I have two small pastures— about one and a half acres each that I need advice about. I know they need lime this year, and we will be doing that next week. We’ve sprayed for weeds the last two years as well. We mow to maintain a 4-6 inch height. I drag and pick manure, too. But… what fertilizer should I use? I’ve done 16-16-16 but what else is there? What’s best? Is there a spray on type? There’s no good farm supply place that can give decent advice around me, sadly. Also no bulk supply places— so it’s basically a bag at a time.
You should fertilize in the fall not the spring. I just finished a lecture series sponsored by the local Farm Bureau. Just what we were told…
Get a soil test done before putting on lime. You need to KNOW what the soil needs before throwing generalized fertilizers on. You may be just wasting money, or actually hurting the local water shed with washed away, unused fertilizers causing problems to weed and plant growth as they travel along. Too much nitrogen or other minerals is a big problem at end locations like lakes.
Plus you are wasting money on products that are washing away or actually impeding grass growth.
Do you have a County Extension Service? Start there if you have one, with your questions. If not get the number of your Land Grant College, the big Ag school in your State. Call them for advice, information on pasture keeping. They will know about localized problems and issues that pastured animals get where you live. You may have micro minerals in excess or lacking, that you need to consider as part of your horse diet.
Some mineral need “helping” minerals to work effectively, which you can’t know without a soil test. Anyone trying to advise you will need that soil test information to reach any conclusions.
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Soil test indicated lime needed-- not uncommon every year here in the very wet PNW. Fertilizer was suggested both spring and fall, thought fall is preferred. I was really hoping for advice on type of fertilizer, from those who use it a lot. My Extension office was kind of vague on type.
Your soil test should indicated the fertilizer needed for your pastures.
Or take it to someone who can read it, although the one we just had done spelled it out pretty clearly, as in how many pounds of nitrogen and potassium/acre. We didn’t need to add phosphorus. We decided to go ahead a buy a fertilizer spreader and then went and picked up bulk fertilizer, as we have both pastures and hay fields.
