Cultivations are damaging earthworm populations
- Thread starter The Ruminant
- Start date
Traffic dodger
Member
Possibly but I guess they think gardeners would normally have access to horse manure but not so much cattle muck.
remember years ago panacur slow release boluses were meant to be bad for stopping cow pats breaking down
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
where I notill either autocast or drill the worms are very evident the deeper burrowing ones are fond wherever I dig a spade wide hole follow the hole down and it keeps going down 2 or 3 feet or more
I now plan to only mole drain at depth on land with backfilled drains using gps to put new moles between last times moling
I now plan to only mole drain at depth on land with backfilled drains using gps to put new moles between last times moling
Not only does no-till farming help earthworms, it also helps lock up carbon in the soil with the potential to enable us to hit our national CO2 in the atmosphere climate change targets:
http://www.ecaf.org/inaction/news/i...h-study-in-favour-of-conservation-agriculture
At the same time the extra humus increases soil fertility. What's not to like?
http://www.ecaf.org/inaction/news/i...h-study-in-favour-of-conservation-agriculture
At the same time the extra humus increases soil fertility. What's not to like?
Robigus
Member
The Egyptians were using what we would recognise as a plough 4,000 years ago. There are many written references in England to ploughs and ploughing from 1100 onwards - although this later date could well be due to the sparsity of written records before then.
Ploughing must have an impact on worms, but they seem to have lived happily with being ploughed for millennia.
Ploughing must have an impact on worms, but they seem to have lived happily with being ploughed for millennia.
only a few inches deep and long breaks for fertitlity make a big difference from continous cereals using mega hp to beat soils to submission with power harrows
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
until the high hp tractors ploughings was a shallow operation
just because you have always done it dosnt make it better
just because you have always done it dosnt make it better
- Location
- Lincolnshire
How do slugs survive it all then?
Lots of people say slugs are a lots less of a problem after cultivation than in DD, at least until the beneficicals have built up numbers to control them,
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
At least you can see earthworms to check that you cut some in half.
Now some scientists should see what happens to mycorrhizal fungus when you destroy it on an annual basis, and the effects on COP of the following crops..
I heard a "soil expert" tell a dairy discussion group that "earthworms don't really matter, because there's a ton of other life besides just earthworms in the soil" -as if they were just an added bonus to a dairy farm
We don't even have badgers and moles, some expert
It's sad how little your neighbour knows about the soil, it really is. Improvement can take a long time- and you can't learn much of what happens inside it naturally once you dig a bit up and cart it to a lab. I think if every farmer knew the full story, they'd sell an awful lot of machinery, starting with their plough.
Now some scientists should see what happens to mycorrhizal fungus when you destroy it on an annual basis, and the effects on COP of the following crops..
I heard a "soil expert" tell a dairy discussion group that "earthworms don't really matter, because there's a ton of other life besides just earthworms in the soil" -as if they were just an added bonus to a dairy farm
We don't even have badgers and moles, some expert
It's sad how little your neighbour knows about the soil, it really is. Improvement can take a long time- and you can't learn much of what happens inside it naturally once you dig a bit up and cart it to a lab. I think if every farmer knew the full story, they'd sell an awful lot of machinery, starting with their plough.
Here's an idea of the SA angle on such things...
https://www.soilassociation.org/blogs/2017/april/helens-notes-from-the-farm-week-6/
So ploughing can destroy 20% each time, I wonder what the SA would say about any chem etc that a conventional farmer used that did that much damage to worms/bees etc
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
I'm pretty sure it is only Ivermectin (& Doromectin, etc) that cause the issues as they kill the insects that break down the cowpats, and that other animals rake over cow pats to find. Not sure if those wormers kill earthworms though.
Quite...
My gut feel is that 20% could also be a little on the low side - especially where the anecic types are concerned - maybe one for a bit of a literature review when I'm next bored! Of course there are also many variables at play here (timing, soil type, previous crop etc etc) and it is often the secondary cultivations following the ploughing itself that are really mincing the poor little blighters too.
Unfortunately shades of grey such as this make it difficult for us to really effectively trumpet the benefits of conservation Ag be it worm populations, carbon sequestration etc etc.
My gut feel is that 20% could also be a little on the low side - especially where the anecic types are concerned - maybe one for a bit of a literature review when I'm next bored! Of course there are also many variables at play here (timing, soil type, previous crop etc etc) and it is often the secondary cultivations following the ploughing itself that are really mincing the poor little blighters too.
Unfortunately shades of grey such as this make it difficult for us to really effectively trumpet the benefits of conservation Ag be it worm populations, carbon sequestration etc etc.
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- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Can I use that phrase in future, please?
I have resorted to saying that the conventional approaches have proven 100% effective in creating problems, but yours is much less confrontational and just as true.
Of course, earthworms may develop resistance over time!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yes, I won't put any new calves inside for that reason if they've been drenched a month prior to transport.
My compost pile is my goldmine, last thing I was is to slow down the rate the worms attack it.. not that the drench would kill the intestinal worms for that long, but still not worth the risk for the big tiger worms in the heap IMO.
There's "safe" and there's "not worth finding out if they're right".