63 Better Farming | June/July 2024 Ontario Ag Marketplace My name is Morley J. Wallace, a promoter and endorser of the latest Better Management Practice called (IFS) Innovative Fertile Stripping. Looking at the results from last year’s cropping season, we are pleased to have seen an improvement in the soil’s microbial and bacterial activity. By placing the soil testing samples under a microscope on our in-house testing bench, we can see improved bioactivity and soil structure content. Mother Nature’s in the field test results, have also shown a positive response. This is not always the case when testing soils. Locally, we have fields that are microdeficient. We are from low to without microbial and organic profile numbers in most of our soils, and no amounts of cover crops are changing these numbers quickly. I believe that there is a better way and a more positive solution to achieving soil rejuvenation. Before we look at possible solutions, we need to understand how we acquired a ‘Nutrient Desert.’ We are seeing few worms in the soil. Worms are the main contributor to cellulose decomposing, an important job in our cropping cycle. They eat the cellulose stock, receive energy from the sugars in the stock, digest the leaves, crawl back into the ground through the holes that they have dug, and poop the digestions amongst the plant roots. We are seeing a lack of microbial larvae needed to convert the worms’ by-products and organics in the soil, making it plant food and available to the plants. We need the Nitrosomonas bacteria in the soil to convert the ammonium to nitrite and the Nitrobacter bacteria takes over and finishes the conversion to nitrate in the soils, from the corn stocks cellulose. This also breaks down the stalks and leaves of the corn and soybean, on top of the ground. There are thousands of bacteria in the soil and not all of them are in the soil at once. Most are there because they relate closely with the crop’s plant profile. The building of soil organics and microbial structure is strongly related to current cropping practices, that could be considered destructive practices. Worm population is important in having healthy soil and growing crops, but cropping practices used to grow a crop, are to cultivate and or disc the soil three or four times. At this time we are slicing and dicing the worms in the top 3 or 4 inches of our soil surfaces, killing everything that might have been there. This soil’s profile will have to reproduce, and it will take months before the digestion of cellulose starts to happen. Thus we are creating a ‘Nutrient Desert.’ We have established that microbial activity is needed in the soil, especially around the roots of the plant. Again our cropping practice is to disc/cultivate the soil three or four times. This turns the microbes up to the hot sun, killing them so they are not available to do their job. This adds to the creation of a ‘Nutrient Desert.’ We know that our plants need light, fluffy, moist, soil for the seed to germinate and grow. But our cropping practices have us driving over the soil upwards of six or seven times, which creates sub-surface compaction. We know that Nitrogen fertilizer burns up the soil’s organic matter. Nitrification is a microbial process by which ammonium-N is converted to nitrate-N. It is a twostep aerobic process: 1) Nitrosomonas bacteria convert ammonium to nitrite, and 2) Nitrobacter bacteria finish the conversion of nitrite to nitrate. The reactions are generally coupled and proceed rapidly from ammonium to the nitrate form; therefore, nitrite levels at any given time are usually low. Nitrite is an intermediary compound formed during nitrification by Nitrosomonas bacteria acting on ammonium. It occasionally accumulates in soils, causing it to decompose into molecular nitrogen (N2), through a series of intermediate gaseous nitrogen oxide products. When this happens, nitrogen (N2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gas are formed and lost to the atmosphere. Our cropping practices currently are to broadcast fertilizer over the whole field. This means we are attacking the organics in the whole field, reducing the availability of organic material and microbial biologicals. Thus silently devastating to our soil and helping create a ‘Nutrient Desert.’ Welcome to IFS (Innovative Fertile Stripping). I know I am repeating myself from previous articles with a different approach. IFS is a soil processing method that works up a strip of soil 6” wide and if possible 5” deep, in a cupping of the soil action, that also reduces the chance of killing those worms. The remaining 24” between the rows is left firm and untouched by tillage practices. All the worms within the 24” section of ground are still alive, hungry, looking for food. They remain healthy, growing, and reproduce young worms. We are helping to create a healthy nutrient-rich field, and can address microbial destruction in the same way by working with only 6” of soil. By placing fertilizer in the strip, not alongside the strip, or all over the ground; we are essentially gathering all fertilizer that would have been put on the 24” sections of the field, and returning it to the fertilizer plant. That fertilizer is not on or in the ground burning up the organics in the soil. This is helping to create a healthy nutrient-rich field. We are placing the N, P, K, S, and all the other micro-nutrients into the tilled strip. The fertilizer is blended throughout the tilled strip, allowing the fertilizer to be surrounded by soil so the granular breaks down the soil around it, captures those ingredients, and with Mother Nature’s help makes them available to the plant’s roots. A second advantage to this is that when the soil captures the dissolved Nitrogen, it dramatically reduces the N2O emissions from the soil. This creates a healthy environment and a healthy nutrient-rich field. GROW MORE WITH LESS by MORLEY WALLACE GPS Ontario IS YOUR SOIL A ‘NUTRIENT RICH FIELD,’ OR IS YOUR SOIL A ‘NUTRIENT DESERT’?E Morley Wallace Morley J. Wallace Owner of GPS Ontario Grow More with Less for Sustainable Farming morley@gpsontario.ca 613-489-2932 “Grow More with Les Advanced Better Management Practice’s (A + +
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