How Lime Live works

This is an ongoing 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, Waitoa.

A. Monitoring site layout

Four paddocks will be involved in the trial - two limed, two unlimed. As far as possible, these paddocks will be similar in all respects - soil type, soil tests, and pasture composition - right from the outset.

  • Limed paddocks - receive normal farm liming and fertiliser treatments (ie. annual liming)
  • Control paddocks - receive all normal farm fertilisers but are not limed annually.
  • All paddocks - will not be used for hay or silage.
  • Grazing - Each pair of paddocks will be grazed in the same order of each grazing rotation. Monitoring will be carried out on the paddock grazed second in each pair of paddocks. This is important because, especially on the unlimed pairing, the animals will have "adjusted" to unlimed pasture before going on to graze the limed monitored paddock. The same protocol will ensure that the monitoring is balanced between the two liming treatments.

B. Measurements

Soil monitoring
  • Chemistry
    • Normal soil tests will be performed (pH, P, S, Ca, Mg, K, Na) plus organic matter and ASC at six monthly intervals. This data will be reported in both MAF Quicktest and ME% formats.
    • All tests will be done on 0-7.5, 7.5-15, 15-30 and 30-45cm depths from the start of monitoring, and every six months from then on.
    • All samples will be retained in air-dry state under refrigeration to allow follow-up testing to be carried out.
  • Microbiology
    • Changes in soil microbiology will be measured using the Soil Microbial Index test (developed at the University of Wales at Bangor, Wales).
    • These will be reported as:
      • Total microbial count (kg/ha)
      • Bacterial count (kg/ha)
      • Fungal count (kg/ha)
      • Yeast count (kg/ha)
      • Anaerobic count (kg/ha)
      • Azotobacter (kg/ha)
      • Actinobacteria (kg/ha)
    • The 0-7.5, 7.5-15, 15-30 and 30-45cm depths will be used to report these, every six months.
Plant monitoring
  • Full plant tissue analysis on clover-only and mixed herbage samples (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Na, B, Co, Cu, Fe, Mo, Mn). Reported as: % of DM (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Na) or mg/kg DM (B, Co, Cu, Fe, Mo, Mn).
    • Samples will be taken from the start of monitoring, and every six months from then on.
Pasture monitoring
  • Growth - rising plate meter readings taken in monitored paddocks before and after each grazing (collect pasture growth data and utilisation at each grazing).
    • These will be reported as:
      • Growth (difference between last grazing and present grazing)
      • Total growth (sum of all growth from the start of the trial)
      • Utilisation (the difference between the residual and the pre-grazing pasture masses, expressed as a percentage of the pre-grazing mass).
    • All reports except the utilisation will be in kg DM/ha.
  • Pasture composition - measurements every six months using point analysis frame (100 hits per paddock at 10 randomly-selected locations in each monitor paddock).
    • Report will be on ryegrass, other grasses, clovers, other legumes, weeds, litter, and bare ground as percentages of total cover.
    • Pasture samples will be cut to ground level (five 0.25m2 quadrants) and dissected into fresh and litter components to compare build-up of litter under each lime treatment. Reported as percentages - fresh and litter.
  • Root system development - soil plugs will be washed out and root mass weighed (0-7.5, 7.5-15 and 15-30cm) every 6 months.
    • These will be reported as grams of root weight/kg soil.

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