getting hay to come back?

[PeytonM]

I have a friend that I keep some horses at from time to time and for keeping them there I help with stuff around the place. fire wood, haying and stuff. The never put any thing on the hay fields and now they are pretty sad, 2 years ago a guy down the road cut and round bailed it and did it on shares and I talked them in to letting me do that with them and keep my hay there and then it would just feed the horses while they were there in the winter time. I do not have an abundance of manure and if i did its a 12 mile drive taking back roads. I asked a few farmers round there if they have extra and I came out with the big ole goose egg for that.

What fertilizer would you put on it? its black dirt, kinda light, the other field is much lighter and has a few sandy spots, its mainly grass, little alpha and a little clover

last year we got a lot of rain and then had a dry spell she got 15 round bales and was only able to get one crop off it, and its prolly a 12 acre field, the fall she turned horses out on it and let them graze on it. Its just not really too healthy and needs some go go juice.

I’m going to be planting about 25-30 acres of new seeding at my place this spring and I was thinking about trying some no till at hers to add timothy in with the mix.

What would be the best thing to put her fields? would it be worth me no tilling some seed in at her place? I’m going to be renting a no till drill but all mine is already tilled and ready to plant come spring.

[dominiquer60]

The first thing that you should do is to take soil tests of each field that you want to improve. A soil test is only as good as the samples that you take. Try to borrow a soil probe from someone or see if extension can help you, they may even come out to show you proper technique. If not here is a simple explanation, http://pss.uvm.edu/ag_testing/How_to_Take_a_Soil_Sample.pdf.

There are many different soil labs that you can use, an independent lab that many folks use is A&L. You will have to pay to have the tests done, but better to know what your soil needs than to spend money on the wrong amendments.

A soil test will only give you a snapshot of what is happening in your soil, but it is better than going at it blind. You will want to get someone to help you read your soil test, an extension agent or fertilizer salesman may be the easiest help to find. If your soil needs a lot of something, don’t be afraid to only apply half of the amount in the spring and more in the summer. Some fertilizer can run off and leach out before the plants can utilize the nutrients, so you may get more for your money by splitting it up.

Give that a try and see what your needs are before you spend any money on fertilizer.

Best of luck,

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