Page B—Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 22, 2000 LIME AND PH: THINK AHEAD Mark Goodson, C.C.A. Extension Agent Agronomy Soils York County Capital Region Agronomy Team Watch the pH. The favorable pH for most crops is 6.0 to 7.0 and alfal fa requires 6.5 to 7. With perennial forages, it’s easy to forget to lime. Fields that have not received lime during the past three growing sea sons are probably falling below the optimum pH range. It’s a good idea to take a soil sample of perennial forages that have not received lime in the past few years. This will pro vide the opportunity to review other nutrient needs as well. Remember, agricultural lime stone does double duty. In addition to correcting pH, it is a fertilizer and provides the essential plant nutri ents calcium and magnesium. Soil test recommendations are the only way to determine whether high cal cium or magnesium limestone is needed. Feed Your Established Alfalfa According to the latest Penn State Agronomy Guide, alfalfa has the highest yield potential of all the perennial forage crops grown in Pennsylvania. Eight tons of dry matter yield and 4 tons of TON per acre are not uncommon when grown on deep, well-drained soils. Alfalfa has no equal as a feed for livestock or cash crop among perennial forages Want Good Alfalfa? (Continued from Page 6) The precious topsoil then is in a pre carious position to blow away later by the wind. “I plant oats for a companion crop when I seed the alfalfa down and I put some timothy in it, too,” Weimer said. “The timothy sort of fills in around the alfafa. It is shorter and less prominent than al falfa. The timothy you will see only the first two years. “The benefit is a quick ground cover. So, in the spring, if you get a lot of rain, you aren’t goin to lose the topsoil. Weimer sells alfalfa seed, too, which adds a social dimension to the business life he has lead for the last 15 years. “I do it just to get out and see what other farmers are doing,” he said, telling how he enjoys the ex change of ideas and observations. The drought in 1999 made watch ing the growth of alfalfa quite inter esting. At a site where Weimer found a natural underground water course exposed by a cave-in at a county road, the root system of his alfalfa had gone several feet deep until it reached the source of moisture. Overall, Weimer’s alfalfa sur vived quite well during the drought, he said. Weimer suggests anyone starting into alfalfa needs to select some of the better fields and follow up with soil testing and monitoring the drainage. There Are Plenty Of Ways To Ensure Good Alfalfa Good Management No Accident Alfalfa is a voracious feeder of when it comes to nutrients, especial ly potassium. Each ton of alfalfa removes 45 to 60 pounds of fertilizer potassium (also called potash or K2O). If you have soils that are adapted to alfalfa and you want to hit the 8-ton dry matter yield, your soils had better supply enough potash to provide that yield. At 50 pounds of potash per dry matter ton, eight tons would require 400 pounds of K2O. Straight potasn fertilizer is 0-0-60 and contains 60 pounds of K2O per hundred pounds of fertilizer material. It would take 666 pounds of straight 0-0-60 to replace the potash removed by just one year of 8-ton alfalfa. That’s a lot of fertilizer. How much potash do your alfalfa fields have to start the growing sea son? Soil Test Every Year Don’t buy fertilizer you don’t need. While alfalfa is a heavy feeder A superb cut with excellent conditioning performance. 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In many cases, a soil analysis the previous fall and a timely fertilizer or lime application would have kept these sands in tip top shape. For More Information As usual, the Penn State Agronomy Guide is your handbook for basic agronomy knowledge. Also check the Department of Agronomy Web site. The web is www.agrono my.psu.edu. Click on publications, then click on Agronomy Fact Sheets. As always, you can call me at (717) 840-7408 or email mwgl@psu.edu.
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