Soil pH correction

The Liming Industry

Without doubt at present and for the next few years it seems that agricultural food production will be under increasing strain. It must be prudent to start looking at the Lime industry, how it works, what are its legacies, how has the industry progressed, and what improvements are available to the grower in order that the cost of producing food can continue to fall, along with the falling value of the commodity.

For as long as most people can remember the lime industry has been considered a cheap bulk commodity, (far from it), requiring little expertise and offering products where little development has occurred on specifications for which growers can compare products and ultimately pricing. It is also very strange that the industry has remained very colloquial with not one national presence for the industry, leading to sometimes-onerous quality being offered to the grower in different areas, as no independent body exists enforcing the specifications of lime on sale within the UK.

So often the only item talked about is the price, where with every other agricultural commodity be it in the chemical & fertiliser industry or the grain trade there is, rightly so, tremendous attention to detail and very tight specification requirements that if breached often end up with arbitration, without which many problems could occur.

Lime seems to have been left behind, ask many a grower what sort of lime they have supplied to their fields and they will look at you blankly saying 'lime?'. If they were lucky the NV (Neutralising value) may be stated either on an invoice or delivery note. Rarely do we see further information, as indeed with chalks, that is all a supplier is required to pass on. There is one inch to dust specifications probably talked about most but just what does that consist of?? The industry also offers finer materials, although we then have the problem of application. We know where all the dust goes - certainly not all on the land, which leads to more environmental issues! Nonetheless we are still saddled with an extremely archaic system that I am convinced is an extension to the time when lime was heavily subsidised. Whole field dressings were applied with some growers to this day still suffering over-liming problems, locking up phosphate and micronutrients.

We have seen some improvement with spot treatment of areas within the field, but once again we have an industry run by people actually doing the testing, or samplers who do not know the fields as well as the grower. They pass on sketches of the fields to contractors who once again are not always too familiar with the field and yet they have to somehow spread on to the area that has been identified as having low pH status. All in all, I find it amazing that a product that is costing the grower more than his annual nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertiliser per acre, is handled, in some cases, with such flippancy and disregard for professionalism. It is fact that we lag behind our counterparts in Europe, where Calcium is recognised as a fertiliser element alongside phosphate, potassium, magnesium and sulphur. This in itself must lead to a better understanding of the product, a better placement of the product and ultimately a better way of controlling pH within soils, which must lead on to a more cost-effective basis.

The charts we see produced by the ALPC are basis 54% NV and 40% passing through 150 microns. This I would suggest is very rarely offered to growers when it comes to farm deliveries. For chalk, no fineness specification is required and even then this is a very broad brush with which to sweep over what I am convinced should be a more technical commodity. It is time we started talking kgs/Ha not tonnes/acre!! We do not place large particles of phosphate, potassium and magnesium on the land in the hope that it will break down over the next few years, so why do we allow chalk and limestone this luxury. Why is it we see low pH in chalky boulder clay? Is it really that the chalk is all in the sub soil or is it just the lumps are too slow to break down and are really just inert rocky substances waiting for that hammer to break them up!! What this is all leading on to is the product with which we are becoming involved, and is for the forward thinking grower, revolutionising the whole industry. Granular Lime will give growers for the first time the ability to take control of their own pH correction.

The product comes complete with full specification declarations, even including reactivity - a measurement the ALPC has been trying to implement for many years without success. Such is the strength of the producers it has not been in their own interests.
Granulated Calcium will give the grower several improvements over bulk dust lime, as we know it:-

24-metre granular product can be spread by grower's existing machinery.
Application can be throughout the whole season, so spreading the workload.
Window of application greatly enhanced
Reduces contractor charges and spreads own labour charges.
Eliminates piles of lime on fields, causing untold damage in compaction and over-liming.
Eliminates heavy machinery travelling in narrow bands across fields causing more compaction.
Allows more accuracy i.e. potential cost cutting.
Fits into precision farming systems.
Non-toxic, non-hazardous, 500 kg product (easy to store and handle).
An approximate ratio of 7 : 1 for the same pH correction is of great benefit e.g. 2,500 kgs / ha equivalent to 350 kgs / ha G Lime
Environmentally, no more public outcries over dust on cars, washing etc.
Able to offer more accountability of operations to consumers.
Spread of cash flow away from intense harvest period.
Ability to 'fine tune' where necessary e.g. increase from 6.2 to 6.5 if desired, leading to better control of nutrient efficiency, crop production and ultimately grower's returns.
Sweetening of soil for sensitive crops without detriment to following crop.
Correction of low pH in growing crops.

We now have product coming through from the manufacturer and can offer CALCIPRILL with immediate effect. Please 'phone or email for further details.

Last Updated July 2005
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