Mark Reynolds
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 30, 2023
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Thank you again @farmerjan. I was thinking about high mag mineral supplement to prevent grass tetany, but hadn't said it. So I guess I was remiss. You filled in the gap.We use hi-mag mineral early in the year to help prevent grass tetany; around here nearly every farmer with beef cattle uses hi-mag early in the year and by June it is usually not a problem. All depends on the growing season early, and temps for fast early growth and amount of moisture to promote that fast growth.
Most all our delivered litter is weighed by the load... the poultry farmers have several of the big walking floor trailers, and they go by scales and weigh everytime. We have alot of truck stops with scales all around here... and you weigh empty once, then run the rigs over the scales everytime after and they get tickets. We pay by the ton. There are a couple that have done averages and when a trucker is good, he can tell you within a little bit what the trailer load weighs... but it is pretty much accepted that the loads are all weighed. These poultry farmers want to get paid for all they send out.
When nitrogen got so crazy high, getting poultry litter was hard... even with us being regular customers for years... it has come back to more normal situations.
We had a pile off loaded at the edge of a field one year... the conditions were so bad for getting it unloaded at alot of places and we had a couple places that the trucks could back in and not get off hard ground so the trucks would not get stuck. Sort of a "sacrifice" place for guys who had to get some moved and could not get their regular customers delivered to. The pile sat for a couple of months before we could get on the ground to get it spread. 8 years later, that section of the field where the pile sat, is still more productive than any other place on the whole field. Hay grows faster, taller and has more moisture and is slower to dry mostly because of it being so thick.
So, even if you lose some of the nitrogen by piles sitting, there is alot of good stuff that percolates down into the ground and will feed the crop for years.
I have no problem with the 4 tons to the acre that will actually help to build up soil fertility... that area where the pile was, tells me that it did not hurt the ground at all...
Yes, there are always some seeds that will come through even when it is composted, and some weeds associated with litter. You deal with it when the soil is healthier and the hay or other crops do better. We also spread it on pastureland when we have "extra"....
As you have pointed out a couple times now, poultry litter is good....no, great......for more than just nitrogen. You pointed out in your prior post that those using poultry litter need to soil test. Ending up with a potential excess of phosphorous was your point. At least you won't (shouldn't) have a problem with broomsedge if that happens.
I wasn't so concerned with the amount of nutrients at 4 tons to the acre as I was smothering/suffocating the existing grass. Not being as familiar with polutry litter as I'd like to be, I was using my knowledge of lime application to fields in my thinking about quantity. That being said, lime and poultry litter are quite different.