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Boosting sandy soil fertility with organic amendments

Date:
By MFMG Admin

Project code: LCLBGG2021/2022-1/0011

Project manager: MFMG team

Project duration: November 2020 to June 2021

About the project

This trial aims to establish the most cost-effective method for maintaining healthy soils in a grazing system in the Wattle Range Council area, and to increase the knowledge and skills of the agricultural community so that they can maintain healthy soils in their production systems.

This trial will assess a variety of conventional and alternative soil amendments on deep acid sand hills in the Wattle Range Council area. These amendments will increase pH, reduce the risk of erosion and increase the carbon and organic matter content of these soils, resulting in healthy soils that are resilient and that can more easily adapt to changes in climate. 

There are a variety of conventional and alternative soil amendments available to treat sandy and acidic soil constraints, and one that warrants further exploration in our region is recycled organics. Recycled organics are readily available, giving the opportunity to achieve a closed loop for these products within our region. To date, there has been minimal trial work done on the effectiveness of different alternative and conventional soil amendments in our region in grazing systems. 

This project will also involve a tour of a composting facility in the Limestone Coast and the production of a fact sheet comparing and contrasting alternative soil amendments available in the Limestone Coast, in order to engage and communicate with the Limestone Coast agricultural community. The results will also be published in MFMG’s Annual Trial Results book in each year that the trial is current. 

This trial will be a long-term term trial (3-5 years) however this application to the 2020 Grassroots Grants program will cover only the initial set up of the trial and the tour and fact sheet, as the timeframe of these grants does not allow for the long-term nature that this trial requires. 

This project is funded by:

LSA_Logo CMYK

This project is delivered in partnership with:

Rural Solutions