how do you spread lime?

[LoneCowboy]

Seriously
It's never come up before. Our soils here are are very akaline and I've never heard of someone having to spread lime. (although I hear you guys/gals talk about it back east).
So, went up to bid this lady in the mountains (about 8500 feet) and she says "nothing grows"
I say "let's do a soil test"
Ok
So, we do and the results came back.
105lbs of nitrogen per acre (which is an unbelievable number in itself) and "to raise PH to 6.5 add 4 to 5 tons of lime per acre".

I don't even know where to get it.
How do you apply it?
Teach me easterners.

 

[redlevel]

 

[johnk]

Enough said............

 

[tommu56]

LoneCowboy

Check with the seed distributors and fertilizers guys they have ground driven carts.

Here is a link from a company out here that makes them.

Stoltzfus Spreader Gallery

Usually they let you use them for free when you by the product from them.

tom

 

[john_bud]

You can get a funnel bin spreader for the 3pt and buy bagged lime for around 3 bucks for 40 pounds. That is 150 bucks a ton. Then you can open up those 200 bags per acre, heave them into the funnel and go back and forth spreading for hour after hour. Or call the local feed mill and have them come out with a truck like redlevel shows and have them do it for about 30-40 bucks a ton spread on the field.

I can tell you that the only part of me that would be sore would be the end of my dialing finger....



They will also be able to spread fertilizer too. That's still gonna be expensive.
They also can spray weed killers, cheaply.

jb

 

[Spiveyman]

LoneCowboy - Howdy, I used to live in Longmont, on Mt. Meeker Rd. If I were still there you wouldn't be "Lone."

Here in KY we have to lime every 3 - 5 years. These days most folks pay for the service, you buy the lime and they come spread it for you just as in the picture above. However, some old school farmers do it themselves. If you choose to do this, you might want to consider wearing a mask. You can see in that shot there the lime dust cloud. It's not like spreading fertilizer, and you don't want to breathe this stuff. Doing it from a funnel off of a 3ph can put that cloud right on you, especially if you are turning alot in a smaller field. My grandpa smoked unfiltered camel cigs all his life. He got lung cancer and it killed him at age 50. My granny re-married, my step-grandpa limed his fields himself, never smoked in his life, he got lung cancer and it killed him. The doc's said the lime was most likely the culpret. Some folks smoke until they are 90, others don't make it. Lime may or may not bother you, but I wouldn't take any chances. For what it's worth... be safe.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

LC has two cab tractors so he will be out of the dust.

I order my lime from the local quarry. Depending on how much I need they will either bring 20 ton or 30 ton loads. I use my friends spreader, he has a 4 ton and a 8 ton model. The 4 ton works great for small fields and in the orchard and vineyards. The 8 tonner is for the open fields.

Here I also have a couple companies that spread lime. You call them up and they give you the price for the lime spread. It is usually just a couple dollars more per ton. Check your yellow pages and you should be able to find someone to spread it for you.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

With a telephone....

There's 3 big limestone quarries with-in a 20 mile radius of here. They have an abundance of lime dust. The product is cheap. Haulers will spread it for less than it would cost me to handle it.

 

[Slacker]

Just to mention it, lime is available in two forms (that I know of). Dust and granular. I like the granular type because I spread it small scale (food plots) and the dust makes me cough like a cougar. I think if you buy it bulk, dust is cheaper.

 

[Oleozz]

We share a property line with a limestone quarry and many days I can see the dust rising from the quarry when they are digging lime. As many folks have said a phone call to the quarry and they will spread the lime and it is still realtively cheap but prices are going up.