What if you can't get fertilizer next year?

[SD51555]

Maybe it's a long shot. Maybe it's a certainty? What would you do if the only thing you can get is 0-0-0 (that's nothing).

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[silver_yummies]

LOL….. A ZeroHedge article we are bringing in here now?! Doom and gloom much?

 

[SD51555]

LOL….. A ZeroHedge article we are bringing in here now?! Doom and gloom much?

Got me.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Maybe it's a long shot. Maybe it's a certainty? What would you do if the only thing you can get is 0-0-0 (that's nothing).

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

.........an end to soil welfare?

bill

 

[Native Hunter]

I have a spot where cattle were fed (and pooped generously) for 30 years. I will concentrate my plotting in that location.

 

[goatman]

A dead fish in every hole.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

What is this fertilizer you speak of? Is this some new product for food plotters that will make my bucks grow bigger antlers? I have just been rotating my crops to take advantage of their different soil building characteristics. Is there something else I should be doing? Asking for a friend.

 

[SD51555]

What is this fertilizer you speak of? Is this some new product for food plotters that will make my bucks grow bigger antlers? I have just been rotating my crops to take advantage of their different soil building characteristics. Is there something else I should be doing? Asking for a friend.

I really don't know. I've only heard of it on the internet. After the year of supply shocks and outright shortages of everything in every supply chain, I thought this was just teed up to also go down next year. I've got a feeling we're headed for a hard lockdown this fall/winter and it's gonna be a supply chain disaster.

 

[Catscratch]

I'll do exactly the same thing I always do and not use it. With that said I believe that it's likely there will be lots of shortages and price hikes including seed/fertilizer.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I can't speak to whether or not we will have a lockdown again. But I do work in the fertilizer industry for a manufacturer. We source our own raw ingredients as well as purchase some on the market. Prices for some ingredients are absolutely going to go up. At the retail level, higher commodity prices are probably not going to help from retailers protecting their margin.

 

[jsasker007]

One thing this country is full of is shit. Don't think we'll have a problem.

 

[SwampCat]

I dont use fertilizer now

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I’ve never used fertilizer. Seems like a waste of money for some food plots to me.

 

[SwampCat]

I plant wheat into durana clover. Clover makes nitrogen, wheat uses nitrogen.

 

[yoderjac]

Maybe it's a long shot. Maybe it's a certainty? What would you do if the only thing you can get is 0-0-0 (that's nothing).

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

I'd do the same thing I did the last half dozen years or so. Minimize tillage to improve soil health and nutrient cycling, select complementary crops like legumes and grasses for mixes and rotations, keep planting rates of high N-seeking crops like brassica low, make sure the pH is right, and skip the fertilizer.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I know some of the veterans on here are not adding fertilizer to their food plots year over year. But if you are establishing a new food plot and are taking soil samples and learn you have deficiencies, it's better to balance your nutrients from the beginning to get them in a good place.

 

[yoderjac]

I know some of the veterans on here are not adding fertilizer to their food plots year over year. But if you are establishing a new food plot and are taking soil samples and learn you have deficiencies, it's better to balance your nutrients from the beginning to get them in a good place.

There are some cases where things are way out of whack and nutrients need to be addressed. This is often on farmland that has been tilled and planted with monocultures for years. For new ground a huge imbalance is not the norm. Keep in mind that fertilizer recommendations from soil tests are targeted at farmers planting monocultures and need maximum yield to be economical, and remove lots of nutrients by harvesting crops.

I like to think of it this way. Dirt is the limiting factor for deer food. Not the dirt in your food plot, but all the dirt in the home range of the local herd. Most of a deer's diet does not come from food you plant. It comes from native food sources growing in that unfertilized dirt. Some areas of the country (which correlate directly with ag yields) will always have richer soil and bigger deer. No matter how much we amend food plots we can't override the underlying fertility of the soil in the general area. The key thing we bring with food plots is providing quality food during stress periods when nature is not providing quality foods. So, timing and selecting crops with will produce when nature is stingy is the most important factor. Much more important than yield. Anything left in a field after the stress period is not contributing to the health of the herd.

By using planting techniques that are soil health friendly, I'm not depleting my soil which constantly requires adding amendments.

I'm not saying there is never a case when commercial fertilizer is beneficial. I will say that the fertilizer recommendation you get with a soil test, don't represent what is needed for deer management. I also don't mean to discourage folks from using soil testing. I use it regularly, but I let my crops and how deer relate to them tell me when there is a problem. Soil test can help identify or eliminate potential causes for the problem.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Hoytvectrix]

There are some cases where things are way out of whack and nutrients need to be addressed. This is often on farmland that has been tilled and planted with monocultures for years. For new ground a huge imbalance is not the norm. Keep in mind that fertilizer recommendations from soil tests are targeted at farmers planting monocultures and need maximum yield to be economical, and remove lots of nutrients by harvesting crops.

I like to think of it this way. Dirt is the limiting factor for deer food. Not the dirt in your food plot, but all the dirt in the home range of the local herd. Most of a deer's diet does not come from food you plant. It comes from native food sources growing in that unfertilized dirt. Some areas of the country (which correlate directly with ag yields) will always have richer soil and bigger deer. No matter how much we amend food plots we can't override the underlying fertility of the soil in the general area. The key thing we bring with food plots is providing quality food during stress periods when nature is not providing quality foods. So, timing and selecting crops with will produce when nature is stingy is the most important factor. Much more important than yield. Anything left in a field after the stress period is not contributing to the health of the herd.

By using planting techniques that are soil health friendly, I'm not depleting my soil which constantly requires adding amendments.

I'm not saying there is never a case when commercial fertilizer is beneficial. I will say that the fertilizer recommendation you get with a soil test, don't represent what is needed for deer management. I also don't mean to discourage folks from using soil testing. I use it regularly, but I let my crops and how deer relate to them tell me when there is a problem. Soil test can help identify or eliminate potential causes for the problem.

Thanks,

Jack

I wasn't talking just about sufficiency ranges. I specifically mentioned balance because of the importance of balancing basic cation ratios in a soil's CEC. Farmland that has been "mis-farmed" for years, like the ones many of us are purchasing to turn into deer havens, are exactly the types of areas that would benefit from a proper soil test used to adjust deficiencies and correct any imbalances (if needed).

It doesn't even have to be farmed ground. We had cat work done on our farm that moved quite a bit of top soil to regrade some areas and remove trees. I'm willing to bet many on this forum have plots in areas that have had soil disturbance, and at least many of them have not had that soil tested. The point is, it's important that guys don't just not apply fertilizer out of principle because they think it isn't needed in a food plot environment.

Edit: for what it's worth, the only fertilizer that has ever been applied to any our plots were to correct initial deficiencies and some nitrogen for sorghum this year.

 

[yoderjac]

I wasn't talking just about sufficiency ranges. I specifically mentioned balance because of the importance of balancing basic cation ratios in a soil's CEC. Farmland that has been "mis-farmed" for years, like the ones many of us are purchasing to turn into deer havens, are exactly the types of areas that would benefit from a proper soil test used to adjust deficiencies and correct any imbalances (if needed).

It doesn't even have to be farmed ground. We had cat work done on our farm that moved quite a bit of top soil to regrade some areas and remove trees. I'm willing to bet many on this forum have plots in areas that have had soil disturbance, and at least many of them have not had that soil tested. The point is, it's important that guys don't just not apply fertilizer out of principle because they think it isn't needed in a food plot environment.

Edit: for what it's worth, the only fertilizer that has ever been applied to any our plots were to correct initial deficiencies and some nitrogen for sorghum this year.

I completely agree. Those are the exceptions I was referring to. I've had to reclaim old logging decks where the topsoil was removed and it was no fun getting things back in balance. We all have different situations and it is good to have multiple perspectives. There will be some folks that have the conditions you describe.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

TNM radish and barley with no fertilizer. Other than a 3 year old clover plot that I rotated that is.


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