Soil pH and lime: the €27 test, and what five years without lime is costing you

A Teagasc soil test costs €27 a sample and covers 2 to 4 hectares for up to five years. Teagasc's 2025 results show 44% of soils tested had a soil pH below 6.2, and 59% on drystock farms. On a low-fertility field, only 35 kg of every 100 kg of nitrogen you spread does any work. Correct the pH alone and that rises to 53 kg. Lime returns €6 to €10 per €1 spent.

Checked 26 October 2026. Every figure below is from Teagasc or DAFM pages fetched today. The DAFM free sampling programme has not announced a 2026 round. Teagasc's soil test prices were last confirmed on its price page today and may change.

What does a soil test cost in Ireland?

Not much. Teagasc's price list charges €27.00 for the basic S1 test, VAT included. That gives you lime requirement, pH, phosphorus and potassium.

The S6 test adds magnesium for €29.00. The S2 package for dairy, beef, sheep and horses adds cobalt and manganese for €38.00. Your advisor will tell you if the extra elements matter on your ground.

One sample covers 2 to 4 hectares. So a 40-hectare farm needs 10 to 20 samples, or €270 to €580 at the basic rate. Teagasc puts that at about €1.50 per hectare per year, because a test holds for three to five years.

Take about 20 cores per sample from the top 10 cm, spread across the field. Keep each sample to ground that has been farmed the same way. Wait 3 to 6 months after spreading P or K, and two years after lime, or the result lies to you.

Is the free DAFM soil sampling programme open?

Not as far as we can see. DAFM's Soil Sampling and Analysis Programme page still describes the round for 2024 BISS applicants. It was last updated on 15 April 2025, and we checked it today.

That round tested up to 16 samples per farm at no cost, including soil carbon and some micronutrients. If a 2026 round opens, it will go first come, first served through agfood.ie. Until then, the €27 Teagasc test is the route.

How many Irish soils are below the right pH?

Nearly half. Teagasc analysed 39,033 samples in 2025 for its Soil Fertility Report. It found 44% of soils below pH 6.2, down from 52% in 2024. On dairy farms it was 37%. On drystock farms it was 59%.

Phosphorus and potassium are no better. Some 43% of soils were at P Index 1 or 2, and 41% at K Index 1 or 2. Only 25% of soils had pH, P and K all in the right range. On drystock farms that figure was 15%.

Here is the part about skipping the test. Teagasc tested 44% fewer soils for soil pH, P and K in 2025 than in 2024. Drystock samples fell by 62%. Teagasc puts the fall largely down to ACRES. Whatever the reason, far fewer fields were tested.

Then there is the lime itself. At the Ploughing this September, Teagasc's Signpost team surveyed farmers at its stand. One in three had not spread lime in five years. Among drystock farmers it was 40%. The survey ran at a competition sponsored by Grolime, the lime producers' brand, and Teagasc gives no sample size. Treat it as a stand survey, not a census.

The national figures back it up. DAFM data quoted by Teagasc shows 225,000 tonnes of lime applied in the first half of 2026, 42% less than in 2025. Teagasc's soil results put the national lime requirement at up to 1.85 million tonnes this year.

What does low pH cost you in fertiliser?

This is the money question, and Teagasc has put numbers on it. On a low-fertility field, nitrogen use efficiency is about 35%. Spread 100 kg of N and your grass gets 35 kg of it.

Correct the pH alone and that rises to 53%. Fix pH, P and K together and it reaches 63%. The N you are already buying starts working.

Lime also releases nitrogen the soil was holding back. Teagasc's BEEF2026 paper puts that at up to 70 kg N per hectare a year on acid mineral soils limed to pH 6.3. Its liming page says up to 80 kg. Either way, Teagasc values it at about €140 per hectare a year off the fertiliser N bill.

Phosphorus moves too. In a Teagasc Johnstown Castle trial, lime alone lifted soil P by about 6 mg per litre. The soil started below pH 5.5 and got no P. That is roughly two P indexes. On many farms that removes the need to build P at all, which is the dearest nutrient you buy.

So the cost of skipping is not the €27. It is the share of every fertiliser bag that never reaches the grass. If you are doing a fertiliser plan before the spreader moves, the soil pH line is the first one to read.

What does lime cost, and what does it return?

Teagasc's liming page puts maintenance at about €27 per hectare a year and the return at about €150 per hectare. That is €6 to €10 back for every €1 spent. The average grass response from lime alone is about 1.5 tonnes of dry matter per hectare.

Correcting a bad field is worth more. Teagasc research shows that moving a soil from pH 5.8 to 6.3 can grow up to 2.5 t DM/ha extra. At €105 a tonne on a drystock farm, that is €7.50 back per €1 on lime, or €10,500 a year on 40 hectares.

The per-tonne price depends on your quarry and haul, so get a local quote. Teagasc's Limerick case study, published 10 June 2026, gives a real bill. John Leahy spread about 120 tonnes a year on 40 hectares for about €3,000 including spreading. That works out near €25 a tonne spread, on that farm, in that year.

Five years took his average pH from 5.5 to 6.2 and grew an extra 80 tonnes of dry matter, valued at almost €13,800. His nitrogen per round dropped from 27 units to 20. Once at target, he reckons about €15 an acre a year keeps it there.

When should you test soil pH and spread lime?

Now. Grass growth is slowing, the main fertiliser is gone, and lime can go out on any dry day. Teagasc says lime can be spread all year round, and a plan lets you grab the windows.

Three timing rules from Teagasc's liming advice matter in the next few months:

1. Leave seven days between urea or slurry and lime. Fresh lime on top of ammonia nitrogen loses the N to the air.
2. Leave three months between lime and the next urea or slurry. Protected urea needs no gap.
3. Never exceed 7.5 t/ha in one go. On very acid soils, spread half now and the rest in two years.

The closed period for slurry does not stop you liming, but it does set the clock on rule two. Check the slurry and fertiliser deadlines before you plan a spring slurry round on a limed field.

The targets Teagasc works to: pH 6.3 or more for grass-only swards on mineral soils, and 5.5 to 5.8 on peat. For clover, its BEEF2026 paper says 6.5 to 6.8, and its liming page says 6.8 to 7.0. High-molybdenum soils stay at 6.0 to 6.2 to protect against copper deficiency in stock. Clover ground usually needs about 2.5 tonnes more lime per hectare than ryegrass.

Teagasc's rule of thumb is lime 20% of the farm every year and retest every three to five years. The Limerick farmer samples every November and December. That is more than Teagasc asks, but it told him which paddocks to do next.

What does an AI tool actually do with your soil report?

Less than the marketing says, and more than nothing. Your soil report already gives soil pH and the lime requirement per sample in tonnes per hectare. The job is turning 15 sample lines into a spreading list and a cost.

An AI assistant does that arithmetic well. Paste the report, give it your field sizes and a lime quote, and ask for a field-by-field list ranked by pH. Something like this:

Here are my soil results and field sizes in hectares. List every field with pH below 6.3, lowest first. Multiply the lime requirement in t/ha by the field size. Cap any single application at 7.5 t/ha and carry the rest to year three. Flag any field limed in the last two years. Cost the lot at the price per tonne I give you.

That is 20 minutes of spreadsheet work done in two. Check the totals against the report before you order.

What it cannot do is take the sample. It does not know your soil texture or buffering, which is why heavy soils need more lime for the same pH shift. It will sometimes state a Teagasc target wrongly, so check pH targets against the list above. And it does not know your slurry plan unless you tell it.

The official tool is NMP Online, which your Teagasc advisor runs from the same results. It produces the nutrient and lime plan the schemes work from. Use the assistant to get your head around the report before that meeting, not instead of it. Our guide to reading a soil report with AI walks through the columns.

Where to get help

Your Teagasc advisor can arrange the sampling and enters the results into NMP Online. The Teagasc soil sampling page covers how to take a proper sample yourself. For the DAFM programme, email Soilsampling@agriculture.gov.ie or ring 053 916 3425.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a soil test cost in Ireland?

Teagasc charges €27 for its basic test and €29 with magnesium, VAT included, as listed on its price page on 26 October 2026. One sample covers 2 to 4 hectares and holds for three to five years. Teagasc puts the cost at about €1.50 per hectare per year.

Is the free DAFM soil sampling programme running in 2026?

Not that we can find. The DAFM page still covers the round for 2024 BISS applicants and was last updated on 15 April 2025. If a new round opens, applications go through agfood.ie on a first come, first served basis.

How much lime does a field need?

Your soil report states the lime requirement in tonnes per hectare for each sample. Teagasc says never apply more than 7.5 t/ha at once, and split very acid fields over two years. Clover ground needs about 2.5 t/ha more than a grass-only sward.

Can I spread lime and slurry together?

No. Teagasc says leave seven days after urea or slurry before liming, and three months after lime before the next urea or slurry. Protected urea can go on straight after lime.

The bottom line

A €27 test tells you whether 35, 53 or 63 kg of every 100 kg of nitrogen is reaching your grass. On a drystock farm the odds are three in five that your pH is below 6.2. The lime to fix it returns €6 to €10 per euro. Sample this month, lime the worst fields first, and let an AI assistant do the sums while your advisor does the plan.