supplement it with protein syrup in winter.
 
True Grit Farms":1ohdbwtl said:
I can't grow anything without fertilizer. My yard and anywhere else I have to mow the grass grows good without fertilizer.
Yep, them mower cuttings turn into their own kind of fertilize. Gotta cut my yard every week and never fertilized it. Sister down the road, has for years, run a bagger behind her mower which she composts and then dumps in her garden, but the lawn gets nothing and her yard looks like something out of the desert southwest. Just a bunch of weeds and some kind of vicious sand burrs.
 
:???: Dad used chicken litter for decades on the pastures. I dont like it because of the nettles and buttercups, etc so when we took over two years ago we quit using it. Was thinking of fertilizing next spring and wondering if most people use liquid and if so what kind?
Used grazon next over the weekend to get a handle on nettles and buttercups.
 
weeds....for me it depends on what the weeds are...thistle and red root pig weed will generally get my attention and I will spray em...I have discovered that I have some hemlock and will spray that as well.

most of the other I can control by switching the cows and goats with the horses...I just have to move so many things that I have not done it...maybe in a few weeks after the new calves are adapted to being home and the steer is off to the locker plant....
 
I am controlling weeds with herbecide. I'm seeing a lot more crabgrass in my pastures, now that I have the weeds gone. I have actually read a little lately about the benefits of weeds. The deep root systems, and drawing micronutrients to the surface where they can be used by the grass. I'm sure there is something to it, I just like weeds.
 
Fert and lime shows up here by the 18 wheeler load year after year. And always trying to get ground turned over.

Wtf do you guys spend money on if you can't make money off cattle, don't feed hay, and don't fertilize??
 

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