Gypsum

franklin

New Member
Fair point! But if you've already got a high ph do you want to raise that level further?

Some soils are high in pH due to other things - excess potasium perhaps, or sodium. These will need calcium.

Despite my soils having mag levels of circa 800ppm, I still have to apply magnesium. Typical soil test here would be say 3100ppm Calcium and 800ppm magnesium. High K, low P.

The link between soil test nutrients and plant tissue at various times of the year is not very strong. But tissue tests are pretty much the same each year.
 

shakerator

Member
Location
LINCS
A vast amount of chalk! Raising pH with Maglime will cause even more nutrient lockup.

High Mg compost and kieserite look like the best options. Mg indices are 0+ or 1-

Loddington did a trial of around 4000kg/ ha elemental sulphur

The effects lasted less than a year, can't reduce soil ph economically. Just work with foliar for lock ups and play around with potash and mg
 

franklin

New Member
@static out of interest what are you applying to crops?

In terms of NPK, or the magic gubbins?

I am expected by the landlord to replace my P&K, and this is done in two ways. MAP is applied pre-OSR when I am inclined to grow the filth. That would be in the oder of 30kgN and 2 or 3 years worth of P. Other times I use fibrophos to replace P&K, and would normally apply two or three years worth at once. Why? Well, its cheap. Yes, it has other nutrients in, but more about that later.

The aim is to keep the soil pretty happy. I do a lot of tissue testing. And typically I have found that winter OSR will be short in phosphate in autumn, hence the MAP. Two of my fields are former river bed, and these suffer from excessive sodium and iron. Then in spring all the plants have shown chronic lack of potash, so they get a foliar spray at each T timing. Typically through spring we will see deficiences of K, copper, zinc. All wheats get copper through the season.

Must say that in none of these instances have I seen an economic response from any foliar sprays. No response from spring applied granular K. Very little response from big dollops of P in the OSR seedbed. I think this is in part due to the nature of a plant - if it is deficient in K at peak uptake, and you put some K on, then it will grow more and hence still be deficient in K. So it's really just fluff around the edges. We are starting to analyse the actual harvested grain for nutrients as that's where the major issues ought show.

But its well know that you cant polish a shyte. If I had £20/ac to spend on better nutrition, I would spend the lot for the whole farm on redraining a couple of fields. It's only when the rest is right I reckon it is even worth looking at the P&K and that before the muck. The one foliar I would use without question is copper on milling wheats.

Had some cracking yields from a field this year. Soil tests will say there is not a right lot in them to get excited about. No idea what I did there - probably just luck as usual.
 

Danieljack_1991

New Member
Has anyone seen an advantage on gypsum spread on grassland? In terms of grazing quality/silage quality or even yield maybe? Perhaps this will become more popular with high magnesium low calcium soil results.
 

phil

Member
Location
Wexford
In terms of NPK, or the magic gubbins?

I am expected by the landlord to replace my P&K, and this is done in two ways. MAP is applied pre-OSR when I am inclined to grow the filth. That would be in the oder of 30kgN and 2 or 3 years worth of P. Other times I use fibrophos to replace P&K, and would normally apply two or three years worth at once. Why? Well, its cheap. Yes, it has other nutrients in, but more about that later.

The aim is to keep the soil pretty happy. I do a lot of tissue testing. And typically I have found that winter OSR will be short in phosphate in autumn, hence the MAP. Two of my fields are former river bed, and these suffer from excessive sodium and iron. Then in spring all the plants have shown chronic lack of potash, so they get a foliar spray at each T timing. Typically through spring we will see deficiences of K, copper, zinc. All wheats get copper through the season.

Must say that in none of these instances have I seen an economic response from any foliar sprays. No response from spring applied granular K. Very little response from big dollops of P in the OSR seedbed. I think this is in part due to the nature of a plant - if it is deficient in K at peak uptake, and you put some K on, then it will grow more and hence still be deficient in K. So it's really just fluff around the edges. We are starting to analyse the actual harvested grain for nutrients as that's where the major issues ought show.

But its well know that you cant polish a shyte. If I had £20/ac to spend on better nutrition, I would spend the lot for the whole farm on redraining a couple of fields. It's only when the rest is right I reckon it is even worth looking at the P&K and that before the muck. The one foliar I would use without question is copper on milling wheats.

Had some cracking yields from a field this year. Soil tests will say there is not a right lot in them to get excited about. No idea what I did there - probably just luck as usual.
Low in copper and boron here

What type of cooper to you apply
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Foliar Mancuflo (Yara) here. I use it on spring crops - rarely had an issue in winter crops. I apply 15% Solubor to osr in March for the boron
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top