Soil Improvement Before Planting

Farm Owners: Paul and Kris Grunzweig

Topics Addressed:

• Soil Condition
• Cover crops and green manure

Summary:

The soil is the basis of all pastures. Only if the soil has the nutrients and structure to support healthy root development and plant growth will there be a healthy pasture to provide nutritious forage to the grazing animal. The first step before planting a new pasture or when starting to improve an existing one, is to take a representative soil sample to find out how much organic matter there is, and if any fertilization is necessary.

When organic matter is too low, the structure will not support healthy root development and the soil will not have capacity to hold water or many of other essential nutrients for the plants. One way to add organic matter is through the use of green manure, which is growing a crop and tilling it under without harvesting it. There are several options for this management practice and Grunzweig’s decided on two buckwheat cycles and a final winter wheat crop that will also serve as a cover crop during winter. Click here to read more about cover crops (pdf).

Their soil test result showed organic matter as 0.8 to 1.7 percent. Ideally, it should be a minimum of 3 percent. The pH is at 5.8, which also needs to be changed to about 7.0. Following is their crop calendar for 2002, as well as picture from their two buckwheat crops.

Date	Management Practice
April 2002	Soil test
June 5, 2002	Fertilization: 40 lb/acre of nitrogen (N) and 20 lb/acre potassium (K) Planting: buckwheat at 75 lb/acre on 4.5 acres
July 2, 2002	Lightly disk buckwheat to knock it down
July 15, 2002	Completely disk buckwheat into soil
July 5 to July 28, 2002	Rained out, no planting
July 29, 2002	Fertilization: 40 lb/acre of nitrogen (N) and 20 lb/acre potassium (K) Planting: buckwheat at 75 lb/acre on 4.5 acres
Early September	Scheduled disking of buckwheat
September 7	Farm tour
September, 2002	Soil test, fertilize as necessary Planting: winter wheat or winter rye

Third crop: winter wheat or rye used as cover crop and green manure
The third crop this year can be used as a cover crop, which help to prevent water and wind erosion. This crop will be left on the field through out the winter. It will be winter killed. It will be disked into the soil in the spring before the first crop of buckwheat of 2003.

Grunzweigs plan to follow the same treatment of growing and incorporating two buckwheat crops as green manure and a cover crop for 2003. They will then plant their pasture in the spring of 2004.

Advice from Owners:

• Know your soil through a soil test
• Improve the soil before planting your pasture

Second Crop of buckwheat used as green manure

[click to enlarge-33K]

Buckwheat was plowed under

[click to enlarge-37K]