Part of the fun in owning a farm is reacquainting oneself with manual labor. One of the jobs we had to do on the farm is to fertilize about ten acres of pasture.

It started out with a soil test. Soil testing is a service provided by the State, and it is free. However, the results could be somewhat cryptic:

N: 120-200 P2O5: 70-90 K20: 40-60

But, then again, here comes the State to help. In Chatham County, where I live, there is a Cooperative Extension office of the State’s agricultural schools, and I was able to enlist the help of Sam Groce in interpreting my results.

His answer was for me to put 500 pounds/acre of 17-17-17 fertilizer on the pasture. Now, 500 times 10 is two and a half tons, and that was going to be a lot of bags. But then I learned another little trick. It is possible to buy fertilizer in bulk. In addition, they will put it in a “buggy” which doubles as a trailer and a spreader.

Above is a picture of my little Ford Ranger hooked up to a six thousand pound “buggy”. This is a good thing, since my towing capacity is, you guessed it, 6000 pounds.

Of course you don’t spread the fertilizer with the truck, and my Ford 4600 had little problem dragging it around the field. Of course, I didn’t get to drive the tractor, Andrea did.

I spent the time using the lawn tractor to fertilize the lawn. Andrea’s is a bit larger.