After viewing many websites, and reading all the comments on the disadvantages of aeration, I felt it important to write down some of my reasons aeration is a must if you are growing hay and pasture for cattle feed.

Why do golf courses and turf farms aerate 4 or 5 times a year, when they could save all the labor, fuel and equipment cost? They want to grow lush, green grass!!

Having been a poultry grower for 25 years, we had tons of litter to spread. The only problem we had, we could never get the litter to the root zone. After using a tool that was designed for soil compaction movement without losing the cover crop, plus maintaining a smooth level pasture, we saw a big improvement in yield!! The rain water was going in the soil at 9 inches, saturating 10 to 12 inches deep!!

Living in hot Florida, we get rainfall here and there, having too much one day, and none for weeks at a time. Farming on flatland, the rain would fall so hard that it would still find its way to the low spots and settle there!! After using the Aerator, all that runoff stopped!! In the Florida heat, the water never had a way to get deep in the ground, because the next 10 days the sun was out at 98 degrees and very humid, and evaporating what rain water we received!! If I can get the water deep, it lasts a very long time even in sandy soil.

Common sense says if you can get the water in at a 9 inch depth, the water that made it to the bottom of the fractured compacted soil, will not let the high humid heat of the day take the moisture back!! If you can save what nature gives us each day, then the bad droughts will not be as severe!! Why let the water runoff to the creek?

Why do grapevines need pruning? If we look at living plants, most of them need cutting of the roots, to expand new healthy roots. We need air, water, and food to live. Why do we think a plant does not need the same amount, of what we need? Try breathing through a straw to live!! We could live, but we could not do much work! We expect a plant to grow, but we don’t see its need for important air!! The key to good Pasture Management is give the plant roots the least stress possible along with air, water and food to live!! And nature can do the rest!! If you select a one foot area at random in a pasture, and rake away all dead leaves and thatch down to the dirt, you might have 50-60% coverage. At the end of the season using deep, effective aeration, you could go back to that same spot, the next year and see new roots and grass in that remaining area. The protein is greater and the field is thicker. The fertilizer is getting to the roots. You might get an extra cutting of hay as well!

Nothing in this life is sure today!! But being a good caretaker of what I am entrusted with, can make all the difference in the world!! I have made my living the past 5 years selling tools that help produce more and better yields. If I felt I was just making income to sell a no-need product, I would find something else to do than selling steel and iron!!

If I can help with any questions, or give any common sense advice, please feel free to contact me or email me anytime.

Kenneth W. Thompson TAE