Four years ago brothers Paul and Scott Pascoe saw a need to improve the way lime was being applied to New Zealand farms. At the time Paul and Scott were operating Trans-spread North Canterbury, a business that specialised in crushing ag-lime and the ground-spread application of lime & fertiliser. 

Scott had been spreading ag-lime in early spring when the norwester had dropped enough to allow him to work. “Although it was a calm day clouds of lime dust were pouring out the back of the truck and drifting away. At the same time a plane was applying granulated fertiliser on a hill block nearby with minimal amounts of dust. It was at that point the idea struck me of pelletising the fine lime particles.” 

It is well documented that fine lime particles are more beneficial than coarsely ground lime, but the problem lies in applying fine lime. To be most beneficial and to get an immediate response, lime particles should be smaller than 100 micron but at this size it is very prone to wind drift during application. Paul and Scott saw an opening for a product that contained the maximum percentage of sub-100 micron fines and yet would spread evenly on the ground.

Their solution was to micronise the lime to an even finer particle size and pelletise this ultra-fine lime into an easily spreadable form. To do this Paul & Scott brought in third business partner, Tony Drake, and formed CP Lime Solutions Ltd. The brand, Optimise, was borne from the idea of maintaining optimal ph and calcium levels.

The idea of pelletising ultra-fine lime sounded simple enough and produced excellent feedback from the farming community. However, the process of creating pellets durable enough to transport and spread, yet able to break down rapidly on the ground, proved extremely difficult. “We were determined to produce a highly effective and environmentally friendly product without the addition of large quantities of binding substances.” The company searched extensively for off-the-shelf machinery to build a suitable micronising and pelletising plant, but could find nothing suitable for their requirements. Determined to proceed, they drew on their own engineering experience to build the specialised equipment. After two years testing and development they had a prototype that they were satisfied with.

With production underway, CP Lime was able to begin field applications and the results were very encouraging for both CP Lime Solutions and its clients. On low-ph soils, 250kg/ha of Optimise pellets consistently lifted the ph-level by 0.2, an equivalent response to that expected from 2,500kg/ha of standard ag-lime. “At first we didn’t realise that the results would be so dramatically different from the rule-of-thumb of a 0.1 shift in ph for an application of 1t/ha of conventional ag-lime. We believe the reason for this is that it is physically difficult to get the fine particle component of ag-lime onto the soil where it is required. Consequently it is more cost effective for a farmer to apply a lower rate of Optimise Ultra-Fine lime pellets. The extremely fast response from Optimise makes it ideal for situations where soil ph and calcium levels need to be altered quickly. It also provides a much faster return on investment.” 

Optimise can be easily applied with conventional ground-spread and aerial spreading equipment and has also proved very successful in drilling applications. With aerial application it flows freely from the hopper giving a much better spread pattern and improved pilot safety.

Demand from farmers quickly outgrew capacity from the prototype plant, so in July 2004 the company embarked on an expansion project. The new plant became operational in February. As well as increasing production five-fold, CP Lime Solutions has incorporated several new improved processes to increase the product’s quality and durability. The new plant is also equipped to include elemental sulphur or trace elements into the pellets.

Source: Canterbury Farming Magazine