Nutrient requirements are carefully managed for annual crops like wheat and canola, but many hay and pasture stands are often overlooked. As a result, nutrient deficiency is a major limiting factor for Western Canadian forage yields.
Only a small percentage of hay and pasture stands in Western Canada receive a fertilizer treatment annually — 25 per cent of all pasturelands and just 15 per cent of alfalfa acres. Nutrient removal is larger in forage stands than annual crops because of the amount of biomass removed from the field each year.
Nutrient removal is talking about the nutrients removed from your field in the harvested material. In Western Canada, most forage stands are a mixture of grass and a legume, predominantly alfalfa. Legumes are able to fix their own Nitrogen (N), so, when looking at nutrient removal in a forage field, we are primary looking at Phosphate (P) and Potassium (K).
“A lot of research has been done looking at available nutrients to forage stands,” said Al VanCaeseele, BrettYoung Sales Manager for Saskatchewan.
On average, a Western Canadian forage stand will see 13.5 lb of P and 54 lb of K removed per ton of harvested hay. When P levels drop below 12 ppm, and when K levels drop below 120 ppm, growers will start to see alfalfa yields drop drastically.
VanCaeseele noted in Western Canada, most soil types are naturally low in P. K, however, is less of a concern in the region, but it’s important to remember black and grey soil areas will frequently test lower for K levels than other soil types.
Not sure where to start? A soil test is a great way to understand what’s going on in your forage stand to help you build a fertility plan to maximize your forage yields.
