sugar beet tailings?

nwmn

5 year old buck +
has anybody ever used sugar beet tailings as a means to build soil? I'm on the fence for getting 24 tons for 200 bucks for a future food plot. is this a good idea or is it too risky with baiting laws? I would never hunt on or near it but merely use it to help deer into winter and ease the burden of our pathetic weather. not only that but I feel it's cheap fert compared to commercial stuff.

anybody think it's a good idea/deal? I'm not sure on the nutrient content of the stuff, but I'd think it's gotta be better than nothing
 
They mine a ton of nitrogen, so you would be putting some of that back into your soil. As long as you weren't concerned with the whole "baiting" thing, I would pull the trigger. Stu has a great idea to circumvent the baiting by waiting until the season is over, but I'm not sure it would be available that late in the year? 48,000lbs of organic matter can't hurt, and for $200 that comes out to .004 cents per pound. No way could you grow that amount of any kind of green manure for that cheap.
 
Well that is almost free N and OM at that price and no real risk involved!
 
just curious as to how you are going to transport 24 tons of "anything" for 200 bucks. So it's free freight? you have to pick it up?
 
has anybody ever used sugar beet tailings as a means to build soil? I'm on the fence for getting 24 tons for 200 bucks for a future food plot. is this a good idea or is it too risky with baiting laws? I would never hunt on or near it but merely use it to help deer into winter and ease the burden of our pathetic weather. not only that but I feel it's cheap fert compared to commercial stuff.

anybody think it's a good idea/deal? I'm not sure on the nutrient content of the stuff, but I'd think it's gotta be better than nothing

Plz PM me on your source. Our club is getting a couple loads this winter and $41 per ton delivered was our best quote.
 
I plan on piling mine up and requesting the DNR come erect a structure around them to keep the deer out so I can disc them in to improve my soil.
 
Thats some funny shit right there! I just might do that-
 
Why in the world wouldn't they spread them back on the ground they came from?

-John
 
John I thought the same thjng. these fields in the winter are BLACK and causes a ton of wind erosion in windyville usa. you would think adding it back would only make sense.

it's 5 bucks a mile outside 20, so assuming this guy is just getting rid of "waste" and gets paid per load regardless. I figure the cost of seed, fert, weed management to grow sugarbeets far outweighs getting a huge shipment of this stuff for this cheap. like its been said too, free n and om. if I don't hunt over it and spread it out with intentions on building soil and increasing fertility, there I no risk in getting "in trouble" farmers don't get in trouble for applying manure or commercial fert. there are far worse things a person could do than helping deer survive winter and growing better food for them with help of cheap nutrients. now, if I were to pile 24 tons and sit on my porch and pick off deer coming for a snack that might be a different story :)
 
there I no risk in getting "in trouble" farmers don't get in trouble for applying manure or commercial fert. :)

There are green manure laws in the MN books now after a farmer piled pumpkins and shot deer. He claimed it was a farming practice, and I believe was found not guilty but they changed the verbage next year in MN.
 
They are used as cattle feed so I am sure they would be considered a placed food source.

If you place them after the hunting season, I would be concerned about a possible negative impact on the deer's digestive system.
 
Dump em. But don't hunt over them.

Times have changed.

I can't tell you how many does I killed as a kid over dump truck loads of carrots in South Jersey. The vegetable dump was the vegetable dump. All summer long it got pickles, peppers, tomatoes then in the fall if it wasn't pretty enough for Birdseye it got carrots. Normal farming practices back then. And I'm not talking about those little carrots you get in a salad. These were stew carrots. Some of those things were 5 lbs and if they got dumped in Nov the pile was still there in March.

Maybe I need to plant me some carrots. :).
 
I plan on piling mine up and requesting the DNR come erect a structure around them to keep the deer out so I can disc them in to improve my soil.
Maybe they can also get you a dozen depredation tags to use as well. :confused:
 
hmm, well maybe I notify them prior to doing so so that I don't look suspicious and trying to hide something. I just want a soil booster that doubles as winter food. everything's gotta be so difficult these days with our government agencies
 
Are you going to plow it down in the spring, or try to seed through it?
 
depends on how well it gets distributed. I'm leaning on plowing up the ground this fall and use a manure spreader to get coverage over 4-5 acres or so, then disk it in the spring before planting. the area I want it in is part of the 10 acres we close on friday with a cabin/house. it's just foot tall grass right now so it wouldn't take much with the chisel plow to get started.

best to work up first then spread tailings onto winter rye planted soil or should it just be on grass, as it is now? I suppose if ground is frozen with snow it won't make a difference. figure getting winter rye planted this fall is a first step in building the soil.
 
Dipper, SMSmith, or MoBuck may be the one to tackle that question. If it's not worked in right away, I'm not sure how much N you'll get out of it. Keep in mind, I'm an a novice at soils and nutrients. The reason I say that is because with manure, if you don't incorporate it quickly, almost all of your nitrogen will be lost to the atmosphere. I know that's not an apples to apples comparison. I wonder if the bulk of the capturable nitrogen isn't in the tuber and roots below ground when soils guys talk about the nutrient mining capabilities of brassicas.

Something to discuss here further if nothing else.
 
I plan on piling mine up and requesting the DNR come erect a structure around them to keep the deer out so I can disc them in to improve my soil.

Hahahahahahahahahaha!
 
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