The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 24“THEY put the corn stalks through
them.”
In accordance with his quest to
champion earthworms, the
Brubachers have gone largely
minimum tillage, using a
CurseBuster, a passive vertical-
tillage tine tool which goes eight
inches deep into the soil, fracturing
it, without disturbing or relocating
the soil. “It doesn’t hurt the
earthworms. It enhances them,” says
Brubacher.
“It’s not the earthworm pickers.
It’s not the seagulls. The biggest
destroyer of earthworms is tillage,”
says Brubacher.
Belliard agrees. “Less tillage is
key but I am hesitant to recommend
no-tillage across the board,” he says.
“Conditions are so variable and the
equipment farmers have is so
variable. I hesitate to tell people this
is the only way. But for sure, less soil
disturbance is better for soil
organisms.”
If tillage is part of a farmer’s
cropping plan, the use of cover crops
can go a long way to making life
better for earthworms.
‘“The more thi ngs that are living
above the ground, the more things
are living below the ground,” says
Belliard. “But there are still trade-
offs. Cover crops take more
management and unpredictabe spring
conditions can make them difficult to
manage according to plan.”
Such as the Spring of 2019. How
did all that rain affect the
earthworms, anyway?
“If it is too wet for a crop to grow,
it is too wet for worms. They will
drown,” says Verhallen. However,
while it has been very wet in Ontario
this spring, fields have generally
been more waterlogged than flooded.
“Waterlogged is not good for the
earthworms but they will regroup and
come back as long as the rest of their
habitat is undisturbed.”
Good crop rotation, the use of
cover crops, manure application and
using compost when possible all
contribute to increasing earthworm
populations.
In particular, earthworms prefer
perennial crops and deep roots. An
ideal rotation for earthworms is a hay
crop including alfalfa (which has
deep roots) rotated with soybeans
since earthworms love soybean
residue.
Encouraging a thriving population
of earthworms can be more
challenging in sandy soils because of
its abrasive qualities. Worms need
their skin to breathe.
Interestingly, earthworms are not
viewed with delight by all lovers of
farm, field and forest. Verhallen says
OMAFRA and the Ministry of the
Environment have “polite
conversations” about earthworms.
“Earthworms are great things and
have their place in fields and
gardens. Where we have problems is
when people go fishing near forest
areas and dump their bait buckets
where they should not be,” she says.
Earthworms can be terribly
destructive in forests, eating forest
litter which is essential for the
understory population. Also, there
aren’t many predators in forests to
control them.
Fortunately, worms are not
expansive travellers. They only move
about six to 10 feet a year. Also, their
populations tend to be inconsistent,
with higher populations around old
farm buildings and orchards.
Foresters are really worried about
imported worms, such as the various
species of Asian jumping worms, a
group of large worms named as such
because when touched, they wriggle
violently in a snake-like motion,
sometimes even leaping into the air
or detaching their tails trying to
escape. These worms don’t really
burrow. They stay on the surface,
often in leaf piles and consume more
plant matter than other worms. The
result is rather than enriching the
soil, they transform it into a field of
soft, dry soil pellets sort of like
ground coffee. Asian jumping worms
Crouching in a field of IP soybeans grown for the Japanese market, Carl
Brubacher of Carlotte Farms near Arthur inspects the health of the beans
growing in a field that hasn’t been plowed since 2014. He loves seeing corn
residue between the rows, knowing earthworms are feeding on it with the
capability of producing castings at a rate of over 10 tonnes per acre per year.
~Photo submitted
20 The Rural Voice