The Many Benefits to Applying Liming

John Enda Flannelly, ACRES Advisor, Teagasc Claremorris.

The Liming Programme was introduced in spring 2023 to incentivise the use of lime as a natural soil conditioner which corrects soil acidity, make nutrients more available for plant uptake and improves overall soil health. The purchase of lime was to be no later than the 7th November 2023 and subsequent spreading before the 31st March 2024. However, due to the poor weather this spring, this date was extended until the 28th June 2024, which was again revised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the 31^st of October 2024 on account of the limited opportunities to spread lime thus far. DAFM has stated that there will be no further extension beyond the 31^st of October 2024 date.

Regardless of the Liming Programme there are many benefits to applying lime on your farm as you can read below.

Benefits

There is a number of benefits to spreading lime:

• It can release up to 70kg of soil nitrogen (N)/ha/year. As a result, it reduces the need for chemical nitrogen in the ground.
• Liming will increase the soils pH which can lead to an extra 10-15% grass growth
• The economic value of spreading lime is high. For every €1 you spend on lime on a drystock farm, you get back €5. For every €1 you spend on lime on a dairy farm, you get back €7.
• Due to the amount of nitrogen lime releases, it therefore reduces the amount of greenhouse gases produced which is a benefit for the environment.

How, When and Where

• When preparing to spread lime, you should prepare a farm liming plan. This will help you determine in which fields lime is required and how much lime is needed in each field. The first step that should be taken in this plan is to take soil samples on the farm (one every 4 or 5ha). This will identify where lime is needed, and when and at what rate it should be applied. You should not put out more than 7.5t/ha (3t/acre) in any single application. Where there is a recommendation of greater than 7.5t/ha, spread 50% of the lime now and the other 50% in two years’ time. Lime should only applied based on recent soil reports. These samples should be taken every four or five years. Lime can be spread all year round when weather conditions are suitable.

Lime, Slurry and Chemical Nitrogen

• When spreading lime in a silage field leave sufficient time between applying lime and closing for grass silage. If the lime is transported to the silage clamp or picked up in the baled silage, it can affect good preservation conditions for the silage.
• When spreading cattle slurry on fields that have received lime recently, it can result in a loss of up to 50% of the available slurry nitrogen. So apply cattle slurry first and then apply the lime 7 to 10 days later to reduce the amount of nitrogen lost.
• For urea, it is similar to cattle slurry where increased nitrogen loss may occur where straight urea fertiliser is applied on recently limed land. Similar to slurry application apply the Urea first and then apply the lime 7 to 10 days later to reduce the amount of nitrogen lost. However, where protected urea is being applied, early trial work indicates that it is safe to apply protected urea to fields that have been limed recently.
• If lime is already spread, allow 3 months between the application of lime and the application of Urea and slurry.