# Sulfur for the Alfalfa



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Adding Sulfur increases yields....especially with a cleaner less sulfur atmosphere.

Regards, Mike

http://hayandforage.com/alfalfa/boost-alfalfa-yields-adding-sulfur


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I've been routinely adding 30 lbs to my fertilizer program for about 4 years now. If I remember right, that's what my agronomy book said was removed by a hay crop. But I need to go back and test for it in the future.

Ralph


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Soil tests here are usually callimg for 10 lbs.We do get some S from manure.But not enough manure to cover everything.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I would love to get some manure. Guy about 10 miles up the road has a lot of hogs. He spreads the liquid hog manure on his crop fields over the winter--drills it in--and they look great! I have thought about asking him to sell me some but that would be quite a trip for him, pulling a 1500 gallon tank.

And I absolutely do not like the smell of hog manure. Had a job as a teenager helping one of my uncles with his hogs one summer--could never get the stink out of my clothes and the girls didn't seem to appreciate it either. But then again, maybe it wasn't the hog smell?

Ralph


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I'm like yoy Ralph. I put on 30# of S on twice a year and I still get low S scores on my annual soil test. I can still remember when the sky would be yellow at times. Mike


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Pay no attention fo soil analysis, look at what you hay is taking up with plant analysis. A soil probe can completly miss most of your sulfur. .


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

hay wilson in TX said:


> Pay no attention fo soil analysis, look at what you hay is taking up with plant analysis. A soil probe can completly miss most of your sulfur. .


A problem with the soil test for sulfur is similar to the problem with the soil test for nitrate nitrogen and for chloride. The historic soil test for sulfur actually tests for sulfate, the form of sulfur that is taken up by the plant. Sulfate, nitrate, and chloride are mobile nutrients in the soil because they are negative charged ions (anions). Clay in soils has a net negative charge, so it tends to repel anions allowing them to move through the soil with the movement of water. Rainfall moving through the surface 6-inch soil depth and deeper takes sulfate (SO42-), nitrate (NO3-), and chloride (Cl-) with it. If only the surface 6-inch soil depth is sampled for the routine battery of soil tests that include SO42-, NO3-, and Cl-, and there has been sufficient rainfall to move water below this depth following fertilization with nitrogen, sulfur, and potash, the soil test will not detect the amounts of these plant nutrients that were applied. Until we as producers and soil scientists decide that we will take the time to collect samples of soil from the surface 6-inch depth plus additional samples from 6- to 18-, 18- to 30-inches, and even deeper, the soil test for these plant nutrients will not work as we think it should. The soil's B-horizon is termed the zone of accumulation and a fair concentration of these nutrients will end up held in the B-horizon. Plant roots will be able to extract these nutrients from that depth. If we are not willing to collect soil samples into the B-horizon, we should not expect the soil analysis of the 6-inch depth to detect a significant concentration of SO42-, NO3-, or Cl-, and we will continue to over-apply these nutrients to our soils.


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