Journal
SOIL USE AND MANAGEMENT
Volume 37, Issue 2, Pages 342-352Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/sum.12682
Keywords
economic analysis; lime; long‐ term experiment; profitability; soil acidity
Categories
Funding
- UK BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) [BBS/E/C/000J0300]
- Lawes Agricultural Trust
- BBSRC [BBS/E/C/000J0300] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Liming has a strong impact on the economic returns of arable crops, but the magnitude of long-term economic benefit depends on the sequence of crops within the rotation. It is important to consider lime as a capital investment and conduct economic evaluations over a long period.
Liming is a common management practice, but there exists uncertainty about the economic benefits. An economic analysis of the costs and profitability of liming arable crops was undertaken using data from the long-term liming experiment at Rothamsted and Woburn. There was a strong liming effect on gross margins, but large differences in the economic benefit between crops. For some crops (such as spring barley), liming greatly improved the gross margin, while for spring oats liming provided very little increase. Most economic benefit was achieved with the high lime treatment, but the cumulative discounted cash flow indicated that it took approximately 20 years before a distinct difference developed between the lime treatments. Therefore, lime should be considered a capital investment and economic evaluation undertaken over a long period. Liming rate increased the net present value expressed as an annual equivalent (NPVa). An additional 436 pound ha(-1) year(-1) at Rothamsted and 208 pound ha(-1) year(-1) at Woburn of profit was gained from the adoption of the most profitable liming treatments over not liming. Sensitivity analysis indicated that total liming costs had a weak effect on NPVa, but crop price had a strong effect. The economic performance of liming differed between sites and was higher at Rothamsted than at Woburn, mostly because of soil differences. Liming greatly improves economic returns of most arable crops, but the magnitude of the long-term economic benefit depends upon the sequence of crops within a given rotation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available