soil calcium

Was looking over a soil report from the lab at AU, and it indicated that the Calcium content was in the very high range. These are cow pastures and have been for over 75 years. I assume the cow manure provided the majority of the calcium over time since there is almost no evidence of rock or limestone visible in the fields.
Where would the calcium have come from?

It may have come from lime.

How much actual Ca does it show present in the soil in terms of lbs/ac??? The place where it says low, high, very high.....all that is only relative to your soil's CEC. In other words, your Ca is only "very high" relative to the amount it can hold. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have a lot of Ca. You may very well though.

Has there been chicken litter applied over the years?

My Uncle, who operated the farm the majority of the time it has been in operation, also had 12 chicken houses. I would be that he did use chicken manure at some point, although I don't know it for cerain.
The lbs per acre value is 1705 in one sample and 975 on the other. Both indicate that 0.0 lb/ac of limestone is required. Maybe it all came from liming the pastures over time.

Are you in the black belt? If so, that would explain it.

If he owned chicken houses then that is very likely your culprit. I have several family members in the chicken business and that is common practice to spread the litter out of the houses over the pastures. How much P does it say you have present? That would be another indicator too. Chicken litter is high is phosphorus and it builds up really easy over time. I tested my aunts garden last year and her P values were over 300 lbs per acre due to using so much litter out of her houses over the years.

Also, just curious....but what is your pH and CEC value?

I'll try to get these numbers correct.


Sample #1 P: VL=4 K: VL=18 Mg: L=7 Ca: H=968 pH: 5.9recommended 80 lb N; 70 lb P2O5; 60 lb K2O

Sample #2 P: M=37 K: VL=26 Mg: H=74 Ca: H=1705 pH: 5.9recommended 100 lb N; 40 lb P2O5; 90 lb K2O

What kind of soil is this.....sandy? high clay content? What's the condition of the soil like? Is it very compacted or very loose? Just looking at the numbers you posted, you are definitely are out of balance.

This is sandy/loamy soil in NW AL. Since this test, the sample #1 area has been limed @ 1.5T/ac
This is a cow pasture.

The sample #2 area has not had any lime. This is a pine plantation with much more clay than the other area. Not sure why, though.