No worms in DD land

Mounty

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Probably should post this under the DD categories but felt it may not be viewed by non DD folk.

Been soil sampling on a couple of large direct drilled farms recently and consequently dug a lot of holes. One of the farms was about 1200 acres, been direct drilling for about 15 years. Stubbles looked very poor, ground like concrete but what I noticed was hardly any worms. Probably saw 5 in the 600 holes I dug.
Another DD farm was a very similar picture but for the first time this year they've done some heavy cultivations and a bit of ploughing on some blocks.

Tested about 200 acres on a farm the same week, who plough every field, every year and nearly every time I dug a hole, I saw a worm or accidentally cut it in half.
Comparing the soils, I know which one I'd prefer to be a worm in.
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
I believe the type of worms change in dd. Was there evidence of worms that had been there? I’ve not been able to find many until recently but after a few mm of rain it’s alive
 

Mounty

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
I believe the type of worms change in dd. Was there evidence of worms that had been there? I’ve not been able to find many until recently but after a few mm of rain it’s alive
I'll be honest, I wasn't really looking for past evidence of worms, I just know it was the fewest I'd seen on any land for some time. The land that is ploughed by contrast was probably the most worms I'd seen for a while. It was also a stubble when I tested it so I felt comparable to the conditions on the DD.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I've been trenching 1m deep on some nice sandy clay land. Few years no till. Very little deep work before. Surface has lots of piles of trash gathered by worms, but under the surface very few. It's dry at depth, so perhaps there are fewer, bigger, deeper worms?
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
DD favours the larger deeper living worms.
There was a trial that showed the weight of worms per metre was similar but the size was dramatically different.
Perhaps they become wormivores?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Probably should post this under the DD categories but felt it may not be viewed by non DD folk.

Been soil sampling on a couple of large direct drilled farms recently and consequently dug a lot of holes. One of the farms was about 1200 acres, been direct drilling for about 15 years. Stubbles looked very poor, ground like concrete but what I noticed was hardly any worms. Probably saw 5 in the 600 holes I dug.
Another DD farm was a very similar picture but for the first time this year they've done some heavy cultivations and a bit of ploughing on some blocks.

Tested about 200 acres on a farm the same week, who plough every field, every year and nearly every time I dug a hole, I saw a worm or accidentally cut it in half.
Comparing the soils, I know which one I'd prefer to be a worm in.

“been direct drilled”. means nothing

what would be interesting is what was the diversity of their rotation? have they been chopping straw and cover crops?

what agronomic and nutritional chaged have been made ?

what type of direct drilling - one pass cultivation strip till pr ULD zerotill?

How did the farmer rectrain / learn new skills ? who mentored him ?

simply stopping cultivation doesn't instantly make you some some of messiah that can't get it wrong ! it’s FAR more complex that that !
 
Last edited:

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
Probably should post this under the DD categories but felt it may not be viewed by non DD folk.

Been soil sampling on a couple of large direct drilled farms recently and consequently dug a lot of holes. One of the farms was about 1200 acres, been direct drilling for about 15 years. Stubbles looked very poor, ground like concrete but what I noticed was hardly any worms. Probably saw 5 in the 600 holes I dug.
Another DD farm was a very similar picture but for the first time this year they've done some heavy cultivations and a bit of ploughing on some blocks.

Tested about 200 acres on a farm the same week, who plough every field, every year and nearly every time I dug a hole, I saw a worm or accidentally cut it in half.
Comparing the soils, I know which one I'd prefer to be a worm in.
When you say the ground is like concrete I imagine that's why?

It would be difficult for the worms to move about in hard compacted soil.

Some of these guys say the soil improves itself over time with not being ploughed. I've 15 year old grass leys that were like concrete when I plough them.

Too much golden hoof?
 
Probably should post this under the DD categories but felt it may not be viewed by non DD folk.

Been soil sampling on a couple of large direct drilled farms recently and consequently dug a lot of holes. One of the farms was about 1200 acres, been direct drilling for about 15 years. Stubbles looked very poor, ground like concrete but what I noticed was hardly any worms. Probably saw 5 in the 600 holes I dug.
Another DD farm was a very similar picture but for the first time this year they've done some heavy cultivations and a bit of ploughing on some blocks.

Tested about 200 acres on a farm the same week, who plough every field, every year and nearly every time I dug a hole, I saw a worm or accidentally cut it in half.
Comparing the soils, I know which one I'd prefer to be a worm in.

This doesn’t surprise me but I bet it’s a predominant wheat/osr rotation. We have benefited the most from introducing more crops such as maize, grass and even root crops. Crop variety helps soils even if it means cultivation, which isn’t a bad thing.
 

Pilatus

Member
Location
cotswolds
I will be shot down for saying this, I always thought glyphosate used repeatedly in a season has some effect on worm populations. I have no scientific evidence to back up my thoughts it was just my observations when I used to be farming.
:barefoot:
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I hear DD ers say they can drive on land at anytime and not make ruts, so it must be solid, if its solid can worms move through it, or do they come to the surface and get eaten because they cannot get back down?
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
I will be shot down for saying this, I always thought glyphosate used repeatedly in a season has some effect on worm populations. I have no scientific evidence to back up my thoughts it was just my observations when I used to be farming.
:barefoot:
I think this is the case for all chemicals and fertilisers to be honest. None of them can be good for all myriad of soil life not just the worms.
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
I think this is the case for all chemicals and fertilisers to be honest. None of them can be good for all myriad of soil life not just the worms.
I know we have far fewer worms here that we did in the 90s... I do not know if this is cultural, rotational, OM decline or due to chemicals or fertilisers but we need to reverse the decline!
 

Pilatus

Member
Location
cotswolds
I am sure cover( catch crops as they were called last time around ;) ) must good for increasing organic matter/ humus ( or is that now called carbon:scratchhead:) which in turn must be good for worms, but I would think a 3/4yr deep rooting grass,herbal ley would be even better fo increasing worm populations. The question being , as discussed at great length elsewhere on TFF,how does one make money from livestock utilising 3/4 yr leys, especially if paying a high rent or high mortgage repayment per ha.??? :scratchhead:
 

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