News

Forage fertility management

An extension agronomist is stressing the importance of fertility when managing forages.

Aaron Saeugling with Iowa State University says as pastures and hayfields green up, growers need to be thinking about their fertilization program.

“So I kind of have some rules that I tell folks that we want to address when it comes to forages, and the first thing is I want to correct the pH. That’s number one, that’s where I’m going to allocate dollars. I really would like that soil pH to be 6.8 to 7.”

He tells Brownfield when the pH is closer to neutral it frees up potassium and phosphorous.

“That gets me some growth that way, so lime (is) probably number one. The second fertility thing I’m going to address for forages is potash (because) we physically remove a lot of that in the haying process when we bale that off.”

Saeugling says sulfur is another nutrient that can really benefit forages, especially alfalfa. 

Symptoms of sulfur deficiency include light green to yellow leaves and stunting.