Pump up pasture fertility

摘要

Regular soil testing coupled with appropriate lime and fertilizer applications can boost both forage production and livestock performance. No firm statistics are kept regarding management of Kentucky's 7 million acres of pastureland. However, educated guesses suggest there's considerable room for improving grassland productivity all across the state. "Ideally, we'd like to see soil sampling and testing done on all pastureland about once every three years. But I'd say less than 20 percent of it getssampled at all and many of the pastures that do get tested aren't checked on a regular basis," says Monroe Rasnake, extension agronomy specialist at the University of Kentucky's (UK) Princeton research center.