no welfare payments on this farm!!!!!!!! | jimmy's post below about the p and times changing brings up something which i didnt want to hyjack that thread with. 1 have always had phosphate problems in the water? 2 if you go to a un farmed fence row is the p numbers higher or lower then your farm ground beside it? 3 has map and dap changed? 4 has animal manure changed. 5 has the soil changed?
I guess i was told and learned that the phosphate attached to the clay colliod in the soil almost immediatly after application. i dont know about the immediate part of what i learned but I do agree that it attaches. so then i ask why are we having so many problems with this p showing up everywhere in the waters of lakes and streams. i think it would be accurate to say farmers are putting on less p per bushel of grain/pound of grass/ basically pound of protein produced or is this not accurate to say. so if we are putting on less p, raising more crops, and the map and dap and manure havnt changed then what has changed.
could the problem not be the phosphate or the amount of p applied as much as the problem could be the soil and its inability to hold this p till the crop needs it. could the solution to the problem be to fix the soil, not limit the p applied? my little knowledge of chemistry says its a soil problem not a p application problem but what do i know, heck i cant even spell now can i.
what could be done to the soil to make it hold more nutrients so we dont have these problems. I think we all know the answer to that, is it economical? short term no but long term YES. Call me a enviromentalist i dont care but i think the problem is we are degrading the soil not applying to much p. Now i will say if you are a animal farmer who is spreading tons and tons of manure year after year on the same acre which has tile lines every 30 feet just 3 feet below the soil surface which you have been over applying the manure and also applying it when the crop wont take it up for monthes then you are putting on too much p but that is only one of the problems you have and i think the epa will be stopping your operatioin sooner then you think. i have learned that you may think your operation and what you do is important but they do not care about what you do nor if it is your way of life and you will be changing so get ready.
The answer is in the soil is it not? |
phosphate questions????
