by Marshall Buchanan
Vice-President
Renfrew County National Farmers Union
Local 330
Marshall Buchanan, vice-president, Renfrew County National Farmers Union, Local 330 reports that a soils workshop was held at the Barr Line Community Centre near , Douglas on March 21st to highlight that 2015 has been designated International Year of Soils by the 68th UN General Assembly. Healthy soils are to the key to successful farming, food security and environmental care.
The 40 participants started the day by watching the documentary film *Symphony of the Soil*, which gave a stunning overview of soils and their life giving power. Soils are the meeting point between geology and biology. They take thousands of years to evolve naturally but poor farming practices can degrade them in one generation. In fact, this happened in parts of southern Ontario, where soils became so unproductive that farms were abandoned and these sites were subsequently planted with red pine trees to stop continued soil erosion. The film also showed that when soils are well managed, rainfall penetrates deeper, aquifers are recharged more quickly, crop diseases are less severe and productivity is much higher.
After lunch, two guest speakers described how they care for soils. Eric Kaiser farms 1300 acres in the Quinte Region, just south of Napanee. He raises 125,000 pullets and grows corn, wheat and soybeans using a strict no-till system. The no-till system maximizes the conservation of organic matter, is cheaper and lets him work the land sooner, which makes it easier to get crops sown on time. Mr. Kaiser says that growing soybeans is hard on soils and that the 3 different crops he grows does not provide enough diversity for soil care. Within his rotation he grows a multi-species cover crop so the soil is never bare and there are organic matter inputs. For best results, the cover crops should be treated like cash crops. So he adds manure from his poultry operation before seeding cover crops.
The second speaker was Harris Ivens, a faculty member of the Sustainable Agriculture Program at Fleming College. Mr. Ivens also consults for growers on soil management strategies and provides nutrient analysis of plants crops by testing plant sap. Sap analysis is faster than traditional tissue analysis and can show deficiencies before symptoms appear in leaves.
Mr. Ivens said that he believed soil organic matter, (namely carbon) should be thought of as the main nutrient limiting productivity. Mr. Ivens stressed that growers must develop soil management strategies that feed and support soil bacteria, soil fauna and fungi. In a healthy soil, plants feed the soil bacteria the sugar they want. In turn, the various micro-organisms supply to the plant, the nutrients needed for growth. We need to remind ourselves that our focus should be on nurturing soil. The soil will then grow our crops.
When the day was over, farmers and consumers had new respect for soils, their care and food security.
