Ive taken on someone else's problem!

[Dog Bowl]

I tendered successfully for some land last autumn. Had been in continuous maize for years (10+) previously (gasp!)

So post maize harvest last year I soil sampled. P and K were at 1, ph 5.5. Before drilling, I put on some 0-24-24 and some lime in seedbed. Then subsoiled and mintilled with perennial ryegrass and red and white clover. Grass came lovely.

This spring grass was fertilised with N+S. Cut mid may for silage. Yielded reasonably well.

Since then the grass has done nothing. It was slow to come back initially but had put that down to it being a heavy cut.

It's now late October and all there is in every field is a few green leaves but dead tillers everywhere. The green leaves are very yellow and the field just generally looks very sad.

I have sampled again and lime is up at 6.5, P at 1 and K at 2. I have taken lots of samples and it's all coming back the same.

What can be causing this field to perform so poorly?

I've dug holes and cannot find much compaction. I am feeling a little down about it now.

Pictures attached but not sure they are too helpful. Advice much appreciated!

 

[tepapa]

Did you put any N on after first cut?

 

[Dog Bowl]

Yes put a splash of N on but wanted the clover to do the rest for me. Interestingly theres buggar all clover there now.

 

[Dave6170]

What like are P levels?

 

[deleted user 837354]

I fancy the P levels are too low for clover to thrive and it won't have had the nicest of seasons.

It's been a tough season for grass, after first cut it turned deadly dry. I think you have some disease in there from the looks of it. You have dead leaf but I can't see close enough to see actual dead tillers. I think you will find it will look a lot better next spring.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I tendered successfully for some land last autumn. Had been in continuous maize for years (10+) previously (gasp!)

So post maize harvest last year I soil sampled. P and K were at 1, ph 5.5. Before drilling, I put on some 0-24-24 and some lime in seedbed. Then subsoiled and mintilled with perennial ryegrass and red and white clover. Grass came lovely.

This spring grass was fertilised with N+S. Cut mid may for silage. Yielded reasonably well.

Since then the grass has done nothing. It was slow to come back initially but had put that down to it being a heavy cut.

It's now late October and all there is in every field is a few green leaves but dead tillers everywhere. The green leaves are very yellow and the field just generally looks very sad.

I have sampled again and lime is up at 6.5, P at 1 and K at 2. I have taken lots of samples and it's all coming back the same.

What can be causing this field to perform so poorly?

I've dug holes and cannot find much compaction. I am feeling a little down about it now.

Pictures attached but not sure they are too helpful. Advice much appreciated!

Micronutrients and organic matter are probably very variable (unless it had FYM every year as some continuous maize around here does).

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Splatter some shite on it

 

[digger64]

I tendered successfully for some land last autumn. Had been in continuous maize for years (10+) previously (gasp!)

So post maize harvest last year I soil sampled. P and K were at 1, ph 5.5. Before drilling, I put on some 0-24-24 and some lime in seedbed. Then subsoiled and mintilled with perennial ryegrass and red and white clover. Grass came lovely.

This spring grass was fertilised with N+S. Cut mid may for silage. Yielded reasonably well.

Since then the grass has done nothing. It was slow to come back initially but had put that down to it being a heavy cut.

It's now late October and all there is in every field is a few green leaves but dead tillers everywhere. The green leaves are very yellow and the field just generally looks very sad.

I have sampled again and lime is up at 6.5, P at 1 and K at 2. I have taken lots of samples and it's all coming back the same.

What can be causing this field to perform so poorly?

I've dug holes and cannot find much compaction. I am feeling a little down about it now.

Farmed out , needs compound fertiliser or slurry+N per cut , but better to avoid cutting if you can nothing pulls arable land down like grass silage or maize

Pictures attached but not sure they are too helpful. Advice much appreciated!

 

[Hfd Cattle]

I would do more than splatter..... I would plaster it on or plough up and put wheat into it then re-sow with grass next Autumn .

 

[jendan]

I tendered successfully for some land last autumn. Had been in continuous maize for years (10+) previously (gasp!)

So post maize harvest last year I soil sampled. P and K were at 1, ph 5.5. Before drilling, I put on some 0-24-24 and some lime in seedbed. Then subsoiled and mintilled with perennial ryegrass and red and white clover. Grass came lovely.

This spring grass was fertilised with N+S. Cut mid may for silage. Yielded reasonably well.

Since then the grass has done nothing. It was slow to come back initially but had put that down to it being a heavy cut.

It's now late October and all there is in every field is a few green leaves but dead tillers everywhere. The green leaves are very yellow and the field just generally looks very sad.

I have sampled again and lime is up at 6.5, P at 1 and K at 2. I have taken lots of samples and it's all coming back the same.

What can be causing this field to perform so poorly?

I've dug holes and cannot find much compaction. I am feeling a little down about it now.

Pictures attached but not sure they are too helpful. Advice much appreciated!

Give it up because you tendered too much for it.

 

[milkloss]

Clover will need K to thrive. P to get going and K to stay.

 

[kill]

Would 10 years of maize pre emergent still leave a slightly bitter residue in the soil for young grass in difficult conditions ???

 

[M-J-G]

How's the Mg/Ca balance?

There's a lot more to soil science than just P,K &pH.

 

[Spud]

How's the Mg/Ca balance?

There's a lot more to soil science than just P,K &pH.

I'm thinking the same - if the maize grower ignored the pH, they will certainly of ignored micronutrients. Have you done a broad spectrum soil test?

 

[organicguy]

Soil biology will be dead from 10 years of abuse. Any worms? What are plants roots like? How deep? What part of cotswolds are you, my Cotswold soils struggle to get below pH 8!

 

[Dog Bowl]

Many thanks for all the replies.

So the ground was farmed poorly previously. The maize had always looked really poor when previous tenant farmed it. This block of ground borders some of my existing ground so have always seen how it's been farmed previously. Previous tenant didnt put an awful amount of muck on it before ploughing for maize.

My hunch is the need to perhaps do a broad spectrum test to take things further. However, in my mind I think I need to look at routinely spreading some muck on this ground as the starting point. What about chicken muck? Or should I stick to my cattle muck?

This ground is fairly loamy with a good depth of soil before hitting any cotswold brash. The soil structure is in all honesty non existent after 10 years of power harrow abuse.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Many thanks for all the replies.

So the ground was farmed poorly previously. The maize had always looked really poor when previous tenant farmed it. This block of ground borders some of my existing ground so have always seen how it's been farmed previously. Previous tenant didnt put an awful amount of muck on it before ploughing for maize.

My hunch is the need to perhaps do a broad spectrum test to take things further. However, in my mind I think I need to look at routinely spreading some muck on this ground as the starting point. What about chicken muck? Or should I stick to my cattle muck?

This ground is fairly loamy with a good depth of soil before hitting any cotswold brash. The soil structure is in all honesty non existent after 10 years of power harrow abuse.

Cattle sh!t will do...lots of it it

 

[Dkb]

Any muck will do.

I took on poor land a few years ago harrowed in a lot of pig slurry then put cattle dung on it very autumn and 18-6-12 + S every spring. After 3 years I put 0-10-20 in the autumn and sulpha can in the spring. I also grazed them for the first few years. No silage taken off the fields until year 4 just to help build everything up as much as possible.

It’s great land now.

 

[Yale]

Soil biology will be dead from 10 years of abuse. Any worms? What are plants roots like? How deep? What part of cotswolds are you, my Cotswold soils struggle to get below pH 8!

Like you say,just looks burnt out.

 

[Still Farming]

Subsoil possibly, panned after years.