Maybe your yields have been depressed on you farms for so long that cash flow and operating credit is low. Maybe you followed bad advice one too many times and are now gun shy. It might be that you are trying to do too much on your farm and really don’t have the time to look over things properly and make the right decisions, or maybe it’s all the above.

If you did get past step one and found out you have a problem, if you don’t solve it, what is that costing you?

If you have low pH, the price of lime to fix the problem is $7-$70 per acre, depending on your level of problem. If you don’t lime your field is could cost you 25% of your nitrogen bill, 25-50% of your phosphorus and potash bill, and 20 to70% of your yield.

Forget the lost income from the fertilizers not working to their full potential, on a pH of 5.5-5.8 you could easily be 50 bushels behind a 6.5-6.8 soil. Even at $2 corn that is $100 in lost income. While it’s true nothing is sure, liming acid soil is about the closest thing in farming to working 100% of the time.

So this fall will you agian do nothing, make excuse to cut costs and continue to wait to treat the problem, or will you trade $25 per acre for $100 or $200 per acre profit?