Time for lime

Ground conditions and farm finances have aligned, meaning there are significant opportunities to apply lime. John Maher, Grass10 Manager, and John Leahy, dairy farmer in Athea, Co. Limerick, join Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss applying lime.

Despite difficult weather a few weeks ago, things have improved, John Maher explains, and ground conditions, rotation length and money in the bank will allow people to spread lime.

Ireland is falling short of its lime application targets, John Maher explained, before outlining the benefits of applying lime in a grassland system. The last time the country spread over 2 million tonnes annually was over 40 years ago, with annual applications now standing at approximately half that.

John Leahy tells of his experience of increasing the pH on his farm. He went after it hard at the start and got it up to where it should be now. He’s at the point where 20-40t keeps him on point each year.

John Leahy also outlines how he went after the lime as he felt he could spend a lot of money on fertiliser with little return. He has gotten a phenomenal response to his lime applications. His soil fertility has taken nearly 10 years to get right but he got his lime right from the start. Opportunities will present, people need to take them, he says.

Listen in below:

For a list of suppliers of lime visit the Grolime website.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page.

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com