Do Fertilizers Affect Performance?

[BigSkyGuy]

I have a permission for a field which contains cattle during most of the year, but is flood irrigated at times. When the ground is dry my detectors work well, but during times when the field is partially flooded I need to use Beach mode on the Equinox, otherwise, the chatter is unbearable. I attribute this to cow urine, leaching from salt licks, fertilizer, evaporation of standing water following flooding, or all of the above.

[Digalicious]

24 minutes ago, Geezer said:

Great minds think alike!

It should be noted that this is not running hot though. It is actually giving up some heat to gain some advantage in special circumstances. Depending how hard you go at intentionally placing your detector out of balance you lose depth and your TID numbers become less reliable. 

I vaguely recall that method from my early detecting days. I thought it was called running hot, which I also thought meant running positive. Anyway, I never did try it for the exact reasons you posted 🙂

[Daniel Tn]

3 hours ago, BigSkyGuy said:

I have a permission for a field which contains cattle during most of the year, but is flood irrigated at times. When the ground is dry my detectors work well, but during times when the field is partially flooded I need to use Beach mode on the Equinox, otherwise, the chatter is unbearable. I attribute this to cow urine, leaching from salt licks, fertilizer, evaporation of standing water following flooding, or all of the above.

Same here.  100+ head of cattle in the same fields for 100+ years definitely has an impact on it. Just look at the ground where their hay rings are and such. One local farmer has ran Jersey cows his whole life.  He owns 1200ish acres and is 83 years old...his daddy did the same thing on the same farm and so did his dad.  Those fields are some of the hardest to detect of anywhere I go locally.

[strick]

11 hours ago, BigSkyGuy said:

I have a permission for a field which contains cattle during most of the year, but is flood irrigated at times. When the ground is dry my detectors work well, but during times when the field is partially flooded I need to use Beach mode on the Equinox, otherwise, the chatter is unbearable. I attribute this to cow urine, leaching from salt licks, fertilizer, evaporation of standing water following flooding, or all of the above.

Yep cow piss is actually a fertilizer in itself. Hunting a dry pasture vs a wet one is a lot like hunting a beach in the dry sand vs hunting in the wet sand and wave wash. Rye patch nevada area is famous for these types of ground conditions...after a good rain it becomes a real challenge. 

Strick

[Digalicious]

45 minutes ago, strick said:

Yep cow piss is actually a fertilizer in itself. 

 

Soooo, should I start peeing on my plants? 🙂

Doesn't salt kill vegetation? Or, is it a matter of, "A little is good, too much will kill ya'"?

[strick]

People do that but not as good as a genuine cow...

strick 

[cudamark]

Some interesting conditions to mull over. I was always curious (and aware) about the different ground mineralization we encounter, and ways of counteracting it. I've also been curious as to how the ground Ph affects our detectors. In a couple of areas I hunt, I don't think it is necessarily mineralized with metals, but, it is definitely alkali. Not sure what is causing it and I haven't had a soil sample analyzed to test the Ph, but, I get a lot less depth there regardless of detecting mode and VLF machine used. I haven't detected an area determined to being acidic, but, would be curious as the what reaction the detector would show with that condition. I would imagine that Ph along with moisture will have an effect on conductivity, but, I'm fairly ignorant in that technical aspect other than the fact that more moisture generally helps us get more depth in most mild soils.