|
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Home >
About Us > Latest News > Farmers Misled
|
| |
Farmers misled by nitrogen trial results
New Zealand farmers are being misled by agricultural scientists reporting on the production results from nitrogen trials.
Hatuma Lime Company Managing Director Clifford Topp says farmers are misled by positive production results that do not reveal the overall cost of maintaining these levels with necessary applications of lime.
"It’s a known fact that urea acidifies the soil and the only way to neutralise these effects is by applying extra lime, yet this cost is being hidden from the farmer.
"Farmers are also unaware of the further environmental impacts of applying nitrogen which includes the increase in surface litter that must be recycled due to the extra grass grown," Mr Topp said.
In America and Europe it has always been compulsory for fertiliser packaging to show how much lime is required to neutralise the acidifying effect of the contents.
Mr. Topp, who has had a forty year association with the fertiliser and lime industry, says nitrogen trials are designed to ultimately promote the best way to use nitrogen in a sustainable matter.
"If these trials continue to ignore the realism of lime requirements, and neglect to educate farmers of its importance, then they are achieving nothing."
In 1967, the Agricultural Production Council recommended that 2 million tonne of lime be applied to New Zealand’s soils per annum just to maintain the correct pH and keep the land productive. This was never undertaken.
"Farmers have been told by leading agricultural scientists that lime is uneconomical because of the heavy usage they propose.
They have deemed it a ‘luxury’ item and this has denied many farmers gaining the benefits of better soil conditioning by using lime.
"To make it worse some farmers are already applying extra nitrogen just to make up for the soil’s inefficiencies," Mr Topp says.
The fertiliser industry’s standard of applying lime at a tonne/ha to raise the pH by only 0.1, as based on a 75mm soil test probe, is not only misleading and extremely costly, it can also be detrimental to the cause.
Recommendations based on this method require farmers to apply heavy applications of lime which can take many years to reach the original 75mm depth. Meanwhile the top 10mm of the soil is raised to a pH of 8.5, potentially causing soil imbalances on highly fertilised farms.
However many farmers have discovered applying light rates of agricultural lime at an average of 400kg/ha ensures the top 10mm of their soil remains healthy and in a balanced pH. This rate also makes lime very affordable and can be implicated over the whole farm on an annual basis.
"Agricultural lime plays such a crucial role in ensuring a productive and sustainable operation that it can not be underestimated.
It promotes everything from the recycling of potential run-off, to being an extra carbohydrate source due to its carbon content, and all at a product cost of less than ten dollars a hectare."
"For over twenty years these farmers have learnt how to farm smarter by using light lime applications to gain better soil efficiencies with less reliance on extra nutrients being applied, while still maintaining production. They’re actually creating a win-win situation," says Mr. Topp.
|
|
| |
|
|