Turning blow sand into something productive

I have a 7 acre field that the local farmers refer to as blow sand, 6A in the Northeast. It is essentially beach sand with minimal organics. Ideally I'd like to grow hay for livestock but will consider pretty much anything to get it productive. It remains sand about 30-40ft down to the water table and then even more sand below that. Speaks to some neighbor's farmers a few of which farmed on it or neighboring fields it will grow really good spring grains, as it dry out quick in the spring, a few mentioned oats were very good. However after mid-july it's just too dry and basically all growth stops. A few mentioned putting tons of manure on it but that it doesn't last long and just washes out.

It's been fallow for about 20 years and is a sparse growth of mostly quakgrass and a few shrubs.

I just planted some test plots of summer cover crops to see if anything did well; crimson clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, songhorum, sudangrass, sunn hemp, and some potatos. Looking to see if anyone had other suggestions or ideas to build up the soil to make it more productive.

Will lowbush blueberry grow there? I see it in sandy spots around here. Or black locust? What about dry herbs like thyme and rosemary? Or prickly pear?

If oats work as mentioned, why not go with oats?

While I have no experience that sounds like good hay.

Grow while you can and then make hay when you can't.

One of the ladies on the forum grew a market garden in sand.  Her recommendation was to add any organic material a person could get their hands on.

Maybe add wood chips when not growing after the hay.

Phil Ryan wrote:I just planted some test plots of summer cover crops to see if anything did well; crimson clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, songhorum, sudangrass, sunn hemp, and some potatos. Looking to see if anyone had other suggestions or ideas to build up the soil to make it more productive.

7 acres of sand is a lot to remediate. It's going to be a fight. I think you've made an excellent choice of plants that might make it, and add biomass to the top layer of the soil.

I'm in sand/silt, which is still more forgiving than pure sand. Grass and deep rooted shrubs do quite well. What I've found in the gardens is that a fertile, moisture-retaining mulch thrown on top keeps the feeder roots of my annuals in their "happy place" even in heat waves and drought. So my experience suggests that a "top down" strategy can be effective.

Try some black oil sunflowers too. These are the ones grown and harvested for bird seed. They seem to grow in places where nothing that big should survive. And yet they do.

As an aside, the other thought that came to mind is to turn a roadside acre into RV/Camper storage, in order to generate cash flow to fund the soil experiments. it takes cash flow to operate.

If oats grow well there that is what I would plant, it can survive frost and snow so you can plant it early and take advantage of that early moisture.  Or a winter wheat if you have wet autumns and can get a bit of extra growth in the fall before winter.

You could then harvest either of them as a grain, or cut it and bale it into hay.

The problem with wheat and oats is you have to plant them every year.  You could also try to find a drought tolerant perennial that you only have to plant once and then harvest it for hay every year.