Strong dirt covers up many a farmers (or plotters) mistakes. Put a poor farmer on strong dirt and he can make it. Put a great farmer on marginal dirt and that’s a spectacle to watch make it work.

No different from seeing hunting tactics on TV in Illinois and seeing a giant buck come to the super plot , passed the same tree, at the same time every afternoon. Then the TV star has super buck munch his way to him , stop raise his head look right at him and pose for the shot. Exact reason I quit watching hunting TV years ago, it's hunting Hollywood.

I have t had the outdoor channel or others for 2 years now and I don’t miss it. But I don’t hunt much anymore either

24 petrol station near me

We have kinda been keeping this under our hats so far.
But, we are working real hard to improve the soil on our place. Most people have no real concept of planting in ‘Sandy Soil’ until they actually see it. It provides some unique challenges! To show what we are starting with, this is a plot that has not been disced since last Sept. it was mowed once and burnt down with Gly before no-tilling last weekend. We have designed a seed mix that should help and are applying some products from a resident guru that may, or may not, decide to chime in. That is on him!
But, we have ‘bought in’ and I am trying to document the Progress with pics, notes and soil samples. I hope to have good things to report in the future!!

From what I’ve seen through traveling around blood tracking for folks is that a LOT of folks actually do have a concept of what its like plotting in sand……it’s just than very few of them know how to deal with it. All we’ve ever been taught is the traditional methods of tillage and results are vastly different in sandy fields using those methods as opposed to when used in what 257 called strong dirt. I think most folks have just accepted chitty results as the norm and don’t know any better. The funny thing about it is that if you start talking about alternative methods that would help them out….most folks will look at you like your crazy….like there’s no other way. Human psychology is a fascinating subject and plays as much of a role in all of this as soil science does.

For example, there will be some people who will never accept or even begin to consider doing things a different way no matter how many success stories get posted up. It’s all psychological too. It’s as if their brain can’t allow it to be real. Doing so would cause a major conflict with what they have always perceived and had ingrained in them as “the right way”. I actually find the phycological aspect of all of this to be more interesting than the soil science. Soil science is kinda boring really but to watch humans mentally deal with change is far more entertaining.

Good luck with your fields Hogwild…..Grass biomass is your best friend in the beginning

I’m betting 70% of clubs have never soil sampled either. PH, EC, OM etc. throw money up a hogs ass.

Preach!!

The vast majority of the ones on sandy soil are likely gonna have an OM% that comes back <1% and that will be the root cause of most of their issues.

But my grand daddy said to just put out triple 13...........

Triple 13 has to be the most over rated and over used fertilizer in history.

You can’t get out enough plant food using triple 13 economically. It’s nice being able to blend a 40-30-30 or what ever and not break the bank.

It entertaining trying to explain to someone that N leaches so fast that they don't even measure it in a standard soil test, they just give you recommendations based on crop/soil type etc. And that P leaches so slow you can actually build toxicity if you actually used enough triple 13 to give your crops the amount of nitrogen it needed. But people are extremely set in their ways when it comes to planting. Before i saw the light we starting doing soil samples finally and found we had unreal high levels of P in most of our fields because it had always just gotten triple 13 even with the people who owned it before us. I think it took 5 or 6 years before i ever had to put P in a field.

Its also mind boggling why people wont at least try the throw n mow or something similar on a field or two just to see if they like it. It is just so much easier and quicker. I have dumbed our planting down so far at this point that we can plant all of our stuff in less than a full day. Used to take 2 tractors 2 weekends. I had to use that strategy with my dad, just let me try it on 2 fields and see what you think, then it was half the fields and now its all and he actually sold the tiller and may be selling the disc. It is just so easy. Especially since you are just feeding a dang deer.

Sold my disk last week.

I feel you on that one. I’ve sat back and been baffled many times reading threads where folks are going to all kinds of extraordinary lengths to keep doing it the old way and at no point do they ever even entertain the idea of trying something different. It seems so simple but yet its not due to the psychology of it. Add male pride to that it makes it all the more interesting to watch. It’ll get really entertaining in another 5-10 years when these ideas become the norm and yet there’s still folks clinging on to the old ways only because changing would in essence mean admitting they might have been wrong.

I thought about selling my disk but decided to hold on to it. Its getting a little rusty but still functional. I see it simply as another tool and I may need to use that tool again someday for a reason I might not foresee yet. It deosn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to till my whole field up….it may just be that maybe I need to process up some biomass a little more than I used to, etc….I don’t know yet where things may eventually take us will all of this.

Our OM was between a low of 0.9 and a high of 1.5.
And, yes, the Phosphate was high.

But, we are working on it.

I haven’t had my OM% checked in a while but through the first 5 or 6 years I was able to raise my OM around 0.7 – 1.0 % annually on average. I was putting down some pretty massive crops of crabgrass and cereal rye each year though. One in the spring and one in the fall.

When I had a farm in Clark County, I only planted Abruzzi Rye and Winter Oats....Never had an unproductive field...Fertilizer was a must!...I planted seed, fertilizer, and ammonia all at the same time...But the best hunting I ever had was in Aliceville ,Al...hunting the big fields that the Mennonites planted was the best.....Peanuts, Corn, and cotton...some shots were up to five hundred yards.....