Key Messages

• Ameliorating subsoil compaction and improving subsoil acidity improved barley grain yields by >1t/Ha at this trial site in 2019.

• For 2020 the site was sown to canola and all treatments yielded significantly better than the control plots. This includes the ripping alone treatment where no lime was applied showing that the yield response for canola in the year after treatment was most likely a response to alleviating subsoil compaction rather than a response to lime.

• There was no benefit in using lime from the commercial pit (Boyanup) compared to farm sourced lime (Willis) when rates are calculated to achieve the same neutralising value.However much higher rates of the farm source lime need to be applied to achieve the same affect.

Background

This trial was setup last year to investigate the effect that ripping with inclusion plates had on moving surface applied lime into the acidic subsoil of a deep sand duplex. The treatments also included the opportunity to test high rates of farm sourced lime against equivalent rates of commercial grade lime when accounting for neutralising value.

Treatments

Treatments included the following:

• Deep Rip. Nil Lime

• Deep Rip + 5t/ha Boyanup Lime

• Deep Rip + 12t/ha Willis Lime

• Nil Rip + 5t/ha Boyanup Lime

• Control- Nil Rip, Nil Lime

Find out more

Newsletter Articles

Trials Review Book Articles

Case Study

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project is funded by the National Landcare Program.