Soil ph

[RockyKildare]

just had some fields tested as nothing other than 20 10 10 been put on them in 20 years. The 4 grazing only fields came back as 5.5, but the 3 silage/hay fields came back at 4.5!!!! Does harvesting a field drop the ph more than just grazed it over time? We’re at 1000ft on heavy clay. Got 2 ton to the acre coming this week to start getting it sorted.

 

[TelesnaAg]

When i corrected soil PH i got snails and slugs...there's a reason Huey made some soils 4.5 PH.

My lease block is at 5.5 and will get another small dose and thats it.

Ant...

 

[hendrebc]

just had some fields tested as nothing other than 20 10 10 been put on them in 20 years. The 4 grazing only fields came back as 5.5, but the 3 silage/hay fields came back at 4.5!!!! Does harvesting a field drop the ph more than just grazed it over time? We’re at 1000ft on heavy clay. Got 2 ton to the acre coming this week to start getting it sorted.

Low organic matter and compaction can apparently make ph worse. Silage fields will have lower OM because there is a crop being taken off every year and will likely have more compaction because of the silage traffic so that might explain it

 

[Green farmer]

Silage is very heavy on the land and strips loads of everything off it. You should see a great improvement though with the 2Tonne, will release a lot of locked up n,p &k’s

 

[dannewhouse]

i would highly recommend a standard soild test cost around £10 per test / field covering atleast P K Mg Ph < from a proper lab ideally trace elements as well Na Ca B etc

you will get a good idea for not much ££ really, we always applied 20.10.10 to grazing and hay land, soil tests found plenty high in P and K and index 5 for Mg but Ph ok.

 

[Al R]

On arable land with no stock on grass leys that is ph 5.8, index’s all 2-3’s, on a 4/5 cut system i used to do 2 units of N per day, 2 units of K per day, 1 unit of P per day. 1t of lime per year. Taking off over 28t/acre at 32% DM mind.

 

[hel123]

Was that worked out over 365 days or the growing season?

 

[Al R]

Was that worked out over 365 days or the growing season?

Cutting May 1st or there About’s and every 38 days after, last cut end of September/early October.

 

[cubby]

Sorry to hijack the thread.Its along the same lines what would a ton of 55 percent nv raise a ph too from say 5.5 to ? In general thank you

 

[Al R]

@Cab-over Pete

 

[Cab-over Pete]

A tonne of around 50% NV ground lime per acre should lift the pH by 0.5 of a unit.

I never supply and spread screened lime and I don’t think it would be money well spent on the very low pH figures quoted here. On these really low areas put the 2t/acre on and then retest next year. You may find some areas have responded well but other areas need more.