The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 22brown heads and paler tails.
Each kind of worm adds value.
Soil containing all three kinds of
worms means your soil is doing well.
Yet it’s the anecic or deep burrowing
worms which are really indicative of
soil health says Sebastian Belliard.
“They are more sensitive to soil
management than topsoil worms,” he
says. “They make their homes in all
kinds of soils though they don’t do
well in very shallow, very wet or
very coarse, sandy soils. But imagine
if someone comes along every year
and destroys your home. Well, you
would move on. This is, of course, an
analogy for what tillage does. Tillage
disturbs their burrows and breaks
them up and can kill worms.”
Belliard says the deep burrowers
are really “eco-system engineers of
the soil” in that they alter the
landscape for other creatures.
It’s what they do for the crops,
though, that makes them invaluable.
Those vertical worm holes
become important points of entry for
quick water infiltration.
Earthworms improve soil
porosity, increasing the exchange of
carbon dioxide (which needs to leave
the soil) and oxygen (which roots
need for growth). Soil porosity also
reduces the effect of compaction
from heavy equipment.
Belliard explains that worm holes
are lined with organic matter which
adds nutrients to the soil. Worms
leave a mucous behind as they travel
and this mucous makes worm tunnels
stable. Crop roots then “race through
these tunnels” searching for moisture
and nutrients.
“Earthworm castings are eight
times more fertile than bulk soil,”
says Belliard.
According to a PennState
article on earthworms, a
typical earthworm population
can “easily” consume two tonnes of
dry matter per acre per year. That’s a
lot of crop residue transformed into
earthworm casts which contains more
nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium
and calcium content that surrounding
soil. Soil castings also make
available essential soil micronutrients
such as zinc and boron.
Moreover, some earthworms eat
harmful nematodes.
Belliard and Verhallen say they
have been talking about earthworms
for years but it was when they started
digging holes and doing earthworm
moulds that people could “see” how
deep and productive earthworms are.
“I have done worm counts for 20
years or longer but it wasn’t until we
started doing the latex moulds, that I
really got the complexity of what was
going on in the soil,” admits
Verhallen.
The moulds are made by pouring
liquid latex into the soil. They are left
for three weeks to allow the latex to
set and are then carefully excavated
to uncover a latex form that
resembles a jellyfish with tendrils
going off in all sorts of directions.
Belliard often digs holes for
farmers to get a visual.
“My champion earthworm
burrowed a metre and 15 centimetres
into poorly drained soil,” says
Belliard, who takes farmers on
worm-counting forays into their
fields. “That was an eye opener for
those farmers and what I really
remember from that experience is
how one farmer said, ‘Those worms
work so hard for me, maybe I should
do a bit to help them out.’”
“Yes”, exclaims Brubacher! This
is exactly what he wants to hear. He
thinks as farmers, we have to work at
changing what we perceive as
“good” soil.
“It seems locally that we really
like black soil ... that we need a
whole lot of fluffy topsoil to plant
into,” says Brubacher. “I tell you, I
really struggle seeing a plowed field.
I like to see a corn field with residue
in between knowing that worms are
working away.”
Tillage is the enemy of
earthworms, confirms almost every
earthworm lover.
“For worms, you want residue on
top. If we put that residue into the
soil, the worms will not touch it.
They want it on top to pull it down
and process it,’ says Brubacher.
Anne Verhallen
Soil Management Specialist
OMAFRA
18 The Rural Voice
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