Soil amelioration jury still undecided

In concert with attempts to elevate soil pH a trial was held last year by Great Northern Rural Services agronomist Owen Mann on local Binnu farmer Craig Simkins’ property, to evaluate the cost benefit.

“We wanted to assess lime synergies for amelioration,” Mr Mann said.

“We wanted to know if there was something to speed up the amelioration process.

“The aim was to evaluate four novel soil ameliorates and their effect on subsoil pH and aluminium in sandy soils with a view to increase grainy yield and quality.”

The products were calcium-based Calsap, Calbud, Calcium Silicate and Calciprill.

The trials were done banding the products with UAN (liquid N).

The important take-home message was it’s early days with these products.

As always, one year of trial data is insufficient to evaluate a product’s ability to elevate soil pH, given the variability of seasonal conditions.

At the recent Autumn Update Mr Mann said soil pH tests were still being evaluated.

But with costs of application varying between $8 and $59.60/hectare and return on investment ranging between minus $2.69/ha and $104.72/ha, the jury may be inclined to remain “out” for a few years until more persuasive data is available.

It does seem that farmers want these ameliorants to work but the adoption point will correlate with least cost.