Lime an essential part of successful cropping operation

An application of lime prior to the canola phase has reaped dividends for the Rodham property at Uranquinty, south of Wagga Wagga in the Riverina district.

Tristrum Rodham said the property had many soils that were acidic and lime was an essential tool to help grow their crops.

“We need lime to neutralise the soil for the crops, otherwise we won’t get the yields,” he said. “It’s such a basic element in the soil. You've got to get the pH right to get things to grow well. That's the reason we do it.”

He said lime was put down prior to the canola crop in the cropping phase and then the paddock rotated to wheat before coming back to canola.

Other cropping options include lupins and then barley, which is used prior to a pasture phase and is normally undersown to lucerne or clover.

“We lime every canola crop straight up because the canola crop is so expensive to produce,” Mr Rodham said. “You can't really miss out if you use it.”

He said they would normally apply a little over a tonne per hectare and try and put it on every third or fourth crop instead of putting a large amount on in one hit.

“The limestone does move down through the soil so if you only put a tonne on every third or fourth year you still have it in that top profile where your crop is grown.”

“This year we've planted some canola and applied a tonne per hectare of lime and half a tonne off gypsum to start off with.” 

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Mr Rodham uses Sibelco lime sourced from Galong, 150km north-east of Wagga Wagga.

“I cart it all myself,” he said. “I go up there with our semi-trailer and pick it up and bring it all back.”

The lime is normally acquired after harvest has been completed and prior to winter crop starting.

“It’s too hot to do anything else so I may as well sit in the air-conditioned truck and go and pick up a bit of lime,” Mr Rodham said. 

“I do that around February and bring it home and then get a contractor to spread it out. I think he spreads around 10 to 18 metres wide. It just depends on how it's flowing. If it's too dry we get in with our fire truck and put a bit of water on it to make it go to ground a bit more and get a more even spread.”

He said the people at the Sibelco plant were really easy to work with and would often provide an option of a dry load out of the silo or some from the stockpile, which may be a bit wetter.

“I try and do that every now and then to get a mixture and it works out well.”

“It is a pretty good product. I don't see why you wouldn’t use it for the price and for what it does for your soil.”

Mr Rodham applied lime in the 2017 season prior to canola and was pleased at how the crop germinated and established under dry early conditions.

“I'm really surprised at how good this canola looks,” he said. “We didn’t have any rain for a good month and a half so I'm surprised it is so good. I thought it might have been a write-off after sowing. It was dry and dusty and I just scratched it in.”

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