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Soil Acidification Project

The aim of the Soil Acidification Project is to increase awareness of soil acidification and its affect on productivity, and to promote practices to ameliorate and reduce the likelihood of soil acidification.

Focus

The Soil Acidification Project will focus on increasing graziers in the Waterhouse/Tomahawk and Fingal farming areas about soil acidification in agriculture. Among the key objectives is the adoption of improved practices through on-farm demonstrations, and recommendations for adaptive management and expansion of the program in future years.

Soil acidification trial sites are set up throughout northern Tasmania.

Pasture cover at one of the trial sites prior to application.

Value

Managing soil acidity in Tasmanian permanent pasture systems is challenging due to a shallow (10cm) soil testing depth and low neutralising value of commonly used lime. Low soil pH in agricultural systems leads to a range of issues including aluminium toxicity, lockup of certain minerals, and impaired performance of soil biological function such as legumes that fail to form effective rhizobia symbiosis. These issues lead to poor performance, particularly shallow-rooted pastures with low resilience in dry seasons.

Delivery

The Soil Acidification Project extension approach for the grazing sector is to include:

workshops to raise general awareness of soil acidification in northern Tasmania;
establishment of on-farm demonstration sites that will undergo pH testing to trial lime/dolomite applications on sandy soils;
soil tests to determine changes in trace element availability and monitoring legume nodulation and worm abundance;
sharing of trial results to widen awareness and encourage best practice adoption;
provision of support to participating producers to test and monitor paddock pH, pasture growth and composition; and
a field tour of demonstration sites to present aspects of soil pH and pasture management.