Lime and more Lime

[poorboy]

At $30 a ton, no wonder they charge that much for the hay. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] The guy that spreads here charges $12 a ton and usually just hauls it straight from the quarry. I have seen him go over some pretty steep ground. I bet he could use a beefy truck like that one sometimes.

Patrick

[jtd]

In our area having lime spread is $26/ton (at least that was the price early this year before fuel shot up).

[b249]

Joe,

I didn't take the time to "do the math" re: the number passes over one acre to put a ton of lime down! Me thinks I'll drop a dime on the co-op to see what their guys charge.

I'll post the quote when I get it.

b249

[JoeR]

That big truck did 5 acres in 4 passes. It took him only 15 minutes to do all of my property! He has a computer that controls the spread distance and amount of material that is thrown. The GPS unit inside the truck allows him to control how much overlap he has in each pass, so he gets very accurate and does not waste material on overlap.

If I did it myself, I would have loaded 10, 50lb bags into my spreader for a total of 500lbs. Then I would have to do spread on 1 acre, and repeat the process for a total of 4 times for one acre. That would be the equivalent of 2,000lbs per acre. Too much work, and much more expensive to buy lime in 50lb bags.

Joe

[cam0148]

I was wondering why you were having the lime spread in the first place?

I have a very high alkali level in my pasture, and have heard that lime will help.

Jeff

Lime is spread to raise the ph of your soil. It's very critical to getting good crops to grow, whether that be alfalfa, grass, corn, etc.

[egon]

As I know it Alkali level is the result of leached out mineral salts being deposited in lower lying areas. Doubt if lime will help.

This type of situation can become a real problem in irrigated areas.

Egon

It depends egon. If he's talking about alkali soil or if he's talking about an alkaline ph in the soil.

[Phred]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
high alkali level

[/ QUOTE ]

You mean high Ph?
Usually a number between about 5-8 for soil.
If you are above 7 then you are alkali. Below 7 is some what acidic. exactly 7 is netural.
Usually in my area low is the problem, that is why we all lime.
I had one field last year that had been neglected by previous onwer and it was 4.9! Still have not got that up to par, even with lime addition. Will require much more than a few tons per acre.

If you are in deed high, the question is will this be a problem for the crop of interest. If so you can use ground gypsun, just like we use lime. The difference is it will lower your ph, rather than raise it like lime.

Fred