Soil test

glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
Just got soil tests back on a field I'm reseeding. We are a hill farm so land is average quality, the field has been cut once a year for silage and had a coat of manure (sheep bedding) afterwards for the last 5 or 6 years. The results are as follows.
Ph 5.8 guideline 6.0 slightly low
Phosphorus 18 guideline 16 normal
Potassium 90 guideline 121 low
Magnesium 232 guideline 51 very high

Why would the magnesium be so high and what effect would that have on grass coupled with low potassium?
 

Sir loin

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
look at the thread
I asked the same question
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Just got soil tests back on a field I'm reseeding. We are a hill farm so land is average quality, the field has been cut once a year for silage and had a coat of manure (sheep bedding) afterwards for the last 5 or 6 years. The results are as follows.
Ph 5.8 guideline 6.0 slightly low
Phosphorus 18 guideline 16 normal
Potassium 90 guideline 121 low
Magnesium 232 guideline 51 very high

Why would the magnesium be so high and what effect would that have on grass coupled with low potassium?

Magnesium is normally a characteristics of how heavy and sticky the soil is.

Most of ours are 800 plus so i wouldn't worry about 252
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Those mag levels are not massively high , but Gypsum is commonly used in high mag soils that will help In nutrient lock up, but if bigger concern is the low K level that is common when fields are cut every year, low potash levels also make the forage more prone to drought
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Lot depends on how much production you are aiming for
Because your P is OK I would go for equal amounts of N & K Probably not a compound that does that so 2 bags nitram or similar & 1 bag MOP
 

Bald n Grumpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Magnesium levels here not quite as high as yours but been advised recently that they could be interfering with potash up take. Looking into using gypsum probably in liquid form put on with a sprayer. Supposed to help with compaction and cultivations as well
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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

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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/
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