Food Plots Fertilizer... OUCH

[megalomaniac]

Holy crap, just contracted with the coop to spread fertilizer on my fall plots. Going with half the amount I used last year... yet it's still going to be $650 for 11 acres. That still leaves me with another 5 acres that have to be spread ourselves where the truck cannot reach.

Basically double the cost from last year. Feeding deer is getting expensive!

 

[BSK]

Tell me about it. Especially when you have to replant due to army worms.

 

[Pioneer1789]

I got priced $460/ton last year with a spreader cart rental for triple 15. It was the first time fertilizing my place, so I don't know if that's a good price or not.

 

[Sam Davis]

I can't believe you spend that much for food plots. It hurts paying the high prices for pasture and hay fields.Didn't realize people payed that for food plots.

 

[BSK]

I can't believe you spend that much for food plots. It hurts paying the high prices for pasture and hay fields.Didn't realize people payed that for food plots.

Easy to spend $3,000/year on 10 acres of food plots, considering lime, fertilizer, seed, equipment rental, etc.

 

[JhnDeereMan]

Only will be higher next spring. You can count on it with commodity prices above the 5 year average and all else going on.

If fertilizer follows most other farm inputs expect a 15-20% price increase.

 

[ruthunter]

Its $13.95 and up a bag in north Mississippi, I think I paid around $10.50 last year.

 

[DeerCamp]

Holy crap, just contracted with the coop to spread fertilizer on my fall plots. Going with half the amount I used last year... yet it's still going to be $650 for 11 acres. That still leaves me with another 5 acres that have to be spread ourselves where the truck cannot reach.

Basically double the cost from last year. Feeding deer is getting expensive!

Yikes!

Have you done soil tests that indicate it is needed?

 

[megalomaniac]

I can't believe you spend that much for food plots. It hurts paying the high prices for pasture and hay fields.Didn't realize people payed that for food plots.

Well... its for the deer, but I do cut the big fields in the spring for haylage for cattle. By the time you spend$30 to $40 per acre for seed, another $30 per acre for fuel and wear and tear on your equipment, $20 per acre for herbicide, and your time, it just doesn't make sense to not spend a little more and put another $50 per acre of fertilizer.

 

[megalomaniac]

Yikes!

Have you done soil tests that indicate it is needed?

Always! But I didn't pull samples this fall, just basing them on spring samples. I used to pull twice a year as I was adjusting the pH, but now that I've got that dialed in, I just check once a year.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Ya'll just need buy some ground with fertile dirt and be done with it.

 

[Pioneer1789]

Ya'll just need buy some ground with fertile dirt and be done with it.

Can't afford ground with good dirt!

 

[BSK]

Ya'll just need buy some ground with fertile dirt and be done with it.

I would be thrilled to actually have dirt instead of the chert rock that makes up my food plots!

 

[DeerCamp]

I would be thrilled to actually have dirt instead of the chert rock that makes up my food plots!

Eh, then you wouldn't have the Humphry's County Proving Grounds

 

[DeerCamp]

Ya'll just need buy some ground with fertile dirt and be done with it.

Where I live, it was 100% wooded before we built out the plots. Its mostly a red clay and has been an absolute chore to try and build up.

But I'm starting to make some progress. I put out (by hand) several thousand pounds of lime and fertilizer for the past few years, and have gone to the no-till method. I am starting to finally see progress. There is a layer of soil on top that is about 1/2" thick that is dark brown/black.

Just gonna keep churning.

 

[BSK]

Where I live, it was 100% wooded before we built out the plots. Its mostly a red clay and has been an absolute chore to try and build up.

But I'm starting to make some progress. I put out (by hand) several thousand pounds of lime and fertilizer for the past few years, and have gone to the no-till method. I am starting to finally see progress. There is a layer of soil on top that is about 1/2" thick that is dark brown/black.

Just gonna keep churning.

And that's the key - time. My most productive plots took YEARS of spray/broadcast/mow planting technique to produce a couple inches of brown humus topsoil.

 

[megalomaniac]

Fertilizer down, most of the drilling has been done... just need the front to cross to the east of Nashville and get some rain!

 

[megalomaniac]

Missed rain Wed, Thurs, and Fri, but we just got 2.5inches today!

 

[Pioneer1789]

We're getting a nice soaking rain in East TN today. I'll have to check my gauge when I get home to see how much.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Good ground soaker northern middle TN.... been raining all day.

 

[tnanh]

Broadcst my seed last Sun.. went to land yesterday and got 4.5 inches since Sunday. Probably got another 2 inches from right before dark yesterday and is raining now. Germination was good on crimson clover, just ok on wheat and rye cereal. This is North of Linden.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Broadcst my seed last Sun.. went to land yesterday and got 4.5 inches since Sunday. Probably got another 2 inches from right before dark yesterday and is raining now. Germination was good on crimson clover, just ok on wheat and rye cereal. This is North of Linden.

Hoping we got what you got. Wheat and rape were booming. Cereal rye and crimson was doing ok. Figured it'd be the opposite, however the wheat and rape were drilled instead of broadcasted.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Seems like when I started putting in plots over 20 years ago, that fertilizer and lime were under $5 a bag. I really need to put down some 6-12-12 on my clover. Gotten pretty ridiculous how high it is now.

 

[megalomaniac]

Ended up with 3.35in. Should be perfect to get the new seed started, hope it wasn't too much to wash the high dollar fertilizer off!

 

[BSK]

We've gotten 1.41" Friday through today. Certainly needed it too.

 

[megalomaniac]

We've gotten 1.41" Friday through today. Certainly needed it too.

Wow, I was so jealous of west of Nashville Wed and Thurs...

But yesterday and today, we got 5in on my farms east of Nashville!

Hope it wasn't too much to wash the fertilizer off before it soaked it!

 

[megalomaniac]

Another 2in today... thats almost 8 inches since Saturday.

A couple plots have standing water in them. I may have to replant those.

 

[megalomaniac]

9.5 in total rain...

2 of my plots had standing water in them for 6 days. That's 3 acres that have to be replanted
The big 8ac field and another plot are high. Got great germination in both of them.

Just going to broadcast cereal rye and crimson clover in the failed plots just before next rain in an attempt to salvage them.