Fertilizing pasture

[juliepoudrier]

My housemate wants to fertilize the pasture the sheep are on. Is it safe to do so? We don't have the other pasture fenced yet, so if we can't fertilize with the sheep there, we need to know. I would be worried about them ingesting the fertilizer and any toxic effects that might have. Thanks!

 

J.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

My ag extension people recommend waiting for most soil amendment products to get watered in, to turn out animals.

 

My neighbor uses liquids, and says those are safer. I don't know about that. He also says his red Border Collie is an Australian Shepherd, and my black and white dogs are Aussies too.

 

Lime is normally okay - I learned one year that if your feed is low in Ca, they will go gorge on the pulverized lime if allowed. Oops. Speaking of which, I'm going to need another bag of mineral soon! That's on my list of "Reasons I Need to Get to Julie's."

 

Fertilizing would be well worth the trouble of keeping them up until the weekend, when we expect more rain. I've been doing ours a little bit at a time, alternating lime and fertilizer. I'm amazed at how the front field has rebounded.

[Bill Fosher]

Assuming we're talking about soluble chemical fertilizer, the two concerns I would have would be nitrate poisoning and hypomagnesemia (grass tetany). Both are the result of a so-called "luxury uptake" of nutrients by grass, and both are particularly pronounced when grass is recovering from drought.

 

I'm not sure what the protocol is to avoid either one (fertilizer for pasture hasn't been in the budget for years) but I think it's a matter of a few days to a week after the grass has been fertilized and rained on.

[Mona Howard]

Hi Julie,

We always go by the "three rains or three weeks" motto.

Depending on the soil tests tells us what we need to put down. Nitrogen almost

every year. We have not had a problem yet. Can you dry lot them with hay for

a bit? Hay here is $10.50 for a tiny 40 lb. bale. Round bales are much cheaper

but you can't find them right now. Thank God I've got nice ryegrass pasture until

it gets too hot.

[juliepoudrier]

Thanks everybody,

I think even if we could divide the pasture and just fertilize one part at the time it would help. NC is offering grants to folks for drought recovery (reseeding/fertilizing pastures, pond/stream repair or upgrade, etc.), so I think that's why my housemate is thinking about fertilizing now. The problem is that I can't afford electronet at the moment (a series of large vet bills has nearly done me in) or I could just move them in netting over to the unfenced pasture (and I'm thinking the unfenced pasture is going to always remain the unfenced pasture, but that's another story....). A bit of fertilizer would help the pasture tremendously. I could dry lot them short term, and we do still have some round bales left, and it's time to wean, so drylotting wouldn't be such a bad idea, well, except it's getting hot during the day and there's no shade in the drylot area. Three weeks is a long time--and I can't count on three rains in anything less than three weeks either. I guess I need to think about this more.

 

J.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

You could borrow electronet from someone who has it and isn't currently using it. Like, hmm, me! I've got two full lengths and one more partial length (bit torn up, but would work as a deterrent still). I'm going to be weaning starting next week so everyone will be relegated to one solid fenced pasture or other, except the ram, who never goes anywhere.

[kajarrel]

I've also heard the 3 week rule (because the uptake of the N peaks IN THE GRASS at about 2 weeks), but to be quite honest, I've grazed my sheep sooner (after fertilizing with urea) without ill effects. We live in an area that typically gets a lot of rain so this may be a factor. Like Mona, we get a soil sample tested before fertilizing to make sure you're applying the right nutrients. If the pH is off, you won't get the same nutrient uptake, so you might want to apply lime this year too (although you won't know without a soil sample and you won't see the results immediately).

 

Kim

[herdcentral]

Where I live in Australia grass tetany can be common mainly in cattle -Low levels of magneisum in the blood especially during peak lactation.

 

Over fertilising grassy pastures with nitrogen and potassium on magnesium poor soils can predispose this condition.

 

I think you can test the cation ratio of a pasture and if it is above a certain value, supplementation with salt and magnesium are thought to be a sensible precaution when grazing potential high risk pastures with sheep. Application of dolomite or MgO to pastures can also help but their effectiveness is soil type dependant.

 

With cows, MgO can be mixed with water and applied to hay being fed out as a supplement during risky times when there is a big flush of growth due to a nitrogen response. Often just feeding out some hay during this period is helpful.