One thing that just about every farmer claims to want to do is to improve the health of the soil. I'm going to post the soil tests I ran this year, and I'll come back to them about this time next year with a new set of soil tests.
This isn't really for the blog; it's more a diary entry so that I can easily find these reports and compare them. But you're welcome to look at the soil tests if you're curious, and i've written some commentary about each field to provide a little context.
When I do a soil test I tell the company what I want to do with the land in the coming year; so these tests reflect what they suggest I change/add from where the field is now to something that might work better for what I'm after this year. the red circles are the primary things that I need to add. You'll notice quite a bit of variation in the field needs.
![](//1.bp.blogspot.com/-dO47-46cYck/VW_zJHC6ZZI/AAAAAAAAIx0/TcdXr7P3m-Y/s400/soil%2Btest%2Balfalfa%2Bexisting.png) |
Existing alfalfa field |
The report above is a stand of alfalfa that I seeded last year; i got 4 cuttings off it it, and the forage tested well. This field has been planted with conventional corn for the 3 years prior to my purchase of the property, prior to that was used as pasture for a dairy. The test came back reccomending quite a bit of amendment, which surprised me; it did pretty well, but apparently could do a lot better. So I ordered half the amount of fertilizer, and I'll fertilize half the field, and leave half about what it is, and see what the difference is in yield and forage.
![](//2.bp.blogspot.com/-XFd9oGs4MqQ/VW_zLw-oaRI/AAAAAAAAIx8/tjPNjl3CBrc/s400/soil%2Btest%2Bnew%2Balfalfa.png) |
the 2014 silage corn field |
The report above is the field is where I produced the silage corn we chopped last year. it only requires a little bit of sulfur input, everything else looks good, which is a relief. This has been seeded with alfalfa and we'll get a first cutting off of it sometime in july probably .
![](//1.bp.blogspot.com/-6MeVPGKwqh4/VW_zOITlycI/AAAAAAAAIyE/ePXHJRCHKIU/s400/soil%2Btest%2Bnew%2Bbottom.png) |
The bottom half of this years corn field |
The report above is new acreage that I'm farming owned by a neighbor. it's been used as a hay field for at least 10 years, and has never been tested to my knowlege or fertilized. So it's had a lot taken off of it, but nothing put back in. It did have some grass on it, but was more than 50% weeds. Limed it and planted corn there with fertilizer applied by corn planter. .
![](//3.bp.blogspot.com/-q4-bCVnKR0Q/VW_zQZjvXTI/AAAAAAAAIyM/UVAATMNDdpw/s400/soil%2Btest%2Bnew%2Btop.png) |
This is the field I wrote about earlier, "worst field" |
managed as a hay field for at least 10 years, never tested, no fertilizer. Limed it and planted corn with fertlizer applied during corn planting.
![](//1.bp.blogspot.com/-d574ViYggU8/VW_zSzOFQlI/AAAAAAAAIyU/OjBWYiXWlto/s400/soil%2Btest%2Bvinyard.png) |
This years squash field; pumpkins and acorn squash |
The field above was an area that I planted with pig forage (grass, alfalfa, tillage radishes) but I wasn't happy with it, so I tilled and am replanting with squash for this growing season. At the end of the growing season I'll probably put in winter wheat or barley or other small-grain.
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