Anyone used soybean meal?

[seedcorn]

Unless you grow all of the feed yourself, feed your animals only what you grow, the odds of it being organically what you think it should be are slim and none.

SBM will give up it's nitrogen quicker (just bury soybeans, why pay for processing?) than cotton seeds. Cotton seeds are loaded w/fiber which will tie up nitrogen up. It's there but microbes are using it to do their job of breaking down the fiber.

There are places where you can buy non-GMO soybeans. There would have been chemicals used when they were grown but they aren't GMO. Cost--can buy seed for $40/50#'s. or maybe a local mill may have some for $15/60#'s.

 

[digitS']

Seedcorn, this builds on the idea of just using seed for increasing soil fertility.

Field peas just cannot get thru the winter here. When I've planted them in the fall garden, only a very, very few have survived until spring (maybe 5%, or less). So? Might as well think of them as just a fall fertilizer.

Oats are a not uncommon green manure crop to plant late in the growing season. Winter kill is expected.

I pay nearly $20 per 25# bag of organic fertilizer wholesale. $15/60# looks real good by comparison.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Seedcorn, this builds on the idea of just using seed for increasing soil fertility.

Field peas just cannot get thru the winter here. When I've planted them in the fall garden, only a very, very few have survived until spring (maybe 5%, or less). So? Might as well think of them as just a fall fertilizer.

Oats are a not uncommon green manure crop to plant late in the growing season. Winter kill is expected.

I pay nearly $20 per 25# bag of organic fertilizer wholesale. $15/60# looks real good by comparison.

Steve

So what is "organic" fertilizer as all P & K come from mines. Nitrogen from where? Depending upon how much nitrogen you want, I'd use soybeans for that. Field peas are different than soybeans but neither will make it through winter. For a fall/winter green manure, try winter annual rye or cheaper yet, winter wheat.

 

[hoodat]

I just planted a bare spot with a red clover/chicory ground cover mix. The clover sets nitrogen and the chicory puts out a tap root that will bring nutrients from deep soil and put them on top where they can be used. I may be too early. The warmest weather of the year here is about to start and I don't know how well the clover will germinate in the heat.

 

[digitS']

The phosphorus in the fertilizer I use is mostly from bone meal. Nitrogen is from feather meal and composted poultry litter.

A fall green manure crop for the garden can be a little problematic. Often the ground is used right up until a killing frost. Winter rye and wheat sown late will not make much growth by, say, the 1st of May and can sometimes be seriously hard to kill at that point.

Seed as fertilizer: Whether it is a meal or whole, soybeans would rate something like 7-2-1 as a fertilizer. That isn't an insignificant amount of P & K and could be supplemented with something like wood ashes in the garden.

Steve

 

[country lady]

I am sorry to vent but while I was on here this morning a neighbor's black lab came into my pen and killed three hens, including my favorite. One ran off into the woods and one other is either traumatized or has an injury. I am letting the two rest in this heat. I live in farm country and have no close neighbors. These neighbors live down the road a bit, we can see them, and the man has been irresponsible for 27 years. He probably only gets the many, many dogs he's had a rabies shot, never neuters. I am mad at the dog but I am truly angry at this man. He got rid of two beagles last year when DH complained they were trying to get into our pen. These were pets who were fed buttermilk/bread, fruit, etc. We had much joy the last three years with these six chickens.