Lee Publications
  • Lee Publications
    • Lee Trade Shows
      • Empire State Producers Expo
      • Hard Hat Expo
      • Keystone Farm Show
      • National Angus
      • Virginia Farm Show
    • Country Folks
    • Country Folks Grower
    • Country Folks Mane Stream
    • Wine and Craft Beverage News
    • Pennysaver
    • RRR
    • Editor
    • Country-Editor
    • Capitol Region REG
  • Features
    • Weekly Features
      • Eastern Edition
      • Western Edition
      • New England Farm Weekly
      • Mid Atlantic
    • This Week’s Classifieds
    • Place a Classified Ad
    • Cattle Production Guide
    • CF Marketplace
  • Contact Us
    • Sales Team
    • Contact Info
    • Email Editor
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • Advertising Info
    • Place a Classified Ad
    • Editorial Calendar
  • AAAuction Finder

Country Folks

Highlighting Agriculture

Hay production workshop

by Steve Wagner

“I tell folks, ‘Look, I’m human. I’m just like you. Some of us try to work and farm at the same time,’” says Dwane Miller, Penn State Education Extension Instructor. “The year 2015 was a challenging year for us to make hay. I tried to make people guess what date I finished making first-cutting hay on our farm. That was July 24. And I marketed that as mixed hay. Anybody know why?”

“I think there would be a little fiber to it,” offered fellow Extension Educator Jeff Graybill, “but I guess you would want that in dry hay.” Beginning with the basics, Graybill mentioned soil fertility and what are often their accompanying concepts — barrel and stave, or the weakness link — ones that have been recognized in many crops, but “your yield is limited by the most limiting nutrient or the most limiting factor that’s out there.” Starting with a soil test, knowing your soils, knowing your fertility program, and perhaps using tissue testing, you must determine what is to be replenished.

Graybill notes that there are three phases of fertility management in forages. You could consider it a no-till crop once it is established. “The soil profile footnotes that it is difficult to raise the pH and the nutrient level if you’re not doing tillage.” So, one to three years before you go into hay, and if you’re doing a crop such as corn, or tilling for hay, there are given situations that deserve forethought before you undertake anything. Often when growing corn, it calls for a high rate of manure to be added. Also it is a time when you could be doing some tillage, and that is the time you should be thinking of building up the soil nutrient level to get ready for that extended period when you will be in a hay crop. Checking Penn State’s Agronomy Facts 31-A: Soil Fertility Management for Forage Crops (Pre-establishment), a worthy quote cuts to the chase. ‘Crops vary in their sensitivity to soil pH. Generally, alfalfa is the most sensitive forage crop, followed by the other legumes and then by the grasses. …With nitrogen fertilizer applied, soil pH has little or no effect on the field of alfalfa. With no nitrogen applied, however, there is a very dramatic alfalfa yield increase as soil pH is increased. Thus, it boils down to adding lime to maintain the proper soil pH or adding nitrogen fertilizer. Adding limestone is much more economical than adding nitrogen fertilizer. A typical requirement of two tons of lime for 3 or 4 years would cost about $10 a year, compared to 250 pounds of nitrogen required every year, which would cost about $60 per year.’

“If you didn’t know, the pH is a measure of hydrogen ions that are in the soil solution,” Graybill says. “Hydrogen has a positive charge which causes the acidity. The other thing about pH…7 is neutral when there is no hydrogen in the soil solution; above 7 is not hydrogen. It is Hydroxyl (OH) which contains oxygen bonded to hydrogen. It is also a logarithmic scale. So a pH of 6 has 10 times the amount of acidity of a pH 7. A pH 5 would have 100 times the acidity.” Thus ends the chemistry lesson. Obviously, different crops have different requirements, different ranges where they were originally bred and developed or discovered. “Most of the common crop species that we grow,” Graybill notes, “are in that 6 to 7 range.”

Graybill referenced Joe McGann, a corn specialist for Penn State who said ‘The biggest limiting factor to corn in Pennsylvania was not fertility; it was pH because at low pH aluminum can come into the soil solution and it can become toxic.’ This is true of any crop species because as the pH becomes low, things like aluminum fosters reduced availability of nutrients. It is not as apropos for the soil microbes that thrive, and deficiencies in basic nutrients like calcium and magnesium soon become evident. Calcium is involved in big soil structure. “The only way to know where we are,” Graybill says, “is to take a good representative soil test.”

Generally, in most crops, starter fertilizers are a benefit in the planting season. “If you’re planting…if it’s a fall seeding or a later spring seeding…generally starter fertilizers tend to be more expensive. If you are using a starter fertilizer you want a high phosphorous content, and for grasses, you want nitrogen in there.” Another Penn State recommendation is that nitrogen plus potash should be kept less than about 60 pounds. If it is higher than that, salts that are in the potash and the nitrogen can burn those developing roots. “As far as grasses,” Graybill says, “in the seeding or the establishment a little bit of nitrogen at seeding is in order. Generally, we’re using anywhere from 40 to 50 pounds of nitrogen per ton of hay that we’re expecting, dry grass hay.” That might be 20 to 40 pounds at seeding, and then another 30 to 50 later in the season. That amount can be increased as yield potential goes up in the second year.

Related

February 10, 2017

« Hemlock woolly adelgid
Farming a passion at VanDerwerken’s »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

code

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

The 2016 National Beef Quality Audit

Angus VNR:
Jump-start your dream

CATRA’s miniature horses and donkeys

CATRA’s miniature horses and donkeys

by Bill and Mary Weaver Ben Nolt, President and Co-Founder of Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association (CATRA), narrated for CATRA’s “Miniature Horse Extravaganza” as his all-volunteer assistants put the miniature horses and donkeys through their paces and tricks at the Main Horse Area at Ag Progress Days 2015. Related

Heather Faubert recognized at Rhode Island Agriculture Day

Heather Faubert recognized at Rhode Island Agriculture Day

by Sanne Kure-Jensen The Rhode Island Fruit Growers’ Association (RIFGA) honored Extension Fruit Specialist Heather Faubert at the University of Rhode Island (URI) for her Integrated Pest Management (IPM) work with fruit growers. Sandie Barden, co-owner of Barden Family Orchard, presented Faubert with an award and a lifetime membership to the RIFGA. The organization is […]

Lee Publications

Country Folks

Country Folks Grower

Country Folks Mane Stream

Wine and Craft Beverage News

Pennysaver

Editor

Country-Editor

Rock Road Recycle

Lee Trade Shows

Empire State Producers Expo

Hard Hat Expo

Keystone Farm Show

National Angus Trade Show

Virginia Farm Show

WHEN Recycling Expo

Online Subscribers

Features

Join

Login

Read Now

Download

Account

Lee Newspapers Inc.
MENU
  • Lee Publications
    • Lee Trade Shows
      • Empire State Producers Expo
      • Hard Hat Expo
      • Keystone Farm Show
      • National Angus
      • Virginia Farm Show
    • Country Folks
    • Country Folks Grower
    • Country Folks Mane Stream
    • Wine and Craft Beverage News
    • Pennysaver
    • RRR
    • Editor
    • Country-Editor
    • Capitol Region REG
  • Features
    • Weekly Features
      • Eastern Edition
      • Western Edition
      • New England Farm Weekly
      • Mid Atlantic
    • This Week’s Classifieds
    • Place a Classified Ad
    • Cattle Production Guide
    • CF Marketplace
  • Contact Us
    • Sales Team
    • Contact Info
    • Email Editor
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • Advertising Info
    • Place a Classified Ad
    • Editorial Calendar
  • AAAuction Finder