Re: Ot young farmer needing some guidance

Posted by JD Seller on September 01, 2014 at 19:50:41 from (208.126.198.123):

In Reply to: Ot young farmer needing some guidance posted by Zach Scherf on September 01, 2014 at 19:08:05:

There are many thing besides fertility that make or break you yields.

1) Fertility: Like Greg posted. Your local extension office can help you learn to know what a soil sample really means and what you actually need. They also can send them in too. I usually send some through them to "check" the fertilizer dealers/salesman.

2) Soil structure: This means your soil types on your ground. This will limit your yield potential regardless of fertility. Certain soils will only grow so much. So fertilizing for 200 bushel corn on ground that will only average 150 is wasting money.

3) Compaction: Many dairy farms compact their ground. The ways: spreading manure year round even when it is wet, chopping corn on fields that are wetter, even chopping on dry fields compacts them some, making 3-4 cuttings on ground can leave compacted "paths" through the field. Limit the traffic in your fields. When you haul bales or manure go in one track where you have to travel mutable times. Then deep rip that track in the fall.

4) Organic matter: This is not usually a problem on most dairy farms but it can be when the same few fields are used to grow your corn. This ground is cleared out on organic matter when you chop all the corn. Manure helps IF it has bedding in it. If it does not than it does not help organic matter much. Look into cover crops

5) Manure application: Too many livestock farms have a few fields that do not get there share of manure but manure is still counted as the fertilize source for them. You need to be applying your manure evenly across all of your crop ground. Do build up the "poor" areas like thin soils knobs.

6) Seed: Diary land may or may not have the best seed for your farm. You need to try some different seed each year. DO NOT use price as the determining factor in seed selection. Pioneer had a verity in the late 1980s that just "fit" my soils. It started out as one of their TOP lines and had a TOP line price. It still out produced other newer verities for over 15 years. At the end it was the "bargain basement" seed. So if you do not have DEEP rich top soil you need to try some different hybrids to find out what works for you. This can vary from farm to farm so do not listen to your neighbor for a absolute reference.

These are just a few things to think about. Go to any meeting you can that are about production. Even seed corn meetings that are "selling" their brand will have knowledge you can learn.

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