Organic pasture management question for Annie and anyone else that has info.

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Annie

You said you do your pasture organically a while back.Could you give me the particulars on what you use,esp for Potassium (greensand?) and Nitrogen?(anything besides horse manure?) Where are you obtaining supplies?

That's our big problem. I had a sourse of horse manure mixed with lime and sawdust from Lexington horse barns lined up,but the company was shut down for some such noncompliance of solid waste disposal. Stinks,Huh?

Anyone else have pasture that is managed organically?

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

Answers

Everything on my farm was managed organically........

Did you do a soil test that determined that you are deficient in somesuch? Pastures intensively grazed/managed almost never need additives at all. Good stuff in/ good stuff out.........its a big subject, wherever shall we start? Course everything might be totally diff down in Dixie..........and I spose I have no credibility your way anywho.........

love ya babe,

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001


Soil test done and things needed. Primarily lime(not a problem to obtain) and potassium and phospherus (problem) Not needing nitrogen now as we want to reseed with alfagraze,so we need to skip that at first.

Pasture currently empty and never heavily grazed. Abt 30 cows and calfs had been on year round. Soil clay. Lots of lespedessa,unfortunately.Current mgmt practice is burning.Started this spring.And,the further south you go, the quicker nutrients get burned up.

Geez,EM,I was born a damn yankee.From PA originally. I'm just a born again hillbilly. You have to understand the mentality here.Truth be told, Yanks aren't particularly favored 'cause most came here to rape and plunder (Coal) or try to tell us what to do (paternal government poverty programs) like they knew best. So you fit in slowly over time if you are from above the Mason Dixon line.Or you leave. Heck, my neighbors don't even care for folks from the next county over,all that much. Funny.

Yes, EM, you and I have some issues. No,you don't have much credibility with me,right now. I should have emailed you. I didn't. I have little time, right now. And far more important things to do.

Yes,I'm being blunt. If & when I have time I will discuss things with you. Not now.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001


Hi Sharon, hope you are feeling better! We have about 50 acres in hayfield/pasture, the best of which we take hay off of once a year, never do second cutting in the same place two years in a row as the more often you take hay off, the more nutrients you loose.

We have the soil tested by the extension office, and found the fertility is not bad, but needed lime, which we put on at 4-5 tons per acre rate two years ago. All pastures are starting to gradually improve, naturally occuring limestone is slow acting, but long acting.

Last spring we used the counties no-till drill to top seed timothy and red clover into all the fields, this worked great, this spring we have red clover everywhere in the fields and timothy too. We wanted the red clover established because as a legume it will slowly inprove fertility without added amendments of any kind. Alfalfa doesn't do well here without spraying all kinds of crap on it, the beetles eat it up! Nothing bothers the red clover, and the deer and bees love it!

It is especially important to brush-hog or cut hay off, or cut the field somehow at least once a year, preferably before the weeds go to seed, like cut it now! At least by the middle of July, this is VERY important to slowly eliminate weeds. To do best, we like to cut all the fields twice, by taking hay off the best areas once, and brush- hogging as needed to stay ahead of the weeds for the second time we cut. Some especially fast growing areas get brush-hogged three times a year. The more you brush-hog, the better the fields get as the cut grasses decompose to make their own fertilzer and mulch, this action is very evident as the years pass here.

We are also very careful not to overgraze where the horses are, this is incredibly hard on a field, and can takes five years or more to recover. Most folks don't realize this point at all, they think if they see "green stuff" growing in their pasture, then it is in fine shape, they really need to study a bit of botany and learn to identify the desirable plants needed for proper pasture management.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001


Sharon, I have no clue what you're talking about.......my reference to credibility pertained to my yankeeness. If you have 'issues' with me, (???) then methinks it would have been more prudent to bring this up privately, if its such a pressing issue that deserved mention.

Trusting that we all think the best of each other,

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001


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