NEMO | pigfarmer82 - 11/23/2024 09:04
I wouldn’t bother with grid sampling for p and k. Lime maybe. If you feel the need to variable rate do it off yield maps from the combine. After doing vrt for about 10 years we are back to just straight rating farms as before. If you pull enough soil tests at random you will get conflicting results. Not sure why the variability but we just went back to the basics.
As to the conflicting results and variability comment: There are 6,272,640 places in 1(one) acre to pull a 1 (one) inch soil sample from.
Pretty easy for me to see why there is variability and conflicting results in soil tests.
Then add in the fact people on NAT say there is variability in soil tests depending on the temperature, moisture and time of year when pulling soil tests.
Blanket spread here. Doubt I'll ever change. Seems like we have '3 zones' as far as yield in every field. The 3 zones could be lumped into too wet, too dry, and just right for that acre or soil type.
General conclusions from early yield maps (2000-2005) has lead me to believe over the course of 10 years that about the same amount of total bushels would be pulled from all acres. What may be the highest yielding acre one year very well could be the lowest yielding the next depending on the weather. So I wouldn't want to short any acre from an inaccurate soil test.
Stand behind a lime spreader and watch the spread pattern as the lime is being applied. Wouldn't put much faith in the grid PH results either. |
Variable rate two years fert?
