How LIME LIVE began
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”
“Sometimes somebody does something that is completely different to the norm.”
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 - hence LIME LIVE on www.onlime.co.nz
Dave and Mary Muggeridge are applying the same principles they have learnt about agricultural lime from Wilton Road at this new farm.