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Little River, TX | There has to be some humor in calling something no till when they shoot fertilizer down a knife blade and seed down a different soil opener.
A little slicker than digging a hole for a dead fish, kick a little dirt in and then a seed before kicking the remaining dirt over the hole.
Not every bermudagrass hay grower is completely notill. I do shoot anhydrous and 11-37-0 down a knife & into the sod every January. Potash gets slung out on the surface and is on it's own from there.
But bermudagrass is pretty much a Southern Sod Grass grown mostly on sandy soils. Those people are the only notillers on these pages. After sprigging the roots the crop can persist for 30 to 100 years, with management. In those soils they have to fertilize N after every cutting or about 4 weeks. That is because that is when the Nitrogen plays out on those soils.
I would feel very foolish if I advocated those growers put out 300 lbs/A N in the winter to last the full season. Unfortunately our Extension has no problem insisting we here also put out 75 to 125 lbs/A of nitrogen after each cutting.
Wonder what our friends in Illinois would have to say if a soils expert were to insist they inject anhydrous ammonia into their grass hay fields in early January. I Quote, "YGTSM!" Then why should a fellow farmer or trained expert be surprised when they get the same reaction with their pronouncements. Be it no till, gypsum, knee jerk lime applications, or the effect fertilizers regarding our high CEC clay soil.
If the rule of thumb for nitrogen retention is 10 lbs for each meq/100g of CEC. A 50 CEC soil will easily hold 500 lbs of N. I tried 1250 lbsN/A one time and it persisted through 7 years.
Go to East Texas with their 5 CEC and it is no wonder they can not put out more than 75 to 125 lbs/N/A.
I wonder if the Blackland Strip in Mississippi is a challenging as ours HERE are. | |
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Recreational tillage ... feel better already
