Old field question

I plan to take a large central field and manage for old field habitat with interspersed food plots. I’m starting with typical sod forming pasture grasses which have to go of course. PH ranges from a low of 4.8 to a high of 5.1

I’ll obviously lime food plot portions but my question is… do you see value for the expense of a broader scale initial lime application across the entire field?

I guess I’m asking about the PH value on rotationally burned old field units.

How many acres ? You may see a slightly different plant response. Do 5 equal blocks: lime w/disking, lime with fire, fire only, disk only and one with no treatment. Then apply that treatment that gives a response that meets your objectives to the rest of the area on staggered intervals.

72 acre field, anticipate 20% in plots. I like your thought and it sounds like a fun experiment

Yeah I wouldn't lime the whole field until I knew for sure it needed it. Likely will do just fine without it.

I think step #1 is getting an idea of what you want to plant.

All plants have different nutrient requirements.

I'm trying to teach CNC this...

bought 30 acres in 2019, 25 or so in hay production. i disced the entire field in mid april, sprayed clethodim in mid may. rinse and repeat in 2021. very little grasses and is in various heights of natural regen. we disc sections of it each year. there are deer beds everywhere in it. the oldest parts are 4-6’ tall. we can make them walk basically where we want them to with bush hogged trails to funnel them to certain points. it’s fun to experiment and make them travel (within reason) where we want or don’t want them. don’t forget to dig some watering holes in areas u plan to hunt at early season on the appropriate side of the fields for the different winds

Fortunate in that regard… the north length of the field is a creek.

Ditto on the cleth.

Did you soil test and lime any/all of the field first year?

the biggest one closest to where they were entering our property that first year yes, we have slowly gotten them all up to par over the last 3-4 years. would love to burn sections but we are too close to a interstate and houses.

If he’s lucky, he will not have to plant anything in the early successional blocks. Seeds are there just waiting on fire or disking to kick things off.

I never recommend planting native seeds until fire/discing has taken place after herbicide removal of cultivated pasture grasses. The seed is there. If the response don’t happen, then seeding is the next step. But, it happens 99% of the time.

I would put lime out after a soil test. You would be throwing good money after bad trying to fertilize with out lime.

Tinkering at the hunting club has taught me that it takes a lot of fertilizer to get to the recommended amount, and when you have low pH it's like you can't put enough out to make a difference.

Im with Matt. If you want true "oldfield" habitat, its there waiting usually. Pasture can be worse than ag fields but most of the time the native grasses, forbs and weeds will respond to the removal of pasture grass. Also nice is that most of these natives are well adapted to the soil conditions, fertility and Ph that is already there. Just releasing them by getting rid of fescue, bermuda and bahaia and a little fire, they can come on strong without much other management. Some disking can help to encourage forbs and legumes, leave the native grasses for nesting/fawning and bedding cover and it's ideal. Save the lime and fertilizer, disking and planting for food plots. Also note that Clethodim can be rough on native grasses if that is what you are trying to promote (oldfield habitat). Depending on the pasture grass, there are better, more effective and less damaging options.

Craig Harper recommends an approach similar to this, but I haven't seen many others who do it. I'd think this approach is better than a classic grass greenfield. What's the consensus around here on something like that?

Fire and discing. Afterwards you can do as mentioned with selective herbicide