Teagasc is highlighting the myriad benefits that can be accrued by adding agricultural lime to land at the appropriate time.

And this is a message that is equally relevant for tillage farmers as they strive to make use of crop inputs

Moreover, all of this is fast becoming a good news story for Irish agriculture.

One of the most significant trends identified by recent surveys is that farmers across the country are starting to use more lime.  

In many ways, this is a case of getting back to basics. It is also a case of learning from history.

Lime

Lime is the most undervalued soil conditioner that we can apply to our land.

Research going back to the 19th century confirmed lime's ability to lift inherent soil fertility levels while, at the same time, ensuring that farmers got the best return from the manures and bagged fertilisers they used within their businesses.

Furthermore, lime costs a fraction of what it takes to procure and spread nitrogen, potash, phosphate, and the other manufactured fertilisers on the market today.

All it takes to ensure that the best use is made of lime is to have a series of soil tests done, which will accurately determine the pH status of the soils across the entire scope of a farmed area.

Resource management

Farmers are often encouraged to invest in new technologies in order to secure higher efficiency levels within their businesses.

And, up to a point, the benefits of doing so are evident. But one could also argue that such an approach is simply covering over cracks that have been apparent within the industry for many decades.

Without getting the fundamentals right, how can the best use be made of the new technologies that are coming down the line?

Modern agriculture is all about resource management. Farmers must get the best value they can from all the inputs they use within their businesses.

Fundamentally, this includes livestock manures and chemical fertilisers.

The overarching fact that connects all these dots is the use of lime to maintain soil pH vales at optimal levels.

For years, many farmers in this part of the world seemed to have forgotten this fundamental reality.

Partly, this was due to the message sold to them back in the day that bagged fertiliser was the cheap and convenient fix for all their production-related problems.

These days, chemical fertilisers are not the cheap option they once were.

Yes, they continue to have a key role to play within production agriculture.

But it is reassuring to know that farmers are, at long last, wakening up again to the reality that lime – good old calcium carbonate – is the one input that they cannot overlook as they plan for a sustainable future.