The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 20•By Lisa B. Pot •
Fascinated by
the common
earthworm
Less tillage equals more
worms which improves soil
say fans of the humble
Lumbricus terrestis
This past Spring, on a beautiful evening after the
sounds of the day had faded away, Carl
Brubacher of Carlotte Farms Inc. near Arthur
stood in the midst of a field of corn residue and
listened to the earthworms.
“You could hear them,” he says, excitement
creeping into his voice. “You can shine your phone on
the field and you’ll see them grabbing at corn leaves
with their mouths. They have no idea how big the
leaves are so they keep working away at it and you
can HEAR it, literally millions of them working
away...it’s so neat.”
Since posting a picture of a shovel of soil featuring
a count of 80 earthworms, Brubacher has become
known as the “earthworm guy”. His slogan is
“Earthworms are Nature’s Plow”.
He isn’t the only one. Earthworm excitement is a
real thing. And this year’s wet spring has some
farmers concerned how their “ecosystem engineers”
are thriving.
“Given this wet year, farmers have struggled with
timing to plant crops and they’ve had to grit their
teeth and march through. There has been more
compaction and compaction is hard on worms,” says
16 The Rural Voice
Crops