Fertilizing

High-yielding, quality alfalfa and corn silage place a high demand for potassium on soil’s nutrient- supplying power. To maximize animal performance and profitability, it’s important to look and keep a close eye on the potassium (K) level in your forage fields.

There is an opportunity to use cover crops in the winter to fill forage gaps while warm-season perennial grasses are dormant.

This fall, any fall for that matter, is a great time to take soil samples, come up with a liming and fertilization plan based on soil analysis, and apply the recommended amendments and nutrients to establish a new field or keep an older stand functioning well.

The importance of rotating old alfalfa stands is well established. As the alfalfa stand ages, forage yield and quality decline, while pressure from weeds, insects and diseases increases.

In this political season, it is worth remembering that policies do matter. In the 2004 presidential campaign season, the most frequent discussion was about energy policy. In the years that have followed, the game has changed. A shift occurred in energy policies in the U.S. in several momentous ways, and because fertilizer prices are intimately linked to energy prices, this has had major impacts on fertilizer prices in the 12 years since.

Early spring is the time to get out the soil probe and sample for soil fertility in preparation to provide adequate plant nutrition for alfalfa and other forage crops.