how do you spread lime?

[schmism]

i think this was already mentioned but ill do a quick recap.

there is pelitzed lime which is easly put in a broad cast spredder, but relitivly expensive.

then there is "ag lime" which (my understaning) is nothing more than limestone dust, soft powdery dust. doesnt broadcast all that well. you get the cloud as seen in the pics.

either way i would expect some service to be able to do it for much cheeper than you could as indicated.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Brian - some related thoughts. When I hear about super acid, low nutrient soils I think highly leached forest soils. Is this what your customer has? What's the slope like? I'm wondering if this soil may simply be hopeless. Out of curiousity, what was the actual ph measurement? 4.5? What about trying a forage crop that grows well in highly acid soil?

Also, is there any chance that there is acid mine runoff falling into/through your customer's soil? That may be unlikely, but if there were it seems like any amount of lime would be wasted effort.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Ok
I called this one when I first went there, that it would probably not result in any work. (sometimes you just know)
But, we got the soil test done (so that pays for part of it)
She runs Alpaca's on it. (I guess the mountains don't bother them)
It's not excessively steep, but it's crowded with pine trees and cross fenced about a million times. You could never get a big buggy/truck in there. (even the small tractor is going to be a problem in spots)

Ok
So called the co-op
They have lime in pellet form. You can get it bulk, but of course you have to spread it (see above, not possible), or you can buy it in bags.
1 pallet is 50 bags is 2000lbs is 400 bucks
So, even to do half the rate (2 tons per acre) is 5 pallets is $2000 my cost in lime. Plus spreading, hauling two trailers up there (one with tractor, one with 10,000 lbs of lime)
Plus of course fertilizer.
We're talking big bucks
No way she goes for this.
oh well, learned a lot about lime.

It's overgrazed anyway.

 

[cp1969]

Pelletized lime is only practical for very small plots. Of course she would not be interested at those prices; who would? $400 per ton vs. $4 per ton for ag lime leaves a lot of room to figure out how to spread the ag lime.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Stainless steel soil sampler, 15 samples over 2.5 acres, dried and sent to the lab
like always
You keep forgetting, this is my business, this is what I do.
But this one is odd because it's IN THE MOUNTAINS (for the 14th time, I don't think some of you people (not you RinNY) don't read.
So, for the 15th time.
As a general rule, soils here in the flatlands of colorado are very alkaline. This property is IN THE MOUNTAINS and turns out to be very acidic (which makes sense), and the recommendation from COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY (our Ag college with their testing lab) is to add 105lbs of Nitrogen per acre and 4 to 5 TONS of lime to bring the PH up to 6.5.

So, from the other useful comments on here, it appears that the co-op would have lime if anyone does, I'll call and ask today. Does anyone know for sure what the rule is on keeping grazing animals off after application of lime.

Brian, my post you quoted was in reply to the guy who didn't put much faith in the soil samples. If you don't take proper samples you will not get proper results as you know.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Pelletized lime is only practical for very small plots. Of course she would not be interested at those prices; who would? $400 per ton vs. $4 per ton for ag lime leaves a lot of room to figure out how to spread the ag lime.

pelletized lime is also used in vineyards around here. You drop the lime on the rows and not in the centers. This way the lime is where you need it. Of course we also have a narrow lime trailer we use if we want to spread the entire vineyard.

 

[Deerlope]

I just had 13 ton spread on 4 acres. I sure am glad that the wind was blowing away from the highway. Some drivers even slowed thinking something was on fire.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Pelletized lime is only practical for very small plots. Of course she would not be interested at those prices; who would? $400 per ton vs. $4 per ton for ag lime leaves a lot of room to figure out how to spread the ag lime.

I got the impression (from talking with the co-op guy), i could get the pelletized lime in either bags or bulk. no other way.
Lime isn't big at all around here, like I said, it's mostly alkaline around here.

Wouldn't matter anyway, you can't get a big truck up there, it's all woods and little tiny cross fenced areas.

 

[N80]

She's got herself a real pile of acid up there. The soil here is known to be acidic and has high lime requirements and I've never heard of lime requirements that high. I may be one of the one the ones that doesn't read very well but did the Ag Dept give you an actual pH reading?

It looks like this lady has limited options. Someone mentioned that Ag lime was $150 a ton, at 4 tons thats $600. So it might be worth paying to have someone bring it in even if its a long way off. But, as mentioned, I always heard it doesn't spread well in a funnel type spreader....just thinking out loud here....but it would seem that this lady is screwed. She is either going to have something that will grow in acid...or feed those llamas or whatever something besides grass.

Sounds like she needs to get out of the livestock business and open a quarry.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Depending on the type of ground, what has been on it, what is going on it and how it has been maintained it is not uncommon for this area to require 4-6 ton per acre on some ground. But there are a lot of different types of ground here and the requirements can vary a lot.