Increasing biodiversity is the next step in zero tillage, says a former Agriculture Canada researcher.
Jill Clapperton, who was a rhizosphere ecologist in Lethbridge before moving to Montana, where she runs a soil consultancy and operates a farm, said tillage destroys the soil’s biological habitat.
She compared a plow ripping through soil to a tsunami that wipes out most species in its path.
Clapperton said zero tillage has helped restore organic matter and the diversity of life in soil, but producers now need to increase the biodiversity of species that grow on top of the soil.
Read Also
Europe holds promise for Canadian lentils
Pulse Canada is trying to help boost lentil consumption in Europe, which is already the fourth largest market.
“Above ground diversity is a mirror for below ground diversity,” Clapperton said.
Each crop has its own microbial community that works with that plant for survival.
“You build up the (soil) habitat and the whole thing starts working for you.”
Glenn Bauer, a producer from Regan, N.D., said he has learned the value of crop diversity during his 25 years of no-till farming.
He has grown radishes, millet, triticale, vetch, barley, wheat, alfalfa, corn, canola, durum, peas and mustard on his farm near Bismarck.
As well, he plants a cover crop cocktail that includes radish, millet, sunflower, sweet clover, buckwheat, turnips and peas.
With such a wide diversity of plants, Bauer has seen his soil organic matter increase from two to 2.5 percent to 3.5 to five percent.
“We see a lot of it that is in the fours.”
He’s also seen a boom in his soil’s earthworm population, which Clapperton said is a sure sign of a healthy soil habitat.
Growers also need to understand how a particular crop affects the biological life in the soil, she added.
For instance, canola and other brassicas are a non-host of mycorrhiza, the community of fungi and bacteria that live in the area around plant roots. But flax, sunflowers and corn depend on a healthy mycorrhiza population.
That means growers can manage the growth and decline of the mycorrhiza population through crop rotation to ensure the beneficial organisms are there to work with the crop.
Also, for unknown reasons, canola and other brassicas stimulate earthworms and insects in the soil, which means having those crops in a rotation can build the soil’s population of beneficial organisms.
She also said a diverse biocommunity stimulates predators that feed off pest species, which makes insecticides less necessary.
“When we have biologically active soils, we have a lot of fungi in the soil that actually parasitize insect larvae.
Bauer said he rarely uses insecticides on his crops.
“The only thing we use an insecticide on are confection sunflowers. If there are holes in them, we can’t sell them.”
Clapperton said many zero-till farmers might be reluctant to give up insecticides, pesticides and fungicides.
“I think that there is a lot of merit to organics, but I also think there’s a point we (can) reach in the middle…. With people who are in the middle, they want to use a chemical when they need it.”
Clapperton told producers to think more about what they do and how their decisions affect soil biology.
She said she also wants them to move beyond what she calls Betty Crocker farming, simply opening up a pre-mixed box and blindly following the instructions.
ORGANIC IS NOT A FOUR LETTER WORD
Organic may be a forbidden word for the thousands of producers who practice zero tillage in Western Canada, but it might not be as big a stretch as they think.
“There are going to be a lot of people (zero tillers) who can certify organic if they want to. And some of those people are (there) now,” Jill Clapperton said during the Manitoba- North Dakota Zero Tillage Association workshop.
“Some of the long-term, no-till farmers, they use fertilizer to top up, they hardly use any insecticide and they hardly use fungicide.”
