Burrumbuttock Field Day

Thanks to the producers that came along to our Field Day at our ‘FutureSOILS’ acid soil trial site at Burrumbuttock last month, kindly hosted by farmer Joe. Dr Jason Condon (CSU) & Helen Burns (NSW DPI) gave a clear message on the role of lime in managing soil acidity in cropping systems and the importance of early intervention in preventing subsurface acidity, and Nick (HLN) gave a run-down of the trial site and the different treatments. We finished up by examining a soil pit which showed the effect that lime and incorporation has had on soil structure and root depth and it was fascinating to see that the ‘effective rooting depth’ for this soil was a lot less than expected! The ‘FutureSOILS’ project is funded by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program to improve on-farm management of acid soils and to increase soil organic carbon.