Physolith

nhg

Just wondering if any of you are using Physolith instead of Lime and are you finding it any good.

One of the major advantages to me is that we can spread it ourselves, it kicks in faster than Lime & that it lasts aprox 5 years as opposed to Gram Lime needing annual spreading.

We are awaiting the results of our soil tests to see what our soil requirements are.

I will have a price on it later today.



Below is some stuff I found on the Internet when I did a search.


Home Products/Services News About Us Members Area Register Contact Us Agricultural Business Directory Trading Area Testimonials 21 August 2013 08:35

FarmWizard News

Headlines
Good Nutrient Management is Key
Dr Peter Barrett Business Development Manager, TIMAC Agri Business

Under the new regulations good nutrient management is essential and if properly implemented will take care of lower inputs and compliance with the regulations but in addition will also target better productivity and nutrient efficiency on the farm. But what are the most important points that should be addressed as part of a good nutrient management programme?
Nutrient budgets
Good nutrient management essentially means successfully matching the nutrient supply with the crop demand and it involves the use of nutrient balances or budgets. Crop demand will be on one side of the balance sheet matched against supply on the other, with supply coming from the three sources;
i) Soil
ii) Slurry
iii) Fertiliser

Both sides of the budget sheet should match and fertiliser requirements must be calculated last to balance the books once the contribution from the soil and slurry. Of course the contribution from the soil can only be established by soil sampling and lab analysis and then by using appropriate reference guidelines such as RB209.
Good nutrient budgets and bad nutrient budgets But is there more we can do to further improve nutrient management? Well, it is possible to manipulate the balance to favour the contribution from the soil and slurry, and therefore reduce the need for bagged fertiliser. After all soil and slurry nutrients are free, fertiliser you have to pay for. In truth there is massive potential to make our soils more productive because currently little concern is given to the management of what is actually our biggest resource. Soils contain millions of ‘microbial factories’ that process and return nutrients for utilisation by the plant, a process called mineralisation. Like in any factory, the working conditions have to be right if good performance is to be achieved. These factories will shut down under poorly aerated, water logged and acidic conditions and unsurprisingly drowning in layers of slurry at regular intervals does nothing for working conditions either. Soils that are lifeless cannot make their nutrients available and cannot process and make use of the slurry being applied. Unfortunately these soils are all too common a feature on our farms today making for nutrient budgets that are fertiliser heavy.
However, soil conditions and soil life can be improved by paying attention to soil management. Subsoiling or spiking is useful to get air back into the ground and trailing shoe applied or injected slurry also helps with slurry utilisation and with minimising the destructive effect of heavy application. However, in addition there are soil conditioning treatments that are effective at improving soil life and function. Recent research from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research has shown that the availability of nitrogen from slurry increased by 18% within 20 days of the application of TIMAC’s Physiolith soil conditioner. Physiolith is a true soil conditioner with bioactive ‘prebiotic’ activity. It actively increases the amount and activity of the microbial factories, making their output greater and as a result making more otherwise unavailable nutrients available for uptake by the plant. This is helping to make slurry an asset and not a waste. Reduce your risk not increase your insurance
However, assuming we maximise the potential from the soil and slurry, it is inevitable that under intensive farming we will still need some bagged fertiliser. But are there any gains to be made here?
In general there seems to be an extreme reluctance to eliminate phosphate applications to grassland currently with notions abounding that ‘insurance phosphate’ is needed or that if we obey the regulations phosphate levels are going to decline considerably in 3 or 4 years to the point of severely limiting production. But we know for sure that production is already being severely limited on silage ground throughout NI. The AFBI Vision nutrient monitoring project reported it 2 years ago from findings of extensive soil and grass sampling conducted on almost 70 of our best dairy farms across the country. However, the limitations were not caused by phosphate, instead both potash and sulphur where found to be the main causes of deficiencies and yield reductions. Sulphur deficiencies being found in around 30% of 1st cut silage in contrast to less than 2% for phosphate.
Therefore, it is crystal clear that ‘insurance P’ is a false economy and this money would be better spent putting your house in order addressing the more immediate issues that are actually limiting production. Sulphur is becoming more and more important now as sulphur deposits from the air decrease with the reduction of burning fossil fuels. TIMAC’s most popular product for silage making is Nutricut NPro. It is a zero P that contains potash, plus 20 units of sulphur, plus sodium, plus trace elements; it even contributes to good soil life to make slurry work better through the soil conditioner and bioactive ingredients included. Making fertiliser work better
In general, liming has been largely neglected on dairy farms in recent years. AFBI suggested that a shortfall of lime for grassland in NI was around some 200,000t last year which was reflected in analysis of soil tested by TIMAC for this period where almost 80% was below a desirable pH for grassland. However, the impact of pH is such that for nitrogen if pH is 5.5, nitrogen availability is reduced by almost a quarter (23%). In practical terms this means that out of every four bags of N sown, one is essentially lost. Or, your bag of 27% N is in reality only 21%, or the cost per tonne of £140 is in real terms around £190. There are different ways to look at it, but unfortunately they all mean the same thing – wasted money. In addition, for phosphate the implications are even more extreme. At a pH of 5.5, phosphate availability is reduced by 52%! The importance of good pH cannot be expressed enough. However, increasing pH can be relatively easy and TIMAC have recently proven the liming value of granulated Physiolith in an ongoing study at David and Stephen Jackson’s farm in Bangor. Six fields totalling 72 acres on the farm was measured by AFBI, Newforge before and after using granulated Physiolith as part of the Vision project. Figure 1 shows the results of the pH change. Average pH was 5.83, sampled in Feb 2004, 18 months before the application of Physiolith. After the application, pH was measured within one month and had risen to 6.24. In November 2006, one year on from the application, pH was re-measured and it had risen further to 6.37. This is significant in a number of ways, namely the speed of action, the continued increase after one year and the relative cost, actually costing less than 2 tonnes of conventional spread lime per acre.
Contact Contact TIMAC directly on Freephone: 0800 3891299 or via Farmwizard for advice on how to tackle total nutrient management on your farm and start increasing nutrient efficiency today. P Barrett can be contacted on T: 07788435543, E: pbarrett@timacagribusiness.com

bob charles

I never had much success with Timac products, surprised Grassland's took on the business. Have you done albrecht soil tests?

jersey101

We used it last year i thought it was good grass grew very well in the spring but that could just be down to the good spring we had. Its very expensive though. I think organic lads use it

maxxuumman

What rate did ye put it out at. I have 8 ton landed in the yard. The sales man recommended 4 cwt/acre. Some of the fields that get a lot of dairy washings seem to be suffering. These are fields that are near the yard and have been reseeded in recent years. But I'm not happy with performance. They do need lime, so I'm going to give this a go.

jersey101

maxxuumman wrote: »

What rate did ye put it out at. I have 8 ton landed in the yard. The sales man recommended 4 cwt/acre. Some of the fields that get a lot of dairy washings seem to be suffering. These are fields that are near the yard and have been reseeded in recent years. But I'm not happy with performance. They do need lime, so I'm going to give this a go.

we only put two bags to the acre last year i think it was recommended we went with four but we could afford all of it so the plan was to go with two bags again this year but we didnt. Id say you will notice a difference in a week. Let me know how ye get on with it

nhg

maxxuumman wrote: »

What rate did ye put it out at. I have 8 ton landed in the yard. The sales man recommended 4 cwt/acre. Some of the fields that get a lot of dairy washings seem to be suffering. These are fields that are near the yard and have been reseeded in recent years. But I'm not happy with performance. They do need lime, so I'm going to give this a go.

Waiting for the soil test results for all the farm, the salesman checked the field that we are reseeding with a probe & got around 4.8, he suggested 2.5 cwt/acre as we will be ploughing at the weekend & results probably won't be back before we need to use it, we can always go with more next year if needed, it's a good dry field, the farm has a few small limestone quarries on it so I assume that's why his result was not lower, years since lime was spread if it was ever spread.

The salesman said on Monday that it should last about 5 years but today when I asked the same question he said 2 to 3 years, depending on results might spread lime on the other fields, but for this reseed we'll go with the Physolith as we can spread when suits us.

agriman27

Just noticed a big advert for physiolith in the journal this week in the reseeding extra part. Did anyone ever use it, is it any good supposed to be trace elements in it, could be good stuff to use when reseeding

Greengrass1

agriman27 wrote: »

Just noticed a big advert for physiolith in the journal this week in the reseeding extra part. Did anyone ever use it, is it any good supposed to be trace elements in it, could be good stuff to use when reseeding

Yep used it on home farm and on out farm. It really us top class stuff. Used it reseeding this spring and every single seed I spread germinated. I'll be putting a bag over whole farm here in october

Dawgsback

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Yep used it on home farm and on out farm. It really us top class stuff. Used it reseeding this spring and every single seed I spread germinated. I'll be putting a bag over whole farm here in october

Always do replicated independent tests.

Greengrass1

Dawgsback wrote: »

Always do replicated independent tests.

I have great faith in this stuff. Made in France of all places
Put it on ground with pH 5.5 .
30 acres 42 heifers and 200 bales of silage off it. PH is 5.8/6 now.
2t if ground lime going on now in autumn and then more phiso in spring

Dawgsback

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I have great faith in this stuff. Made in France of all places
Put it on ground with pH 5.5 .
30 acres 42 heifers and 200 bales of silage off it. PH is 5.8/6 now.
2t if ground lime going on now in autumn and then more phiso in spring

Remember Mr. Greengrass. It's one of the better years for grass growth.


Trying to protect you from yourself here. I'd better go.
Apologies.
Dawg.

nhg

Think it might be time to resurrect this thread to prevent Physolith taking over from the Soil NPK Index thread:

2013 Soil Test Results on 3 particular fields (July)
A - lime requirement 2.5 t/acre (index 4) - got Physolith at reseed as couldn't tie in with farm lime spread
B - lime requirement 4 t/acre (index 2) - got 2 t/acre during farm blanket spread
C - lime requirement 3 t/acre (index 4) - got 2 t/acre during farm blanket spread

2014
A - no lime or Physolith spread just plenty of slurry & fert, lots of grass
B - plenty of slurry & fert, cut of silage & got Physolith at reseed in July, lots of grass
C - no lime spread just plenty of slurry & fert, cut of silage

2015 Soil Test Results (January)
A - no lime requirement (pH water 6.8, pH Smp 6.7) index P high 1 K barely into 2
B - no lime requirement (pH water 6.7, pH Smp 6.8) index P barely into 3 K mid 2's
C - 2 t/a lime requirement (pH water 6.0, pH Smp 6.3) index P barely into 2, K high 1

Now to work on getting the Index's up.

Definately happy with Physolith, timing of Soil Test very important (guy taking our test in 2013 allowed for the slurry & fert spread but to me 2015 are a truer picture.

nhg

Starting to reseed and thinking about using Physolith again, just wondering if others are still getting good results from using it.

Lime was blanket spread on the farm last year.

GrasstoMilk

nhg wrote: »

Starting to reseed and thinking about using Physolith again, just wondering if others are still getting good results from using it.

Lime was blanket spread on the farm last year.

Yep using it for a good few years now. Wouldbt be with out it tbh.
Good job at reseeding

Hard Knocks

Would you use physolith instead of lime?
PH5.8 here
Would you have to leave much time before slurry / fertilizer?

Castlekeeper

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Would you use physolith instead of lime?
PH5.8 here
Would you have to leave much time before slurry / fertilizer?

No reason why not except the price , it'll do limes job plus traces and biological stimulation if that's of any interest but only in the short term.
Still there's a school of thought that says a little bit of Ca every year is better than the big dose every five years, but again it's an expensive theory to test.
You can apply simultaneously with slurry or fert according to my rep when I asked.