Liming Acidic Soils

Many Kansas soils require regular applications of lime for optimum crop production and summer/fall is the ideal time to apply lime to your fields with it generally being dryer and before the lime piles start freezing up in the heart of winter.  Having the proper pH in your soil reduces the harmful or even potentially toxic conditions of acid soils, which is primarily caused from the application of nitrogen fertilizers, unfortunately.  Most of the crops grown in Kansas actually prefer a slightly acidic soil, but once the pH falls below 6.0, nutrient availability starts to become hindered and yield reduction starts taking place. (See Percent Yield Chart below from KSU).  Also, your herbicide weed control starts to get broken down faster as well.  Soil pH levels do tend to vary a fair amount across the field so we highly recommend grid soil sampling your field first before applying as the rates can vary anywhere from 0-5 tons/ac on average.  This will ensure that you are applying the correct amount of lime to every acre with a variable rate prescription and avoiding over liming an area, which can have very negative effects as well.  The price of lime application varies mostly on how far away the field is from the lime source, but an average rate of lime vrt applied is $35.00/ton so it doesn’t take much variability to pay for the grid soil test.    

To learn more about the benefits of liming your soils, please read this K-State eUpdate.  Agronomy eUpdate August 1st, 2024 : Issue 1014 

We also have a new source of High ECC Water Treatment lime coming from Salina so now is most likely the best opportunity ever to lime if you are within 50 miles or so of Salina.  The last chart below highlights the savings from the Salina WT lime by comparing an average rate (3.2 tons/ac) of a typical 50% ECC Aglime application to the equivalent rate (2 tons/ac) of the 80% ECC WT lime.  The range of savings for most fields in that area is from $15-$50/ac!  Even though the WT lime typical costs more/ton, the higher ECC analysis makes it much cheaper per pound of ECC because you need less lime purchased, hauled, and applied.  Its similar to comparing nitrogen prices between NH3 and Urea.   

MKC is your local grid soil sampling and liming experts so please reach out to your nearest MKC location, your Strategic Account Manager, or email us agtech@mkcoop.com to set your fields up for success or to get an exact quote for lime application for a field.
 

FarmTRX-Yield-Monitor-2-0-2024.pdf
Article provided by Ross Benisch, Ag Technology Manager