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Replacing commercial fertilizer with manure

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I'm planning to start composting chicken manure this year with my cattle manure. That should up my nitrogen levels nicely.
 
Whitewing, be careful to add chicken/bovine manure mixes without first testing some soil where you'll be spreading it. You don't know if you've made progress if you don't know where you're starting point was. Test first, then apply, then retest the following year. You will then be able to see what elements rose and what did not, and use your eye to analyze the forage and see what coincides with the results on paper.

Don't be surprised if your chook/cow manure approach causes other elements to become bound up and unavailable for plant absorption. Nitrogen is far from the only element required, and if soil is truly balanced and healthy, it will create all the nitrogen the plant requires.
 
PureCountry said:
Whitewing, be careful to add chicken/bovine manure mixes without first testing some soil where you'll be spreading it. You don't know if you've made progress if you don't know where you're starting point was. Test first, then apply, then retest the following year. You will then be able to see what elements rose and what did not, and use your eye to analyze the forage and see what coincides with the results on paper.

Don't be surprised if your chook/cow manure approach causes other elements to become bound up and unavailable for plant absorption. Nitrogen is far from the only element required, and if soil is truly balanced and healthy, it will create all the nitrogen the plant requires.
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I'm trying to find a decent soil testing kit right now to bring back with me. So far it looks like the results are all over the map depending on the brand.

I'll also see if I can find some means by which to get my soils tested by 'professionalsl' down there, though I just won't have the options we have here in the states. County Agents aren't easy to find there.

Having said all that, I doubt I'm going to be putting huge amounts of anything in my pastures. And since I do have several sections I'm working with for baling, I can easily do one, wait for rains, and see if I can visually discern any differences in growth from one area to the next.
 
PureCountry said:
Whitewing, if there is a dairy around you, or even some farmers hand milking a few of those eared breeds, try spreading raw milk on a patch and see what happens.

Go about 2 gallons of milk in 10-12 gallons of water. Use raw milk, pasteurization kills anything healthy in it, and use clean water.
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How much of this 2 gallons of milk X 10 gallons of water do you put on an acre?
 
All of it. 12 ga per acre combined. We've only done it on small areas with an ATV sprayer. Other applications have been on fruit trees and the garden, sloshing it on with a cup out of a 5ga bucket.

Google "Raw milk for pastures" and you'll find several articles on it being used by US farmers.
 
PureCountry said:
All of it. 12 ga per acre combined. We've only done it on small areas with an ATV sprayer. Other applications have been on fruit trees and the garden, sloshing it on with a cup out of a 5ga bucket.

Google "Raw milk for pastures" and you'll find several articles on it being used by US farmers.
Click to expand...

We are going to try this at a small sample. I have a field of alfalfa that needs broken up as it is pretty thin, so this year we drilled in a half seeding of Barley in this field. It is only a couple inches tall so I don't think it should be to late. My brother hand milks a cow so we will put a couple gallons down and see what it does. If it works, it seems to be a pretty cheap way to fertilze. I am also going to drip a little on my lawn and garden and see what it does there. I will try to post some photos later in the year and see what it look like.
 
Try taking some pics at ground level with a tape measure/ruler to show the height between sprayed and unsprayed areas. Helps alot to give people perspective I've found.
If Barley is 2" tall now it would be perfect timing by the time you get it sprayed. Best of luck.
 

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