New horse pastue and pH question; is dolomitic lime all the same?

[markrich]

My new 2.5 acre horse pasture has been cleared, grubbed, leveled and disced(?). I had the soild analyzied and am ready to add lime.
New stumbling block. Southern States won't send their spreader truck for such a small job. So I'm looking at doing it myself. I have another 8 acres that isn't ready.

My report shows a ph of 5.0 and 5.4 (two sample areas). It recommends 1.8 tons of dolomitic lime per acre in area 1 and .8 tons in area 2.
Is there a way to measure or be certain of the strenth of the lime?
Is powdered preferable to pelleted?

If a bag of pelleted 2x strength lime is labeled as enough for 10,000 sq. ft. enough to change the pH of 10,000 square feet by the recommended amount?
I don't understand how you could trust the label without knowing the current pH and the optimum pH.

Anyway, I hope someone understands this and could provide some good sound advice. I hate wasting money.

Thanks, Mark

 

[big lar]

This is an on-going issue and I faced the same problem (I was ultimatley able to get it bulk spread, had about 20 acres to do)

Pellets are MUCH more expensive but easier to spread(regular spin spreader) Ph raises quicker but doesn't last as long with pellets. And at 600-800 lbs per spreader load, it takes a long time to handle and spread 2 T per Ac.
There is CONCENTRATED lime pellets avaliable, 3-4 times the cost but obviously less handling.

But the specialist from the lime quarry told any type of pellets is not practical for farm use. (I don't want a debate on this; just saying what he told me)

You could get a load of powder dumped, or buy bagged powder, and use a drop spreader.

Do you know anyone with a spreader truck they use for sand/salt for roads? Perhaps you could hire them to do it for you; down side those t

trucks would not have flotation tires but if its high and dry,would not be a problem.

I went through all of this myself; never believed the spreader guy would come to me; 100 miles from the quarry
but when I asked, he said yes.