Soil test

My first time getting a soil test done.i can't make heads or tails of it hardly lol.i think it says I need 3,000 pounds of lime per acre but as far as fertilizer I have no clue?any help from some real farmers out there would be awsome

Yes the lime is 3000 pounds, but the NPK should be units not pounds but the way it reads it says pounds. The reason NPK should be given in units is because depending on what product you use the weight changes, an example is liquid 32% nitrogen is 11.04 pounds per gallon and 6-24-6 with .25 zinc is 11.26 pound per gallon, I can’t remember the weight of 10-34-0 off the top of my head but it weighs more than 6-24-6-.25.

In our state we have a percent organic matter that helps one determine organic N, yours does not.

If you plant non legume crops then you need 50 lbs. of N The amount of N you get in a fertilizer is based on lbs. of N, P or K per ton. Say you buy a 20-20-20 fertilizer. You would need 250 lbs. of that type of fertilizer to give you 50 lbs. of N. You nee 80 lbs. of P and 90 lbs. of K . If you would buy s 9-23-30 fertilizer you would need 350 lbs. of that roughly. That would give you about 30 lbs. of N and you would need to add 20lbs. of N from another source say urea etc. You soil test is very low. You may want to not put all of that in at one time and go slow and not put a lot of expensive seed in until tests are better. Most legumes need pHs much closer to 7 so I would not spend a lot of money on legumes until you get your lime in the soil. Lime comes in different grades so you need to watch that closely as well. If you know a feed and fertilizer person near you that you trust they will be helpful as would an Ag Extension agent if you have one as well. Fertilizers come in many different formulations and you can make custom formulations but for an acre they won't do that but you could by getting the right amounts and blending.
I would take this sample with you when you go and talk also about intended crops you would like to plant. Being a silt loam is a good thing for you as you can work it quite easily and it will produce when up to speed and will hold moisture quite well.
Bryce

Thanks guys.my brother sent in the test and I don't know why it says 1 acre.its actually 4 acres.all we are wanting to plant is browntop millet.got lime scheduled to be spread in the next few days.just ain't sure about the type of fertilizer or how much

Agree give the lime time to incorporate and raise the ph before dumping in the rest and before planting.

Our state recommends dolomitic lime as it has trace manganese and Georgia soils are generally low on that.

Is this for a food plot? Take your results to the coop, they will give you the cost, then you can decide what you want to do. You may decide just to put on lime and see what happens.

What are you growing?

You can take that report to fertilizer dealer and they will mix what you need based on the report. On the lime, it's best to have some time between the lime and fertilizer because sometimes they will neutralize each other. I put out the lime in the winter.
It important that you do a good job with your sample collection and do them yearly.

https://soiltesting.tamu.edu/

http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/webpages/calculator.html

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/ornamentals/lawnfert/lawnfert.html

We plan on planting browntop millet mid april for dove.if the lime is not gonna do any good or be worse for the fertilizer I will hold off till winter.

I think you mean magnesium don't you Warrior? Dolomite is a good source of it. BTW, it takes about a year for lime to raise up the pH. You want to have a pH of 6.5 -7.0

I am unaware of lime tying up nutrients, but proper pH adjustment will make that fertilizer work better for you rather than leaching away.

In my soils it can take as long as a year for lime to reach full potential, as stated before we usually lime in the fall for spring planting.

I raise 240 bushel corn on the P you have. We have higher PH values which bind up P. Here we would add 40-60N and call it good.

You got you some prime ground for broom sedge.
I would start with putting the lime down as soon as you can. I have never heard of it tying up nutrients. Lime will increase your CAC (cation exchange capicity). Increased CAC will improve the effectiveness of the nutrients already in your soil as well as what you add to it.
Lime does take time to fully incorporate into the soil, and it is not a one and done proposition. You will likely need to do it every year.

I tested a place of mine in south central AR, and needs 4000/ac

If millet requires a PH minimum of 5.6 - I was told it's almost 1 ton per acre of lime to raise it another point. 3,000 lbs makes sense to sweeten things up to a 7.3 range. Pelletized lime is way more expensive but faster acting- depends on what your goals are.

I have planted food plots for deer for years here in WV and just started a few years ago planting for the birds. Our soil PH is always low 5 on new ground. For milo, millet, and sorgum plots for birds I do not get carried away with exactly meeting soil sample requirements. I always just use what is available for fertilizer that closest meets my needs as customs mixes get expensive and it is not like we are growing a cash crop. The cost per acre can really start to creep up on plots planted for game if not careful. If it were my plot of 4 acres I would hit it with a minimum of 2000lbs acre lime and 75 lbs or so of 10-20-20 acre(It is readily available here) I wouldn't get too concerned with a higher nitrogen component since it is previously hayfield you will be feeding all kinds of interesting weeds in the seed bank.

Test again in December to see where you are at and go from there.

When you buy a bag of fertilizer, the numbers indicate the percentage of N,P, and K in the mix. So if you have a 50 lb bag of 6-24-24, 6% of that 50 lbs = 3 lbs of N are in that bag with 12 lbs of P and 12 lbs of K. Use that and the lbs/acre recommendation to determine how many bags you need for however many acres you need to treat.

That one, I can't ever keep those two straight.

The lime has to have time to get the ph up otherwise all the fertilizer in the world is useless if the roots can't take it up.

The ph is all about the roots ability to to take up the nutrients. There is chemistry involved and I can't wrap my mind around it well enough to explain it. But if the ph is right then the fertilizer is freely taken up. If not then it goes unused.

Correct, this is what I did. For 12 acres

22 ton of lime for my fields

I swear I tried paying attention in chemistry class but it was to easy to get Mr McCutcheon side tracked blowing up stuff. LOL

For this year all you can afford sounds about right !

I built a house on some new ground that was once mostly loblolly pine. My first soil test was so acidic, the ag agent asked me if any grass at all was growing there. I applied the maximum suggested topical amount to my lawn from 1977 to 1985. In 1984, my annual soil test finally showed no lime necessary for the first time. Took seven years to get the pH up to the suggested range.

Thanks for all the input and stories yall.looks like I'm gonna haveto do something different for my lime.had it lined up,they where gonna deliver and spread it for 45$ a ton which seems fair to me.but they told me today there minimum load is 25 tons! Lol. I only need 6.dont know what I would do with the rest of it.it probably dosnt store well eaven if I had a place to store it

Tell them you are in no hurry, doesn't matter when it is put on, and if they want to wait and do it when they go through the area/have a neighbor place to do then that is fine with you, and see what they say. Answer still maybe no but you never know.

Ask a local farmer for a favor and offer to trade one in exchange, call a local landscaping outfit ask them cost, the fert. co. only wants to profit, ask them for price to do what you want done on a custom basis. Buy one of the spreaders that pull behind a 4 wheeler and get a shovel n go to it. Where there's a will there's a way. Good luck.

That was my issue for my quarter acre garden. I needed almost a ton and no way to get it spread mechanically.

Loaded up the truck with bags and spread it all by hand.

Never seen a sample with phosphorus that low. Be careful and don't over apply you phosphorus. It's a pain to reduce.