AG lime spreader idea

UGAMike

New Member
So living in Georgia, we have some fairly acidic soil and getting a lime truck to your plots back in the woods is not always possible. Most of the soil samples I have done over the years require on the average of 2 tons per acre. It gets expensive using pelletized lime.

I have seen the new Sides spread all spreader that will spread AG lime, compost,etc. It looks like a great design, but at $6800 that's a bit strong especially for a fairly new product to the market.

Has anyone consider used golf course top dressers. They come as tow behinds or self propelled. Now new they are even more expensive but there are tons of them on the used market. They have the same basic design as large agricultural spreaders with beater bars or spinners and a conveyor system. My thoughts are you can likely double up your savings between the AG lime savings and using chicken litter or compost compared to Pelletized lime and fertilizer.

Any thoughts?
 
look into Humistart . You can get it in 50lb bags and its like throwing gas on a fire. since we started using it it has worked awesome. I get it in bulk but they sell it in bags also. I have a top spreader from a golf course. It works but you can over load it very easy. Wet/damp lime very bad on it. the humistart is only 400lbs per acre. Can use a standard spreader with it. Let me know if you need help finding the Humistart or have questions about it.
 
look into Humistart . You can get it in 50lb bags and its like throwing gas on a fire. since we started using it it has worked awesome. I get it in bulk but they sell it in bags also. I have a top spreader from a golf course. It works but you can over load it very easy. Wet/damp lime very bad on it. the humistart is only 400lbs per acre. Can use a standard spreader with it. Let me know if you need help finding the Humistart or have questions about it.
where can you find it at?
 
There's products on the market that claim to raise your ph without lime, but after you apply the stuff your ph is good for only about a year, then you've got to do it again, with the end result being that you spend a lot more money than lime. Lime is relatively cheap compared to other costs such as fertilizer and seed, and it's important to get your ph high enough or your crops can't utilize the nutrients in the ground. Lime has an alkaline value directly related to the amount in lbs that you are putting on your field, i.e. you need X amount of tons to correct your ph, so the cheaper type that you can buy the more lbs you can afford to put on, the longer it'll last. While the average food plot guy doesn't need to worry about getting ph too high, a soil test will show if you need calcium lime or magnesium lime. Most farm fields don't need magnesium, but cleared wood plots often do. Magnesium stays in the soil so its possible to get too high. You are thinking correctly in getting Ag lime because it is way cheaper than any other type, if you have a way to get it on your plot. In PA Ag lime is $20 - $40 per ton, bagged lime is around $95 a ton and pelletized bagged lime is about $290 a ton, with these all having the same ph value per weight, although bagged lime is faster acting because it's finer powder, but the tradeoff is it doesn't last as long. There's fantastic claims made about pelletized lime but the truth is it's worth the same as any other lime per the amount of lbs you put on. 4 years ago I had a dump truck deliver 20 tons of Ag lime and spread it on a 5 acre field with my fel, and finished leveling it out with my 3pt scraper and disc. Just $400 and the ph in that field will be good for many years to come. I say if you can find a cheap golf course top dresser go for it, just put light loads in it. This winter I got lucky and picked up a good used John Deere lime spreader at a farm auction for $175 that will spread Ag lime just fine. A lot of farmers are selling these things cheap because now they all get lime spreader trucks in to do their Ag fields.WP_20180319_20_39_38_Pro (2).jpg
 
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Give Grady Benning a call 814-360-4785. He works for the company that makes it. So far I swear by the stuff.
 
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