In today’s agriculture industry there are many ideas, products and beliefs out there that some agriculture companies try to push producers into “buying”.  A lot of these companies try to sell these ideas, products and beliefs to producers by showing them research that was done from their companies which would be a biased interpretation or maybe even no research at all.

There are a few companies out there that are making the claim that liquid calcium products can be used to increase the pH levels in soil. To get a non-biased research based opinion on this, I worked with Dr. Edwin Ritchey to conduct a lime research project. This was a statewide project that included approximately ten counties. We looked at the pH level increase over a one year period. Soil samples were taken from the research area before applying the liming agents and one year after application, soil samples were taken again to see the results of the project. We compared liquid calcium, Ag lime and pelletized lime to see how much they increased the soil pH over the one year period.  

After one year soil samples were taken from each of the plots and the results indicated the liquid calcium products that companies are selling to producers for increasing soil pH did not work as promoted. The Ag lime and pelletized lime raised the pH significantly while the liquid calcium product did not. This research was conducted so that we can give producers non-biased research based evidence about skeptical products being sold so that the producers can save money and/or spend money on products that are scientifically proven.