Healthy soil is key to having a bountiful harvest. So before harvest, farming experts recommend you heed these tips for caring for your soil.
Check Your Soil’s Fertilization Needs
Check the pH of your soil and treat it with lime stone if it’s needed. Sulfur is also increasingly important in that it is usually lacking in most soils. Be mindful that grasses need nitrogen and potassium. Legumes, primarily alfalfa, require phosphorous, boron, and molybdenum.
Don’t Spread Manure Before Harvest Time
There should be a minimum of one month between the time you spread manure, and harvest—ideally with rain in between.
Check for Possible Soil Contamination Risks
Bare soil, mice, and mole hills all have the potential to contaminate your soil and should be addressed and resolved before harvest.
Check for Weeds
Weeds can reduce your yield as well as the quality of your forage. They can also reduce the feed intake of your cattle because weeds can oftentimes be bitter, spikey, hairy, and—worst of all—toxic to your animals.
Check for Available Soil Water
You should check for soil water so that you can forecast potential drought stress for the harvests to come. You can investigate your soil yourself using soil core samples.
You may also consider performing a Web Soil Survey (WSS), which allows you to find a wide range of information about your property, including available soil water.
The WSS is a web application that’s operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and it gives you access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. It enables you to make educated land-use and management decisions. Information on subjects like crop productivity classes, depth to bedrock, soil drainage, and other geography-related data about your property, can be found.
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