Help interpret my soil sample?

SD51555

5 year old buck +
I did a top 6" soil sample. I just got my results back. But i'm unsure how to translate this into "add this."

From what I can tell, it looks like I have no N, ok P, and a plenty of K. OM of 7.7% is believable, but it only runs about 9 inches deep, then it's solid clay.

They ran this test as if I was going to no-till oats into fallow ground.

So what do I do from here? Can't do tillage, don't have the equipment. Would like to try fall plotting oats and berseem. I may do rye/clover instead. Not sure yet.

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I can't see the berseem either as stu says above. Get some alsike and some medium red clover to mix with the oats. Maybe some white dutch for the partridge. I am assuming this is your northern property-Cass County. I would throw in a little rye, also. Not rye grass, but winter rye (rye grain).
 
If your sample is from up in zone 1, the deer need all of the help they can get in the spring.
Oats and berseem clover will be frozen out. Rye mixed with other clovers will get the deer off to a better start in the spring after those long winters.
 
Yep, this is the Cass Cty property.
 
Am I correct in thinking the brassica won't go without some kind of 30-15-0 type fertilizer? I tried brassica once before and it germinated and sat there forever a quarter inch tall.
 
Am I correct in thinking the brassica won't go without some kind of 30-15-0 type fertilizer? I tried brassica once before and it germinated and sat there forever a quarter inch tall.
Did you have the brassica planted too thick? Yup, you need nitrogen.
 
Is there a bag fertilizer I can get that doesn't need rain to avoid evaporation? Isn't ammonium sulfate an option for something like that? You have to forgive me, my understanding of fertilizer and nutrients is in it's infancy yet.
 
SD.....how close to Pine River are you? I buy some bagged fertilizer at the feed store there. I think the numbers are 22/6/24/6 - the last digit being sulfur. While I till my fertilizer in....the guy at the store sez that they have a coating on the fertilizer to slow its loss until it rains. Not sure how effective this is??

I have some white clover and winter rye that is the first crops to offer "green" for my deer. Seems to get a few does to bed / live on my land. Just planted some beans.....and that will offer the June / July nutrition......if it rains.

I like Alice White clover....but I have several types of white clover. I suppose I should plant some medium red too.....as lots of guys seem to brag on it.
 
Lime would sure help your clover efforts.....at least in my experience. I have seen a marked difference in my clover......before and after lime applications.
 
I'm no soil guy...but with a ph of 5.6 , a buffer ph of 6.9, and 7.7% organic matter...I really don't think he needs any lime to grow pretty doggonegood clover.
Tell me why you say this Stu??? Maybe I don't understand buffer PH (?). I do agree the OM is pretty good....but ??
 
Now it makes sense! Ok, I can work with that explanation. Earlier we went round and round about lime sources and ideas. It still seems like bagged pel lime is gonna be my best bet for simplicity. Given it's pell, no-till, and looking like I can get into the arena with less, this can work for me.

The stump removal project never got off the ground this spring. The guy that was gonna come do it got tied up getting his own crops in and then having to hit the road to chase the wheat harvest outta Texas.

So getting back to my ever evolving plan... I've still got grass and stumps in the way of my plot. Here's the most current thought:

Spread lime asap.
Spray gly on Aug 1st.
Broadcast rye/brassica August 14th. (save clover for spring)
Drive it in with a four wheeler.

Any holes in that plan?
 
SD.....how close to Pine River are you? I buy some bagged fertilizer at the feed store there. I think the numbers are 22/6/24/6 - the last digit being sulfur. While I till my fertilizer in....the guy at the store sez that they have a coating on the fertilizer to slow its loss until it rains. Not sure how effective this is??

I have some white clover and winter rye that is the first crops to offer "green" for my deer. Seems to get a few does to bed / live on my land. Just planted some beans.....and that will offer the June / July nutrition......if it rains.

I like Alice White clover....but I have several types of white clover. I suppose I should plant some medium red too.....as lots of guys seem to brag on it.

Pine River is about 40 miles round trip outta my way. I've got a friend in Fargo that has pretty good ag hookups in the area. I have to get in touch with him and see where he gets his fertilizer. I gotta imagine if I dig deep enough I can find a co-op between Fargo and Detroit Lakes that has something.

This has been good. I appreciate all the help fellas.
 
Alsike and red clover will tolerate some lower pH's. Especially alsike for the wetter areas. S This fall,pray a few spots and spread some clover with a bit of rye, if you would like.

foggy's clover is beautiful with the pH that he has generated. But you can grow OK, alsike and red without a lot of lime. Maybe not great clover, but OK.
 
Totally agree stu, the OM makes a huge difference in whether or not your clover will hold up during the heat on sandy soil. Our OM was more like .7, which is why the heat of July and August killed anything we had growing every summer. OM will hold moisture in the upper soil levels, our extremely low levels of OM allowed the top 8" to be completely blow sand dry within days after a good soaking rain event if the temp was above 85deg.
 
Planting your brassica in mid August is goo a be awfully late for Cass County....IMO. You can brassica anytime after mid June .....that looks like it's gonna rain.....IMO. Tho mid July May be more conventional thinking. Too late into August is askin for trouble.....me thinks.
 
I can bump up the planting date. I'm not beholden to mid august. I'd feel better if I had it done and outta the way earlier anyway.
 
We're gonna find out what happens with a third week of May planting (mow, spray, spray, broadcast, cultipack) of green globe turnips and forage collards this year.
Get some pictures of the growth, Stu.
 
We're gonna find out what happens with a third week of May planting (mow, spray, spray, broadcast, cultipack) of green globe turnips and forage collards this year.
I gotta imagine those are going to be pretty "woody" by fall.....no? Will be interested to see your results.

I think I'm moving my brasica mix (GGT or PTT/ DER/ GHR) to late June or early July. Gonna try to get ahead of a few rainfalls. The dry spells we've had in August have been devastating to newly seeded plots.
 
I did a top 6" soil sample. I just got my results back. But i'm unsure how to translate this into "add this."
I am now where you were at the beginning of this post, I posted the results on my land tour but never have many commenters so I searched soil sample titles and found this. I went with Midwest Labs (I think you recommended them) in another post for a S3C analysis. I am a noob at soil sample analysis so this all seems foreign to me as to what I am lacking and what do I need to add other than almost 5 tons of Lime/acre? Seems excessive but makes sense on why everything I plant seems lethargic growing.

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When my hair was brown and my energy level was high - back when I was making soil amendment recommendations for the producers who frequented the coop I managed I'd look at their soil test results, I'd look them in the eye and ask two questions. What do expect from this crop and how fat is your wallet?

Expectations run high and if they are to be accomplished it might take some time to get you soil conditioned to meet those expectations. And, it takes a fat wallet to get there, usually.

Amending soil is an investment. Get you pH right and with a little maintenance it provides wonderful returns. Hint: pH doesn't need to be much out of the upper 5's and into the low 6s for what we do. P & K hold in the soil. Medium levels are adequate. High and Very High levels are for the future and might provide some benefit now in crappy conditions. Two years ago if we knew then what we know now we'd have been putting the P&K down like a carpet.

To you situation, Trees - pay those recommendations no mind. They assume an answer to the questions I asked above.

The sample named "food plots?" What do you expect and how deep is your wallet. Every thing I see in the test result is adequate. If you're on a budget I'd say seed it and stand back. If you want to spend some money to help yourself now and provided some future nutrients some amount of MAP or DAP would be helpful. DAP is diammonium phosphate 18-46-0. You get some nitrogen and phosphorous. No potash. You don't need it. If you did 100lb per acre your basic N would be provided for what you want to plant and you get a good boost in P. Or, since your P level is medium you could just choose a nitrogen fertilizer. See, there are no hard and fast answers. There are multiple plans to do the same thing. Some are quick and expensive other slower and cheaper at least from a per application point of view.

Lime? A ton to the acre. A ton in the spring and a ton in the fall. Or a ton a year apart. You can get all enthusiastic and do two tons, but, frankly, I don't think you get much benefit over one ton per application. We could talk lime all day, but not here. So, again, plenty of choices.

Then if you want to get real fancy add some sulfur and boron. Ammonium sulfate fertilizer will help with S. I hear guys use Borax for the boron part. You can buy elemental boron to mix with your fertilizer.

So, now you're scratching your head about what to do. What do you expect and how much do you want to spend?

The wood sample? I was never much concerned with what the soils were like for tree planting. I'm sure many will beg to differ. I do think the hole you dig and what kind of medium you put in the hole is important - much more important than the fertility level of the soils around it.
 
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