Did I eff myself by buying Dolomitic lime?

Wind Gypsy

5 year old buck +
I had a 16 ton load of "ag lime" delivered recently. Nobody ever said a thing about it being dolomitic lime but I just looked at the test report from the vendor saying the lime is 18.3% Ca and 11% Mg.

My soil tests didn't measure Ca or Mg soils but they are ASHTO class A-4 silty loam, and poorly draining. I'm worried that this lime will do more harm than good now after a little reading. Without having Ca and Mg ratio handy, is it fair to assume I should not apply this lime?

I've already spread some but the majority of my fields have yet to be treated.
 
Reading some WI and MI extension produced resources on the topic, most are saying there are no negative impacts to using dolomitic. My concerns came from reading this:

4196646E-5CF0-48FC-ABDD-EA808BEF661D.png
 
I say you will be fine, you might need to add more than suggested by soil test that's all

I think I used about every type of lime there is, never seen any negative to any of it for food plots or crop fields, minus the efforts to spread some of it(wet lime sucks, super dry and dusty not much more fun either if working in a non cabbed machine and spreading a LOT of it HAHA )
 
Do you have a soil test showing your base saturation levels and CEC?

I'd also get out a shovel and see what you've got under your topsoil. My property is a goofy one. If I just did 6" sample, it's comes up single digit CEC and is a fine sandy loam. Get down 12" and it's solid clay.
 
You should be fine. Also, balanced calcium and magnesium ratios in a CEC are kind of an outdated theory. Most of the peer-reviewed research shows that there isn't a whole lot of truth to it as long as you do not have deficiencies in any of the nutrients.
 
Do you have a soil test showing your base saturation levels and CEC?

I'd also get out a shovel and see what you've got under your topsoil. My property is a goofy one. If I just did 6" sample, it's comes up single digit CEC and is a fine sandy loam. Get down 12" and it's solid clay.

I only have pretty basic soil test results, didn’t see those details included.
B3E713EF-1CB8-4567-9243-88E216BC2CE0.png40245306-2A01-4E84-BAD5-3855E23166F0.png
 
I’ve only dug around in the soil twice - once last august when we bought the property and it was a challenge with the drought to chip some of the hard ass soil out for a soil test, and this spring when it was muddy. I was mainly concerned with making the soil any tighter.
 
Couple thoughts. I'd go back and get a complete soil test before you put on any lime at all. Set up an account with midwest labs and do their S3C complete analysis. You really cannot make a lime rec unless you know what you're starting with.

I would run a second soil test from 12-18" to see what is down there.

How many acres was this 16 tons going to cover?
 
Couple thoughts. I'd go back and get a complete soil test before you put on any lime at all. Set up an account with midwest labs and do their S3C complete analysis. You really cannot make a lime rec unless you know what you're starting with.

I would run a second soil test from 12-18" to see what is down there.

How many acres was this 16 tons going to cover?

16 tons was the minimum delivery I could get. I will likely not spread it all this year. I intended to just get roughly 1 - 1.5 tons per acre spread this year on my plots.

My 60 something YO neighbor who’s family has been farming there for generations figured it would want multiple tons per acre and along with the U’s soil test recommendation I figured that was a pretty safe path.
 
16 tons was the minimum delivery I could get. I will likely not spread it all this year. I intended to just get roughly 1 - 1.5 tons per acre spread this year on my plots.

My 60 something YO neighbor who’s family has been farming there for generations figured it would want multiple tons per acre and along with the U’s soil test recommendation I figured that was a pretty safe path.
They probably got your buffer pH right, and that means you've already got a fairly tight soil at a 6.2 value. I'd at least get another test for all the information the university left blank. I wouldn't wanna jack the magnesium with another 2 tons of dolomitic lime. You've got an opportunity to really soften up your soil by dumping on calcitic lime.

Dairy white barn lime is high yielding calcitic (38-40% calcium) at Fleet Farm, and is $4.29/bag @ 50 lbs. That's $86/ton. If you have the ability to spread ag lime like that, I'd do that.

Liming sucks and it is a lot of work. But it's rewarding when you can do it right. With a 5.7 pH, you don't need to go far to get into the strike zone. The only reason to push past about 6.2 is if you have some low pH weeds that aren't playing nicely. Depending on your vehicle, I'd just haul a load up every time you go. I load lime in my vehicle like I've got passengers. 4 in the front seat, 6 in the back seat. And keep hauling every time you go until you get it. I hauled lime 5 trips in a row last summer to get my little project up to a 1 ton/acre rate.
 
I put down dolomitic lime on my land.....35 tons of it. I have sandy soils. I got good ph now (last I checked). I will take that lime off your hands if you haul it. (Big Mr Haney Grin). I think your fine with it.....but I know little about the difference. I was told that the Dolomitic lime will last allot longer and is slower reacting.....and good for sand.
 
it’s really not that hard scooping with the loader into the rhino limer and spreading. Would that bagged barn lime spread the same in a drop spreader?
 
it’s really not that hard scooping with the loader into the rhino limer and spreading. Would that bagged barn lime spread the same in a drop spreader?
That barn lime comes in bags.....and it's really fine. I bought a skid of it for my first lime treatment......about 15 years ago.....and it was a real pistol to spread that stuff. It was everywhere. My wife said "never again". .....and I built my EZ Flow lime spreader. 😉 I would NOT go down that rabbit hole if you have a spreader.
 
That barn lime comes in bags.....and it's really fine. I bought a skid of it for my first lime treatment......about 15 years ago.....and it was a real pistol to spread that stuff. It was everywhere. My wife said "never again". .....and I built my EZ Flow lime spreader. 😉 I would NOT go down that rabbit hole if you have a spreader.

Looks like that’s what they used in this video? The shitty parts would be dusty bag opening 50# at a time rather than dumping 1000# with a loader scoop and the headache of loading at the store, hauling to land, and unloading.

 
Dairy white barn lime is high yielding calcitic (38-40% calcium) at Fleet Farm, and is $4.29/bag @ 50 lbs. That's $86/ton. If you have the ability to spread ag lime like that, I'd do that.

Just to make sure I understand, you’re saying $86 per ton ENP not actual weight barn lime right?
 
Last edited:
Just to make sure I understand, you’re saying $86 per ton ENP not actually weight barn lime right?
I think i did that math wrong. $172 a ton in bags. Oh man.

Lime is a logistics puzzle. You're gonna have to figure out how many pounds you need and then figure out the best way to get it there and get it spread. I'd love to suggest how, but every amount is going to have a different best way. I have been tacking on additions to my two foods plots the last few years, and thankfully, they've been small. I can spread a bag of pell lime in a little over a minute by hand, and I limit myself to a half-ton per day. Last year I did about 3,000 pounds of lime and gypsum like that. It took me 4-5 weekends to get it all hauled up there. The Outback doesn't have a big payload capacity.

That's also why I was so hot to figure out how to grow stuff without fertilizer. That corrective liming is for the birds.
 
I put down dolomitic lime on my land.....35 tons of it. I have sandy soils. I got good ph now (last I checked). I will take that lime off your hands if you haul it. (Big Mr Haney Grin). I think your fine with it.....but I know little about the difference. I was told that the Dolomitic lime will last allot longer and is slower reacting.....and good for sand.

Foggy,

You are really dating yourself with the Mr Haney reference

bill
 
Thanks for posting that video, i have been looking for a drop spreader the past couple of days or plans to build one. If anyone has plans let me know please.
 
Thanks for posting that video, i have been looking for a drop spreader the past couple of days or plans to build one. If anyone has plans let me know please.
I posted plans on cutting down a 10 or 12 foot EZ Flow into a 6' footer on Tractor By Net some years ago. I also put it on the old QDMA site IIRC. This is a fairly straight forward operation to section one of these machines to a smaller width. Mine works great. Painted mine CAT yellow with hardened paint, new tires, etc. I would consider to sale it tho as I am all in on regen farming practices now. $1500. firm. I load mine from a stock pile via the tractor loader and pull the spreader with a wheeler. Goes pretty fast.....can do a 23 ton trailer in a day with all the work by myself.

EDIT: Google: EZ Flow Spreader, Tractor By Net. This is where I first met Tool'n. He built one after I posted mine on TBN. (the good ole days)
 

Attachments

  • ez flow .jpeg
    ez flow .jpeg
    65.4 KB · Views: 21
Last edited:
Top