Agriculture: Agricultural lime

Agricultural lime is used as an amendment to improve the characteristics of agricultural soils: acidity, porosity and biological activity of the soil.

Some of the benefits of agricultural lime are:

– Improves the chemical and physical properties of the soil.

– Increases the availability of nutrients for crop plants.

– Reduces the level of soil toxicity

– Improves the effectiveness of treatments and herbicides

– Fertilizer: Provides calcium to plants.

“Liming” soils is an essential operation to improve its health, fertility and performance (for example, adjusting the pH of acid soils). Calcium products (Limestone, Calcium Oxide and Calcium Hydroxide) provide calcium, which is an essential nutrient for soils, plants and harvests.

The manure and fertilizer industries use calcium products to supply these nutrients in chemical form. By liming the soil and correcting the pH to be as neutral as possible, plants develop their roots better and make better use of nutrients, as well as those provided through manures, composts or fertilizers. Other forms of lime have common applications in agriculture and gardening, including dolomitic lime and hydrated lime, and the quality of agricultural limestone is determined by the chemical makeup of the limestone and how finely the stone is ground.

In pastures, especially wet ones, the quicklime has a prophylactic disinfecting action against parasites from livestock.