I have sandy soils, and lime will leach thru the soil profile readily. Ph changes quicker on sandier soils, but also doesn't last as long. If you have a lot of clay, i would definatetly disk. Disking in lime is reccommended, but with my no-till approach and sandy soils, i find it uneccesary. Local co-op doesn't like to bring thier trucks up here anymore because they ran over some big rocks and busted 2 tires. Their buggy tore up and so i'm left with using pelleted lime and spreading it with my atv spreader.

If it's flat ground, I wouldn't disc it in. Like blumsden said, it will leach through the soil on it's own. Secondly, pelletized lime takes longer to work because the little pellets need to break up and dissolve for you to get 100% of the benefit. It it sits on top, the rain will help dissolve the pellets. If you disc it in, it may take the pellets longer to dissolve. If your plot is on a hill, I might consider discing it in to keep it from washing away.

Interestingly enough I was listening to some Ag shows on the radio today where they were discussing soil pH. The guy doing the show puts on seminars called Soil PhD. They were discussing pH levels of the subsoil too. The host basically said that even though he wants to know the pH of the subsoil on his farm, for liming applications he only wants to maintain the top 6" of topsoil.

That being said, if you disc your lime in, it doesn't have to leach as far before it escapes the top 6" of topsoil. This seems to me like another good reason not to disc it in if you don't have to. If it's flat ground, leave it alone.

90% of your greenfields root system will be in the top 2" of soil. Leave itbon top where it matters

I know nothing about lime, educate me. What's the going rate for lime, both pelletized in the bag and powdered or pulverized from the truck? Best time of year to put it down? We have 30+ fields, necessary to sample them all?

Sample every field, in multiple spots in that field. Pelleted lime is about $4/40lb bag. Its not very cost effective, if you can get the co-op to spread ag lime for you. You'll have to just call the co-op and ask. Most plots that have never been limed, will have a very low ph, somewhere in the 4.5-5.0 range. Most are going to require 2-3 tons an acre to get the ph up to a 6-7 ph. Never put down more than 3 tons at one time. Spring and fall are the best times to put it down, but anytime you can do, do it. 30 fields are a lot. A lime truck is not going to drive down roads that are narrow and will knock off their mirrors, and that are rutted out or have mudholes that they can get stuck in.

Our clover fields were really the only ones that the deer used this season. The other green fields look untouched so far. We soil tested, limed and added basic slag to them all last year.
When we called the Co op one of first things they asked was is this pasture land or green fields. They would not come to a hunting club. We ended up paying a local farmer to bring his lime truck and put it out for us. Was still cheaper than buying pelletized.

I agree with everything blumsden said but let's be realistic. You said you have 30 plots. Sampling them all at $7/each will be over $200 in soil sampling and a lot of folks aren't going to do it. If you cannot sample them all, I would think the next best alternative would be to group them together, maybe by soil type. I know the fields at our club vary from sandy black soil in the bottoms, to thick red clay on the hilltops. Group them together and take a few samples from each. Having some results from the testing is better than none.

Pelletized lime can be spread with a PTO spreader if you can't get a spreader truck to your plot. The problem is that pelletized lime takes longer to work because the pellets need to dissolve to get the full benefit. You can buy a load of bulk lime and have it dumped somewhere but bulk lime cannot be spread with a broadcast spreader. It packs too dense. You have to use a gravity fed drop spreader. The absolute best method is using a spreader truck if they can reach your fields. The best time to spread lime is ASAP because it takes a few months to see any change regardless of what kind of lime you spread.

I plan on doing this this upcoming year. But I have a question for you guys that go all out with the liming soil testing of fields along with planting summer plots. Is there one particular thing that you did in the beginning that you noticed the biggest difference? Something that made the hunting on your place better than others?

Liming your plots, will make the biggest difference. I would lime before i did anything else, even if it limits the amount of acreage that you plant. Having year round plots conditions the deer to visit the plot daily, instead of just a couple months.

How much will a hopper hold and how much$$$$????
We have a tractor with a pto or a 3/4 ton truck 4x4, can a Co Op hopper be pulled with a regular truck?

The CO-OP spreader we used held 4 tons. I pulled it with my 3/4 ton truck. Once I got to the land, I pulled it with the tractor. I think it was $38/ton.

With that many fields buy it by the truckload or get ready to spend some serious coin on lime

Best option is to have them bring it by semi loads and dump it , then take a tractor with a bucket and keep there truck loaded save alot of money that way .

The best way I have found is to call the co-op and get the lime truck to spread it. It was $30.00 a ton if I did it and it was $45.00 a ton if the co-op did it. This was a no brainer for me. I paid the $45.00. The catch is your roads have to be wide enough that his mirrors don't hit limbs. It takes me about a day and a half to spread 10 tons with a buggy and the lime truck can do it in a few hours.

What i was referring to is them dump it you keep them on your place and keep there truck filled . If they have to run back to the Co-op then thats more money , they want charge you alot if you keep the truck filled and keep them from going back and forth .