Lime live

Putting lime to the test

To see the real results of regular liming, we have set up a demonstration site to compare two separate pastures, and putting them under the microscope. Lime Live has monitored limed and unlimed pastures over the past four years, and this site is periodically updated with results.

“Sometimes somebody does something that is completely different to the norm.”

An overview from Duncan Clarke, Sales Manager, McDonald’s Lime

• Firstly I want to go back to where this story has originated from and why we have an on farm site “LIME LIVE”
• In 1996 I was fortunate to meet Mr David Muggeridge and his wife Mary, on their 50 hectare property at Wilton Road, Tatuanui. David was very exuberant about the benefits of agricultural lime and its effect on his farming production
• “We used to apply lime to a quarter of the farm each year, and observed that the quarter of the farm where lime had been applied was the best performing pasture. From this we then decided to apply Aglime at a lighter rate over the whole farm.”
• The farm was maintained at a pH of approx. 6.2 to 6.3 with annual dressings of between 400 to 600kg per hectare of McDonalds Agricultural Lime.From these applications more pasture was grown, it had better utilisation, and there was a considerable lift in milk production. Production was originally 700-800kg/ms per hectare rising consistently to 1200kg/ms per hectare. This was all achieved on a grass only system - no hay, no silage, just grass
• The most interesting thing about this was the ability to produce milk at such a high rate so cheaply, before any extra inputs were added
• This farm was sold in 2006 and Dave and Mary now farm on the Main Road, Highway 27 Tatuanui. Here was an opportunity to start from the beginning, monitoring the comparisons of a frequently limed paddock to an unlimed one -Dave and Mary Muggeridge are applying the same principles they have learnt about agricultural lime from Wilton Road at this new farm
• The new property McDonald's Lime Limited wanted to track what happened when you light rate lime annually over time
• Dave said "On the Wilton Road property, at years 5 - 6 there was a transcedental jump in farm efficency."

How Lime Live works

This is an on-going monitoring demonstration of limed and unlimed pastures. Monitoring will take place over the next two years. Read how the Lime Live demonstration works below.

Demonstration site: Muggeridge Farm, Tatuanui

The experts involved

In order to develop a reliable and comprehensive demonstration, we have a team of experts involved in the development, data collection, and on-going research on all of the demonstration sites.

Paddy Shannon
M. Ag. Sc.(Hons)

Paddy Shannon is a widely experienced soil scientist working with McDonald's Lime to show, trial, and test lime products. He is extensively involved in the planning and on-going testing for the Lime Live project and will outline the real-time results that will be available from the sites.

Dave Muggeridge
Demonstration farm owner
Tatua Dairy Factory Director

Tatuanui dairy farmer Dave Muggeridge has made real strides by incorporating regular liming into his farming programme. During the last decade he has moved from a liming regime of 1/4 of the farm every four years to yearly whole farm applications. The result is an average pH which is maintained at 6.2.

Dave has developed a pasture monitoring programme that collects pre-grazing and post-grazing residuals on farm. This is an extensive data resource whic also includes fertiliser inputs. This resource is a vital part of the limelive process.

Lime Live results for 2013 will be uploaded as they become available.