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soil science

Agriculture and Conservation at Alaksen National Wildlife Area

in 2023/Climate Change/Crop Production/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Land Stewardship/Living with Wildlife/Tools & Techniques

Jordy Kersey

The Alaksen National Wildlife Area (Alaksen) is a protected wildlife area in Delta, BC that utilizes agricultural production to provide habitat for migratory birds and other protected species. The area is unique in that the farmland is used to produce forage and habitat for the migratory waterfowl as well as cash crops (annual vegetables).

Maintaining economic and agronomic viability alongside wildlife and habitat conservation is increasingly challenging due to climate crisis pressures, high-water tables, and soil degradation. Due to recent mandates, Alaksen farmers are now required to eliminate farming practices that adversely impact the environment and breadth of species that inhabit the wildlife area. Alternatively, they are moving towards utilization of organic-regenerative methods that are less deleterious and impactful. There is a need to determine how organic-regenerative management methods can effectively be implemented on these farms to sustain production, but also reduce degradation of habitat into the future.

Over the last four farming seasons, agricultural scientists from the Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) have evaluated conditions and challenges impacting crop production at Alaksen, as well as the crop rotation scheme that is currently used. A range of plot-level studies have been conducted to assess the feasibility of an organic-regenerative farming method and to better understand the interactions between farm activities and wildlife habitat provision.

Cabbage plots at Alaksen. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

Following a baseline assessment, a suite of projects to bridge the gap between meeting production goals and maintaining conservation of wildlife habitat and waterfowl populations have been conducted using organic-regenerative approaches. These projects include (but are not limited to): evaluation of organic insect and weed pest management alternatives; development and evaluation of alternative tillage and organic amendment regimes; investigation of some alternative crops and their market potential; and an evaluation of alternative cover cropping approaches. This project is set to continue into the next five years, with research directed at specific organic-regenerative farming methods that have been observed to be promising in this environment and ultimately to investigate a whole farming system that employs organic-regenerative farming practices.

These organic-regenerative methods have potential to not only reduce the environmental harm of the farming system, but also promote soil health and support successful vegetable crop production. Organic-regenerative management may help to increase soil organic matter which can improve soil aggregate stability, and in turn improve soil water dynamics. Increased soil organic matter is also associated with building of soil health and is an indicator of soil fertility. Reducing the synthetic inputs to the system may help to reduce residual pesticides and herbicides within the soil profile and those lost to surrounding water ways. Migratory waterfowl depend on these fields as habitat and farmers depend on these fields for income, so replacing synthetic inputs with organic alternatives and cultivating a healthy soil to effectively support crop disease, weed suppression, and avoid soil degradation is imperative for both wildlife conservation goals and sustained production.

Trial plots at Alaksen. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

In contrast to many of the potential benefits of transitioning to certain organic-regenerative practices, there are also concerns that may constrain adoption in some areas, including providing adequate crop nitrogen through organic amendments, avoiding an excess or deficit of phosphorus, retaining comparable crop yields, and effective replacement of herbicides with increased tillage intensity.

Application of organic amendments compared to the typical synthetic NPK applied at Alaksen did not significantly reduce growing season plant-available nitrogen nor did it reduce onion and cabbage crop yield over the two years this experiment was conducted. We did, however, find differences in weed pressure with varying tillage intensity. Plots with application of conventional herbicide had significantly less weed pressure and required less labor than plots with no herbicide application. However, increasing tillage intensity also reduced weed pressure, indicating that greater tillage intensity (more passes) may be an effective replacement for weed suppression in these systems. This was particularly apparent in alternative crops such as butternut squash, with the plant structure shading out most weeds by the middle of the growing season. Further research must be conducted to determine how an increase in weed pressure with the elimination of herbicide would impact farm labour costs and how strongly the weed pressure impacts crop yields of other rotation phases.

Onion harvest. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

In addition to alternative farming practices, changes in crop and cultivar selections at Alaksen may reduce growing season constraints, leading to reduced reliance on conventional pesticides and improved cover crop establishment. Adequate cover crop establishment is required to provide sufficient forage for migratory waterfowl over-winter; however, climactic variability in shoulder-season rainfall can cause significant issues for germination and canopy coverage. Transitioning to vegetable crops with shorter periods of maturation could provide farmers with additional days or weeks to get cover crops planted and well-established before shoulder-season rainfall sets in. Crop diversification offers additional potential for improved farm profitability and risk mitigation. Historically, farmers on Westham Island integrated crops such as peas and beans into their cropping systems, but as bird pressures have increased these regimes have often been abandoned. Identifying crops or cultivars that perform well in organic production systems, are disease resistant, and suitable to the unique environment at Alaksen is very important moving forward and in transitioning to a more sustainable cropping regime.

Alternative crops were observed to grow successfully at Alaksen compared to typical rotation crops, such as cabbage, throughout this experiment. Butternut squash, onions, and radishes were three crops that did well throughout the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons. Butternut squash yield was high but the growing season long, as the crop was ready for harvest in early October. While in that year the shoulder-season was dry, in wetter years this may cause problems with harvesting and getting cover crops planted, if rains were to set in during September. On the other hand, radishes were mature and harvested in early July. This would provide ample time for sowing and establishing winter cover crops; however, also poses the issue of barren soil for a portion of the year, until sufficient water is available for cover crop germination. Further research into the marketability of these alternative crops is still needed. The success of alternative cover cropping mixtures to withstand migratory bird grazing pressure is currently being assessed from the data collected over the past two winter seasons.

Moving into the next phase of this experiment we hope to identify combinations of organic-regenerative farming methods that synergize well in this environment for the most beneficial outcomes both in terms of production and wildlife conservation. Farm management at a plot-scale is often very different than field-scale so it is important to
recognize the need for scaling before conclusions can be made. There is also a need to investigate alternative rotation regimes and the economics of organic verses conventional production to contextualize the outcomes of this research within the Alaksen farming system. We are hopeful this research has and will continue to be insightful and provide alternative farming system management to Alaksen farmers and other interested growers in the lower Fraser Valley region.

Jordy Kersey (MSc) is a current PhD candidate in soil science working with Dr. Sean Smukler at UBC in the Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab. Jordy’s research is focused on the impact of regenerative agricultural practices on climate breakdown mitigation and adaptation in the lower Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Specifically, Jordy is investigating how agricultural management practices influence soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil water regulation. Jordy is passionate about working towards a more sustainable future and finding meaningful ways to improve agricultural systems to combat climate crisis while continuing to feed our world. Beyond academics, Jordy is an avid cookie baker, traveler, and enjoy long hikes through the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Featured image: Research plots at Alaksen National Wildlife Area. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

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Nutrient and Nitrogen Management

in 2023/Climate Change/Crop Production/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Grow Organic/Preparation/Soil/Tools & Techniques

Stacey Santos

Since 2012, Niki Strutynski and her husband Nick Neisingh have grown organic mixed vegetables at Tatlo Road Farm, located south of Crofton on southern Vancouver Island. With years of experience working on other organic vegetable farms throughout BC, plus Niki’s degree in Agroecology from UBC, they have created a robust nutrient and nitrogen management program to boost their farm’s fertility and yields, carrying out a soil test every two to three years depending on the area.

In an episode of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series, Niki took viewers through the program, highlighting their system for tracking nutrients and making decisions around nutrient applications. To complement the learnings from Niki’s on-farm system, Josh Andrews from the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food dove deeper into why nitrogen management is important, and took viewers through a “how to” of a post-harvest nitrogen test.

Nitrogen Management in a Nutshell

Because nitrogen is the nutrient that is most-used by crops, it’s the one farmers need to build in soil in the highest quantities. It’s also a tricky one! Nitrogen is fairly mobile in the soil and has a lot of different forms, so having it in the right form for the crop at the right time can be particularly difficult.

On one hand, you want to make sure crops have enough nitrogen available to achieve optimum growth and yield. You also don’t want to overapply, because during the rainy winter months nitrogen can actually leach into groundwater (which has been a problem in certain areas of the province). Ultimately, you want to control the amount of nitrogen you’re applying so there’s as little left over at the end of the growing season as possible.

With nitrogen management, we normally talk about the agronomic rate—the rate at which the crop gets just enough nitrogen for optimum growth, but not an excessive amount. You can think of it in terms of the four R’s: the Right Source at the Right Time using the Right Rate and applying it in the Right Place. If you follow these guidelines, you can generally get good growth and yield.

Nitrogen Sources to Consider

As you work to meet the agronomic rate for nitrogen application, the calculation is not as simple as figuring out how much nitrogen your crops need. You must take into account residual nitrogen, as well as other sources of nitrogen. Cover crops and fertilizers like feather or bone meal will all contribute to nitrogen in the soil and impact the amount of nitrogen you want to apply.

The amount of nitrogen in the soil at the beginning of the growing season depends on the region and the type of operation. Drier regions, like the Interior, might have more residual nitrate from the previous growing season because of less soil leaching. And while Tatlo Road Farm receives a lot of precipitation, their organically managed soils are probably getting a fair amount of nitrogen from mineralization of soil organic matter.

Developing a Nutrient Management Calculator

For Tatlo Road Farm, the practice of calculating nutrients goes back to their first year, when they had a soil test done through a local agriculture supply business. Soil tests will show the levels of different nutrients along with recommendations about what quantities of amendments to apply. The results for Tatlo Road Farm were mostly expected—low nitrogen, which is common after a rainy winter—however, the report also featured the lowest phosphorus results the agriculture supply business owner had ever seen.

At first, to save money, Niki and Nick applied only a portion of the recommended quantities and blanket applied it on the entire growing area. But after a season of low yields, they increased the quantities and only applied it to the beds. This helped tremendously, and moving forward, they took a more calculated approach to the amount and location of applied amendments.

To help nail down the numbers and cut down on wasted money and nutrients, they worked with a soil scientist to interpret the results of their soil tests and create a nutrient calculator spreadsheet. “We use a combination of products to meet our specific demands based on the soil test,” Niki explained. “If we were just to choose one standard NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) product it wouldn’t meet our demands. I might be either short on one or over-applying another.”

“Let’s say I need 27 pounds of fish meal to meet my nitrogen needs. I might go ahead and apply that, but if I do I might over apply phosphorus. So instead, I’m going to see what happens if I apply nine pounds of fish meal, and then [the calculator] tells me the amount still remaining that needs to be applied and met by something else.”

Soil Mapping and Nutrient Calculations

All of the soil on Vancouver Island was mapped in the 1970s, and you can still look at those maps today. They show five different types of soil converging on Tatlo Road Farm’s seven-acre property—an accurate assessment, as Niki can see and feel the soil transitions.

Niki and Nick test based on the different soil type areas. Using the test results, they feed the recommended pounds per acre per crop type into the spreadsheet, which then shows how much of a specific amendment product to apply.

The spreadsheet essentially includes the same columns as the lab results, with ideal ranges pulled from the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Each tab in the file represents a different field or soil type area—one test for an entire area of fairly similar soil type and also potentially similar crops. From there, they can enter a suite of different amendments and figure out how much they need to apply on a bed per bed basis.

“We have this cheat sheet in our workshop,” said Niki. “Staff can look at it and go, ‘Oh, I’m amending a bed in field three. How many pounds of each thing do I need to mix together?’”

What Niki really likes about the spreadsheet is how she can change the quantities of the amendment. If the amendment changes, or if she tries a new product, it factors in how many pounds to apply.

Cover Cropping

Tatlo Road Farm implements cover cropping wherever they can. Among the many benefits, cover crops take nitrogen up from the soil, fix nitrogen, and add other nutrients in the spring. As a bonus, because the farm doesn’t get snow cover, the cover crops also act as winter protection to minimize both leaching nutrients from the soil and compaction from the rains.

As Josh explained, “When you terminate the cover crop, it will supply nitrogen to [the summer] crop. We won’t say that 100% of the nitrogen in that crop will become available, but usually somewhere between 25% and 50% of it probably will. That can offset the amount of nitrogen fertilizer or supplemental nitrogen that you need to add for your summer crop.”

When they are not able to establish a cover crop in time for winter, Tatlo Road Farm uses tarps. Tarps help protect the soil from heavy rains and decrease the amount of nitrogen that leaches away over winter. When they pull the tarps off, the soil is “lovely” and ready to go, without needing to wait for cover crops to break down.

Post-Harvest Nitrogen Testing

At the end of the year, taking post-harvest nitrate tests will allow you to see how well you’re meeting the targets.

Post-harvest nitrate testing has two purposes: one is environmental, measuring the amount of nitrate that is susceptible to leaching during the dormant season, and the other is for the farmer’s own agronomic purposes, measuring whether too much or too little nitrogen was applied and how it affected yields.

The best time to do a post-harvest nitrate test is as soon as the crop comes off at the end of summer, or the beginning of early fall when all of the nitrogen in the soil that was going to become available to crops has become available. The timing depends on the region you’re in, but you need to do it before the nitrate is leached down through the soil profile. With coarse soils, you should test before 75mm of cumulative precipitation, and with finer soils before 125mm of cumulative precipitation.

Our soils can teach us so much about how to be better stewards of the land, and when we can listen and interpret the information held in those soils, they will in turn provide us with better yields. We hope Niki’s learnings at Tatlo Road Farm encourage you to dial in your own nutrient management systems!

How to Take a Soil Test

To obtain a soil sample, use a soil probe for the most uniform samples. Don’t have access to one? Ask your regional agrologist if you can borrow theirs! You’ll also need a bucket for mixing the samples together and a plastic baggie for sending your sample to the lab.

When taking samples, the first thing you want to do is divide the area into sampling zones with the same soil type, crop and management. For example, if you have a bunch of different rows of veggies you can group them together by their nutrient demand. Take about 15–30 samples throughout the sampling zone, tossing each sample into the bucket. Before bagging up around a pound of soil for the lab, mix and break up the samples as best as you can.

Learn more by watching our Organic Innovation Series: Nutrient and Nitrogen Management – Tatlo Road Farm: youtu.be/MAwrXt66KD0

BC Nutrient Calculator: nmp.apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca

Stacey Santos is the Communications Manager for Organic BC. She lives, writes and gardens in the beautiful and traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, who are now known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.

This project was supported by the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund. Funding for the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund was provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

Featured image: Mowing buckwheat at Tatlo Road Farm. Credit: Tatlo Road Farm.

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Winter Grazing in a Rotational Grazing System

in 2023/Grow Organic/Livestock/Spring/Summer 2023/Tools & Techniques

By Stacey Santos

Spray Creek Ranch, located in Northern St’at’imc Territory near Lillooet, BC, has operated as a cattle ranch since the 1880s. Over the past decade, Tristan Banwell and his partner Aubyn have managed the land and transformed it from a traditional cow-calf operation to a diversified, regenerative organic farm with cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses, and a trusty herd of guardian dogs.

One of their key practices is rotational grazing— frequently moving cattle through pastures to allow forage to recover and regrow. It’s a practice they started at the end of their first summer at the farm, and they immediately saw the value in being able to control the cattle’s impact on the land

In a recent episode of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series, Tristan took viewers on a journey through a year on grass for their cattle and shared winter-specific tips, techniques, and equipment.

Benefits of Rotational Grazing

Rotational grazing offers big returns when it comes to plant, animal, and soil health.

Plant health: When animals munch on plants without giving them a chance to grow and redevelop their leaf area, the plants are weakened and forced to recover from their root reserves instead of using their photosynthetic capability to grow. With rotational grazing, the goal is to move the animals before they take that second bite, and then backafter the plants have recovered.

Animal health: When animals are frequently moved from pasture to pasture, they have fewer chances to ingest and complete parasite life cycles. And there’s a nutritional benefit too: animals preferentially graze all of the highest quality forage first (a bite off the top of every plant) and if left in one location, over time they’ll eat poorer and poorer quality forage and their nutritional plane will decline. But if you move the animals frequently, they’ll escape this longer period of decline and will have improved health and more consistent weight gains thanks to a consistent supply of nutrient-rich regrowth.

bit.ly/organicbcpodcast50 Under a rotational grazing system, cattle distribute their manure evenly throughout the farm, resulting in increased soil fertility. And, plants that have more extended rest periods grow bigger and deeper roots, which increases organic matter in the soil.

When to Start Rotational Grazing

Spray Creek Ranch starts when there’s enough growth in the spring to turn the cows out and start grazing, and typically a little earlier than general recommendations. By setting back some of the forage growth, they’re able to stay ahead of the growth, which will be mature and seeding out before they know it.

They start in the area with the most residual left over from the previous year to balance out nutritional needs, giving cattle the opportunity to have a bite of new spring growth and a bite of dried out stockpile (a technique that also reduces the “green fire hose” effect caused by high-protein spring feeds!).

As the forage quickly grows in May and June, the cattle are still moved frequently but the paddock sizes become smaller to ensure the cattle are clipping off about two-thirds of growth in each paddock as they go.

July and August bring lots of nice green growth, but lots of mature grass as well. This is an opportunity to make a deposit into the soil. With frequent rotations in tight paddocks, everything that’s not eaten is trampled down to feed the soil. In mid-August, the cattle are brought to Spray Creek Ranch’s mountain grazing lands, where they’ll stay until October. With no cattle on the farm, the pastures are able to regrow as much as possible and ideally remain in a vegetative state as they go into fall dormancy. When the cows return from range, the winter stockpile grazing program starts, with cattle grazing primarily on dormant season grasses. If they run out of stockpiled forage or the snow gets too crusty and the cattle can no longer graze through it, they’ll be switched to hay.

Stockpile Grazing

There are a lot of reasons to do as much stockpile grazing as possible, but the biggest reason is cost savings. The highest expense in a typical cattle operation is winter feed costs. Every day that your cattle are grazing in a field that you didn’t have to use a machine to harvest or feed, you save quite a bit of money.

The goal with stockpiling is to go into winter with as much stockpiled vegetative forage—tall grass that hasn’t yet gone to seed—as possible. But it doesn’t just happen!

“You have to plan for it in advance, and planning for stockpile grazing starts during the growing season,” says Tristan.

During the high growth period in the summer, the fields are grazed or hayed to keep the plants in vegetative growth. That’s different from the typical goal of going into the winter with as much hay as possible, so at some point you need to stop grazing the field and let it regrow and stockpile.

A good time to start stockpiling is early to late August. If you start too early, the grass will grow large but then go to seed and the quality of the forage will diminish. The ideal is to go into winter with a tall, vegetative sward of grasses that haven’t gone to seed yet—tall enough that it will hold up in the snow and be visible to the cattle.

Equipment

Tristan uses the same electric fencing equipment in the wintertime as in the summertime: a quarter-mile geared reel (with a hook on the end to energize the polywire) and a battery powered hammer drill with a long masonry bit to put the posts into the frozen ground.

For more tips and crucial considerations on electric fencing for rotational grazing systems, be sure to listen to episode 50 of the Organic BC Podcast, in which Tristan interviews fencing expert Axle Boris of Fencefast: bit.ly/organicbcpodcast50

Bale Grazing

Once stockpile grazing needs to be stopped, either because forage ran out or conditions aren’t permitted anymore, you can shift to a technique called bale grazing.

Rather than rolling out bales of hay for the cows every couple of days, set out bales in a grid pattern across a whole field in one go—laying out one to two months of feed—and picking a field that will benefit from a fertility boost from the residual hay and cow manure.

“Since we don’t use fertilizers, being an organic farm, we like to put the fertility back on the field that it came from,” says Tristan.

Other perks of bale grazing are that you don’t have to go out in inclement weather (you can pick a nice day to set out bales), you don’t have to fire up your tractor when it’s minus 35, and you can easily go away for a period of time.
There are cost-saving benefits from the producer side as well—moving bales around is expensive!

Winter Watering Systems

Spray Creek Ranch is lucky to have gravity fed irrigation systems running off two mountain creeks behind the farm. They use this network all throughout the farm in the summertime.

In the winter, they have a few natural water sources, including a warm spring, but they’ve also installed a few automatic waterers, fed by a three-quarter inch water line deep in the ground to prevent freezing. To help keep the plumbing system toasty, Tristan keeps the water trickling with overflow running into a pit drain—a technique that works well with gravelly, sandy soil. At lower temperatures, he also uses a water heater and trace cable along the pipes.

Always a Work in Progress

There’s so much complexity in diverse farms like Spray Creek Ranch that use agroecological systems of farming.
“Sometimes I think about our farm, that’s been a work in progress since 1880,” says Tristan. “We’re never going to be at the end point. There’s always more we can learn. We’re always iterating, adapting, and observing the outcomes of our management choices. When you’re rotational grazing, every single day is a chance to observe the animal impact on your systems, and every year is a chance to set goals for how to improve it.”

Learn more by watching episode four of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series featuring Spray Creek Ranch: Winter Rotational Grazing Systems: youtu.be/QMlZvYteZfc

Watch more videos from Organic BC: youtube.com/thisisorganicbc

Rotational Grazing & Methane Reduction

Charlie Lasser runs Lasser Ranch, an organic ranch just outside of Chetwynd with 900 head of cattle on over 5,000 acres. He’s a pioneer and leader in the organic community and continues to innovate his practices, including feeding seaweed to his calves!

Calves burp out about 400 litres of methane each day. To combat these powerful emissions, Charlie feeds seaweed to his young stock, which reduces methane in their systems and helps the animals gain more weight. A win-win all around not just for producers, but also for the climate and the planet.

Learn more in episode five of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series: youtu.be/RZW28V05vcU

Stacey Santos is the Communications Manager for Organic BC. She lives, writes and gardens in the beautiful and traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, who are now known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.

This project was supported by the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund. Funding for the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund was provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

Featured image: Tristan Banwell with winter grazing cattle at Spray Creek Ranch in Lillooet. Credit: Spray Creek Ranch.

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Improve Plant Immunity

in 2023/Crop Production/Grow Organic/Preparation/Soil/Tools & Techniques/Winter 2023

Microbially Friendly Farming

By Dr. Judith Fitzpatrick

[Originally published in Heart & Soil Magazine]

Imagine that you were intelligent enough to diagnose a disease, prescribe the correct antimicrobial, and manufacture it.

Plants with a healthy microbiome do this!

The plant and microbes work together to perform this miracle.

Organic farmers need 97% less of any kind of pesticide than those using mineral fertilizers. Mineral fertilizers are genocidal for the soil microbes that protect the plant from pathogens and adverse conditions, produce nutritionally-deficient food, and pollute the environment.

Plants Send Signals for Microbes

In regenerative organic farming, which we will refer to as Microbially Friendly Farming (MFF), the plant secretes approximately 30% of its photosynthate to generate the specific microbial population that it requires for nutritional needs and health.

The major stimulation for the plant to build this population is the plant’s hunger for the N, P, K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), and other soil minerals that the microbes can deliver. When the plant is provided mineral N, it does not nourish this microbial population, and the plant loses the ability to protect itself from pathogens and stresses such as drought.

Microbially Friendly Farming

From here forward we will use the word plant to refer to a plant that has not been poisoned by a high mineral fertilizer regimen and has developed a healthy microbial population. We will use the term Microbially Friendly Farming (MFF) to refer to agricultural practices that maintain microbial populations above 250 µg (one-millionth of a gram), microbial biomass carbongram of soil and a F:B (fungi:bacteria) ratio above 0.5.

Microbes Support Each Other

The microbial population in the rhizosphere is controlled by the organic molecules that the plant exudes and the nutrients available in the soil. Microbes are the pickiest of eaters. They can only dine on very special diets and require the support of a population of other microbes that supply some of their dietary needs. This is why we can only grow about 1% of soil microbes in the lab – we know about the other 99% because we can detect their DNA, see them microscopically, and measure some of their metabolism.

Healthy Plant, Healthy Seed

Like us, plants receive their initial microbiome from the seed of the mother plant which are as important in establishing a healthy microbiome for the plant as they are for us – e.g. children born by caesarian birth have different microbiomes than those born vaginally and have immune deficits that are attributed to not being inoculated with their mother’s vaginal and fecal microbes.

Microbes Stimulate the Immune System

The microbial population in the rhizosphere descends from the seedling population and expands with plant/root growth and recruitment from the surrounding soil. The seedling feeds the microbes with root exudates and the microbes send chemical growth molecules to stimulate plant growth. Hence these microbes are called plant growth promoting bacteria. As with humans, the overall health of the plant is a critical component of disease resistance.

The interaction between the microbes and the plant is very similar to how the microbes in our guts stimulate our immune system, which also doesn’t develop in the absence of microbes.

Cells that Respond to Infection and Pathogens

Microbes enter the plant through root tips via a process called rhizophagy. The plant extracts 40% of the N it requires, as well as other nutrients, before it releases these microbes back into the soil via root hairs. Some of these microbes enter the plant’s circulation system and interact with receptors that appear on all plant cells, called Microbe Associated Molecular Patterns (MAMPS), which recognize and bind to common structures on the surfaces of microbes. This binding leads to an intracellular molecular chain reaction that stimulates the cell to produce more MAMPS and many protective antioxidants. Thus it produces a cell that is more alert to microbes and is more prepared to respond to infection.

In addition to MAMP receptors, the plant has Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPS), that recognize and bind to structures that are unique to pathogens. Binding to a pathogen receptor stimulates the cell to make more PAMPS, making the plant both more sensitive to the pathogen and causing the plant to produce large amounts of antioxidants that are harmful to pathogens. This sometimes causes the cell to commit suicide (apotosis) to save the spread of the disease.

Making Specific Antibiotic

This exposure to pathogens also stimulates the plant root to increase the production and secretion of the foods that attract the microbes that make the antibiotic that combats the particular pathogen.

The microbes making this antibiotic then multiply in the root area making the antibiotic available to the plant. Thus with MFF, a plant in partnership with microbes develops a strong immune system by upping the number of MAMPS and PAMPS and is more resistant to disease and requires much less pesticide.

Thousands of Essential Nutrient Antioxidants

Perhaps the biggest wins for MFF are that the thousands of essential nutrient antioxidants produced by these plants provide protection against cancer, inflammation, and disease in our bodies, and they are what give fruits and vegetables good texture and flavor leading to better eating habits. These thousands of essential nutrient antioxidants are not plentiful in conventional farm produce and are not currently listed as nutrients by the USDA.

Microbes also stimulate the production of Damage Associated Molecular Patterns (DAMPS), which recognize and bind components of damaged cells, especially those of leaves, and promote healing. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the chemical odors produced by these damaged cells are specific to the insect causing the damage, and these plant-produced odors attract insects that antagonize the attacker.

Microbes make antimicrobials in large part to protect their territory from other microbes. So the microbes surrounding your plant are big defenders against pathogenic soil bacteria, e.g. good nematodes are the best protectors against pathogenic nematodes.

Defensive Fungal to Bacterial Ratio

Interestingly, it has also been observed that a proper fungal to bacterial ratio results in a bacterial population that is more prepared to defend itself from predators. The proper ratio varies depending on soil and crop. For agricultural crops, it is usually between 0.4 and 1. The proper ratio also tells you that you are not decreasing your soil fertility (organic carbon).

Mycorrhizal fungi that colonize approximately 90% of all plants are fungi that are totally dependent on the plant for nutrition. A plant root exudate awakens the fungal spore – which has only a day to grow to the plant where it enters a cell and is fed. When established, the fungi sends out hypha to collect P, N, K, S (sulfur), and water, which it brings back to the plant cell and trades for carbon and amino acids. The fungal hypha of a colonized plant can increase the root area as much as 1000%, making significantly more water and nutrients available.

Immunity Network

The hypha are also able to form a network connecting trees and are known to send immune signals from diseased trees to other trees in the network that increase their resistance to the disease. These fungi also very efficiently protect plants from drought by modifying the root structure, allowing it to absorb more water. Protecting a plant from the stress of drought makes a plant more disease-resistant, as well as increasing yield.

The soil microbial community and economy has thrived for 3 billion years. It has checks and balances and has adapted to soil and water conditions all over the globe.

Like our own society, it contains opportunists that take advantage when a defense system is poor, or society is weakened.

Healthy Microbial Biomass

The current best indicator of a healthy soil microbial community is a healthy microbial biomass and F:B ratio: it tells the nutrient level and nutrient balance of the soil and can indicate if it is improved. It provides information that chemical tests cannot, e.g. most soils have plenty of P, but it is in a form that only fungi are able to make available to the plant. It tells you N is low, but it doesn’t tell you that MFF can increase the number of microbes that can deliver N and fix N from the air.

Financial, Environmental, and Health Benefits of Healthy Soil

As you can imagine, creating and maintaining a healthy immune system requires plant energy which is probably why the yields of MFF practices are on average about 10% less than those of mineral fertilized farming. However, studies show that when microbially friendly farming is optimized, the financial loss is compensated for by tastier, more nutrient dense produce, lower fertilizer, water, and pesticide costs, and better resistance to drought.

Increase financial return by building soil structure which increases the water-holding capacity which decreases erosion and water costs, increases drought resistance, and increases soil carbon which has been shown to increase yields, and, over time, decrease fertilizer needs. With the maturation of the soil carbon markets, growers can contribute to farm income by selling carbon credits.

Understanding the plant health microbial synergy is even more critical now that the cost of mineral N is up as much as 400% and pesticides costs are also rapidly rising per the USDA- Economic Research Service.

Microbially Friendly Farming controls plant pathogens and increases plants’ ability to withstand stress. Plants are fully equipped to diagnose a disease, prescribe the correct antimicrobial, and manufacture it. They simply need a healthy microbiome to interact with microbes in healthy soil.

Dr. Judith Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., Prolific Earth Sciences Founder and Principal Scientist, is a microbiologist and a recognized leader in the development of on-site diagnostic tests. She was the founder and CEO of Serex from 1985 until its sale to a Canadian Pharmaceutical Company in 2002. At Serex, she developed more than 15 medical diagnostic tests with unique reagents and methods of testing.

Judy combined her expertise in diagnostic testing and manufacturing with her profound belief in the mission to help improve farming practices.

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The More the Better? Multi-Species vs Single-Species Cover Crops for Carrots

in 2022/Crop Production/Fall 2022/Grow Organic/Seeds/Tools & Techniques

By Frank Larney, Haley Catton, Charles Geddes, Newton Lupway, Tom Forge, Reynald Lemke, and Bobbi Helgason

This article first appeared in Organic Science Canada magazine and is printed here with gratitude.

In recent years, diverse cover crop mixes or ‘cocktails’, which contain as many as 15 different cover crop species, have gained popularity. Are these multi-species cover crop mixes any better than their less sophisticated counterparts (e.g., fall rye or barley/pea)? It’s a complicated system to untangle. Our early data suggests that the multi-species mixes can foster more active soil life, but that they could also have impacts on the following crop: they caused more forked carrots, which decreases profit. We also looked closely at how weeds in the cover crops affected soil fertility. Spoiler alert, they may be helping…

Cover crops can provide many benefits including enhanced soil organic matter and soil health, nitrogen retention, weed suppression, soil moisture conservation and, as a result of these, higher subsequent crop yields. Cover crops can be grown in the main season (replacing a cash crop in rotation) or seeded in fall to protect the soil from wind and water erosion throughout winter and early spring. In our study funded by the Organic Science Cluster, we compared how different cover crops impacted the soil, pests, and the following crop.

The control cover crop treatment which was essentially a fallow predominated by lamb’s quarters, cleavers, and redroot pigweed, July 30, 2018. Maybe weeds are not all that bad? …as long as they don’t go to seed before soil incorporation. Credit: Frank Larney.

Our research team collaborated with Howard and Cornelius Leffers who run an irrigated organic farm near Coaldale, Alberta. They specialize in carrots and red beets for restaurants, farmers’ markets and organic grocery stores, and they also grow alfalfa, winter wheat and dry beans. We evaluated seven cover crop treatments ahead of carrots. We have completed two cycles of the two-year cover crop–carrot rotation (Cycle 1: 2018 & 2019, Cycle 2: 2019 & 2020), with a third cycle (2021 & 2022) currently underway. Cover crops were established in June during the first year of each cycle as follows:

Buckwheat;

  1. Faba bean;
  2. Brassica (white + brown mustard);
  3. Mix*;
  4. Mix* followed by barley which grew until the first killing frost;
  5. Mix* followed by winter wheat which survived the winter, regrew in early spring, then was terminated by tillage; and
  6. Control (no cover crop, weeds allowed to grow).
  7. *Mixture of five legumes, four grasses, two brassicas, flax, phacelia, safflower, and buckwheat (15 species in total)
Fagopyrum esculentum Moench, Polygonum fagopyrum L. Credit: Johann Georg Sturm.

In August, all treatments and the control were incorporated into the soil by disking. The control and treatments 1-4 were left unplanted over the winter; weeds were allowed to grow. Treatments 5 and 6 were seeded to other cover crops. In the second year of each cycle, carrots were planted in June and harvested in the fall. We took cover crop and weed biomass samples just before disking in August of the first year of each cycle. We measured the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations of the cover crops, as well as the main weed species. In 2018, the multi-species, brassica, and buckwheat cover crops were more competitive with weeds. The faba bean cover crop was not competitive with weeds and had the same amount of weeds (by weight) as the control treatment.

Weeds can be a troublesome part of organic systems. In this case, we wanted to see if they were redeeming themselves as part of the cover crop, or in the case of the control treatment, by taking the place of a seeded cover crop. Weeds are no different from any other plant: they take up soil nutrients and when they break down, they put carbon (including organic matter), nitrogen, and other nutrients back into the soil. As long as annual weeds don’t go to seed, maybe they are making a useful contribution to soil health, similar to a seeded cover crop.

Since weeds were incorporated into the soil in August along with the seeded cover, the less-competitive faba bean treatment and the weedy control actually returned more total carbon to the soil (average, 2220 kg/ha C) due to greater weed biomass (weed “yield”) than buckwheat, brassica or the multi-species mixture (850–1330 kg/ha C). Moreover, being a nitrogen-fixing legume, the faba bean cover crop (including its weeds) returned the most nitrogen to the soil at 99 kg/ha N. After the carrot harvest, our team rated carrots into Grade A (visually appealing with no deformities: ideal for restaurants, farmers’ markets, and organic grocery stores) and Grade B (downgraded due to wireworm damage, forking, scarring or misshaping: suitable for juicing only). Grade B carrots are worth about one third of Grade A carrots.

Vicia faba. Credit: Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé, Flora von Deutschland.

Despite the differences we measured in the C and N contributions of the cover crops and the weeds, it wasn’t enough to affect the carrot yields. In 2019, Grade A carrot yield was statistically the same with all the cover crop options. For soil health, the multi-species mixture had more microbial activity than either brassica or buckwheat cover crops (this is based on microbial biomass C – an index of microbial mass – and permanganate oxidizable C – the active or easily-decomposable C). However, a possible downside of the multi-species mix showed up when we looked at the following carrot crop. In 2019, treatments 4, 5 and 6 resulted in a greater proportion of the Grade B category, including forked carrots. Forking and misshaping are caused by many reasons, including soil compaction, weed interference, and insect or nematode feeding on root growing tips.

We also looked at the value of fall-seeded cover crops (Treatments 5 and 6) and their impact on wireworm and nematodes. These pests might actually be helped by cover crops; they appear to have greater survival during the winter season when living roots are present. But having winter cover may lead to better carrot yields, too: in 2020, total carrot yields (Grades A and B) were 10% higher after the fall-seeded cover crops when compared to the spring – seeded brassica cover crop, which led to the lowest yielding carrots. So far, we haven’t seen any effect of the different cover crop treatments on root lesion nematode populations, but the fall-season cover crops led to a small increase in wireworm damage on the carrots (this only showed up in 2019). More soil analyses and the results from the 2021-22 season are still to come. The additional information will help us tease out the pros and cons of multi-species vs single-species cover crops for irrigated organic carrots.

To learn more about OSC3 Activity 8, please visit

dal.ca/oacc/osciii

The Organic Science Cluster 3 is led by the Organic Federation of Canada in collaboration with the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Dalhousie University, and is supported by the AgriScience Program under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Agricultural Partnership (an investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments) and over 70 partners from the agricultural community.

Feature image:  Left to right: Charles Geddes (Weed Ecology & Cropping Systems, AAFC-Lethbridge); Howard Leffers (farmer-collaborator, Coaldale, AB); and James Hawkins (visiting Nuffield scholar, Neuarpurr, Victoria, Australia) in the 15-species cover crop, August 7, 2018. Credit: Frank Larney.

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Biodynamic Farm Story: Cold Comforts

in Crop Production/Grow Organic/Land Stewardship/Soil/Spring 2022

By Anna Helmer

Alas, alak. Which is to say, phew. My self-celebrated cull potato Biodynamic compost pile is not available to evaluate in time for this article deadline: the snowpack beneath which it languishes lingers still. Truth be told, I am relieved. I have not been shy about leading us all to believe I am a composting genius, capable of turning old potatoes into a priceless pile of loamy soil teeming with life, energy, and spiritual sensitivity. On the other hand, it might be a pile of mucky old potatoes. I am saved, for now, from the big reveal.

This winter’s snowpack has had a more notable affect on life this winter than just preserving my pride. Most of it is from December’s excesses, when several feet accumulated in just a few days. The temperature plunged and the farm was in the proverbial grip of winter. The work focus narrowed: clear greenhouse, shovel path to chicken house, monitor the cooler temperatures, keep water pumps from freezing. As always, the first few days of minus twenty were fine, but then things started to freeze. It’s amazing how much work this becomes.

Rain is inevitable of course, which adds crushing weight to snow that was this year extra sticky, clinging even to the metal roofs of barns and homes. This became a grave concern. Not only is there the potential collapsing problem, but a very real danger to anyone or anything in the line of the sliding snow when it finally does let go.

Our farm escaped the situation with little more than one blown apart railing, one bent greenhouse rib (from a tractor-mounted snow blower injury), and a day or two of frozen water pump. It’s not hard to spot other winter casualties in the area and it is considered polite to avert your eyes and not mention it.

Meanwhile, under the snow, the soil has been hard at work. It’s hard to believe, as the landscape seems so inert in the depths of winter, but Rudolph Steiner says it’s so. This year in particular the soil seemed so remote, buried under four feet of concrete snow. A lot of the time it was a walkable snowpack and striding about the farm on an elevated even surface felt like freedom. Anyway, it was easy to assume there wasn’t much going on down there.

Biodynamically-speaking, however, winter is a time of dynamic change in the soil. I really don’t pretend to understand the technical aspects of many of Steiner’s arguments, and this one has really confused me. Something to do with the formation of crystals deep down which will collect the forces emanating from the further reaches of the universe and stream them upwards into the plants. Don’t quote me.

Obviously, there is activity. We habitually try to rotavate the next year’s potato field last thing in the fall before winter. Just a shallow rotavate, and perhaps a slightly deeper spading. It breaks up the sod that has formed over the previous five years of cover-cropping. It’s pretty rough, but in the spring, this field will dry a little quicker and much of the organic matter will have broken down. This is a sign of winter activity, isn’t it?

It’s more than that, though I am struggling to put my finger on it. My understanding was nudged along when we went to dig the equipment trailer out of the snow. We had parked it under a barn roof line. Oops. See above. It was buried early and often this winter. The extraction project took place over a two-day period and involved heavy equipment. When done, a churned-up mess of soil, snow, ice, and mud was left in its place. The ground won’t recover from that this year.

We would never do this to a field, but the message remains the same: we farmers ruin soil. The soil needs winter so it can get away from us and do its thing. If you haven’t slapped your head with understanding then I haven’t done a good job of writing, for this is very profound.

Think about the fall-rotavated potato field. It will emerge from the winter ready for an (almost) single tractor pass for final seed bed preparation. When we don’t do the fall rotavating and spading it takes several passes with disc, cultivator, spader, rotavator, and harrow to do the same job, with likely a substandard result.

The field, left alone in the grip of winter, was busy, busy, busy and did a better job of it than we could have done.

The BD500 preparation, which some call the gateway drug of Biodynamics, is buried over winter. I won’t get into the details, but it transforms from a muck of fresh manure into a dryish plug of pure power. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it makes sense, but I admit to a slight glimmer of understanding.

Now I am kind of excited to see the compost pile. I think it was always out of my hands.

Anna Helmer farms in Pemberton and is grateful for the opportunity. helmersorganic.com

Featured image: Credit: Hemler’s Organic Farm

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Biodynamic Farm Story: Convergence & Composting Chaos

in 2022/Climate Change/Crop Production/Grow Organic/Land Stewardship/Soil/Winter 2022

By Anna Helmer

Well, I am thrilled to discover that the likely theme for this edition of BC Organic Grower magazine is: Composting Chaos. The suggestion that chaos may be composted is encouraging and practical…and it is always a treat to find something compostable that is in such good supply. Further thrills at the possibility of extending the concept to include the composting of lived experiences, especially those whose silver lining is perceived to be absent, invisible, or inadequate. The composting metaphor is very supportive: just stash it all in a heap until a more palatable, useful, and frankly understandable state is revealed.

I am obviously over-thrilled, and I will now tone it down. Composting takes ages, of course. These things don’t happen overnight.

I am certainly not over-thrilled at what I feel was a weak performance this year on the farm, biodynamically speaking. I didn’t accomplish very much of what I set out to do. I had grand plans to make some preparations, attend more zoom lectures, plant the garden according to the Celestial Planting Calendar, and generally advance myself towards being thought of as a wise, middle-aged, biodynamic farmer.

In fact, I didn’t do any of that, and I even took steps backwards. Not in ageing, unfortunately. Still relentlessly marching along that path, sorry to say.

The season started with a good old case of undermining myself: I did not apply BD 500 to the carrot field even though I have always known that a good carrot crop is conditional upon a spring application of BD 500. Other factors contribute of course: a June 1 planting date, into moist soil prepared just so; the crop to be hand-weeded twice, mechanically weeded thrice; judiciously watered but not wantonly; and harvest commencing no earlier than the third Monday in August. All that and very little more often guarantees a successful carrot crop in terms of yield, storability, and most importantly taste.

Early in the spring I improperly mixed BD 500 using assorted batches of stale-dated preparation—just to get rid of the clutter, really. I applied it within flinging distance of the barrel in a non-intentional manner. I didn’t go anywhere near the carrot-field-to-be, assuming I could be relied upon to complete the task closer to the planting date, at a more propitious time indicated by the calendar, and with something a little fresher and properly prepared. I did not do that.

I thought for sure the carrot crop was doomed but that was just the beginning. We proceeded to somehow insert change into just about every other aspect of successful Helmer carrot cropping procedure. Planting dates, seeder set-up, spacing, cultivation plan, mechanical weeding plan, and watering schedule: it was carrot chaos, really.

Jumping to the end of what has become a boring carrot story, we got a big crop of great-tasting carrots that seems to be storing well. It is an absolute mystery of variables, and I must kick myself for failing to properly apply BD 500 because now that doesn’t get to be part of the success calculus.

Hence, I am extra keen to flatter myself that the cull potato compost pile, carefully finished with some lovely compost preparations from our friends at the Biodynamic Association of BC, is quite gloriously successful. In terms of structure and appearance it does indeed look promising: it looks like a heap of rich dark soil and there are no longer potatoes visible.

It did not look at all promising to begin with, and although it reached temperature twice, I think that just encouraged the potatoes to grow more, seeing as they were nice and warm. With great gobs of them merrily sprouting and creating new potatoes it all seemed a bit futile.

My final move was to mix it, pile it nicely, cover it with hay, and apply the compost preparations. Since then, it has been through a heat dome and three heat waves, then three months of solid rain. It sits perched on a bit of high ground in a flooded field. It has basically been abandoned.   

The current plan, then, is to ignore it till next spring. I’ll open it up for a look and decide if it is ready for that most stern test of quality: application to soil. Expectations are managed.

In the meantime, I am building the next cull potato compost pile, adding a few hundred pounds every other week or so as we wash and sort the crop. It looks like more culls than last year. There are whacks of maple and birch leaves layered in, and hay. I’d like to get some seaweed, next time I am at the seashore, and I am considering drenching it from time to time with BD 500, the Biodynamic gateway drug of which I’ve got extra.

My biodynamic journey chugs along, I suppose, although I am refraining from setting biodynamic goals for next season. I am still far too busy composting the last one.

Anna Helmer farms with her family in Pemberton, BC where the current mission is finding the right winter work gloves.

Feature image: Compost in hand. Credit: Thomas Buchan.

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Ask an Expert: BC Farmers & Ranchers Learning Together

in 2021/Ask an Expert/Crop Production/Grow Organic/Land Stewardship/Soil/Spring 2021/Tools & Techniques

Emma Holmes

The Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes (SAL) Lab at UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems is taking a collaborative approach to research that supports producers in making management decisions that are science-based and regionally grounded.

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Sean Smukler, DeLisa Lewis, Amy Norgaard, and Raelani Kesler from the SAL Lab to get an update on their Organic Vegetable Nutrient Management and Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming research projects.

Something that stood out to me, and that I feel is especially pertinent to this issue, is the mentorship and collaborative, on-farm approach the SAL Lab is taking. The research design includes two demonstration “mother sites” at UBC Farm in Vancouver and Green Fire Farm on Vancouver Island, as well as 20 “sister sites” on working organic farms in the Fraser Valley, Pemberton Valley, Vancouver Island, and the Kootenays.

The mother sites are controlled and replicated—they allow for the collection of scientifically rigorous data so that the researchers can tease out trends and gain a deeper understanding of how different elements in the system are interacting and impacting each other.

While a rigorous approach is important, it is very difficult to implement one on working farms because farmers are already trying to manage so much complexity in terms of crop rotation, timing, etc. Adding a full-blown research project with rigorous controls can take away from the primary goal of running a profitable business.

The sister sites are simpler experiments, without controls and replicates, that are done on multiple working farms in different regions of the province. They provide insights into regional and site variability, and allow us to see whether trends from the mother sites are true across different regions in BC The regional sister sites also create the opportunity for farmers to participate in the research by pointing SAL researchers to key practical challenges and unanswered questions.

Collecting soil samples with a soil auger; hundreds of soil samples were collected for the regional field trials. Credit: Amy Norgaard.

Organic Vegetable Nutrient Management

The SAL Lab recently shared the results from their two-year Organic Vegetable Nutrient Management Project regional field trials, where they assessed organic nutrient management strategies that are most likely to balance goals of crop production and environmental stewardship.

A key takeaway is the importance of regionally-specific nutrient management recommendations due to the big differences in soil types, availability, and cost of amendments. Taking soil tests and applying nutrients based on a farm-specific soil management strategy is important for land stewardship across all regions, but regional variances due to differing soils, climate, and access to and cost of amendments are important considerations.

For example, the abundance of nutrient-rich animal manures in the Fraser Valley increases the possibility of unintentionally over applying nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). This can result in post-harvest nitrate and phosphorous concentrations that can compromise well water quality and wetland health in the area, and are higher than what is permitted under BC’s new Agricultural Environmental Management Regulation.

There are also cost implications of over-applying nutrients. On Vancouver Island, where amendments are relatively expensive, targeted nutrient applications based on soil testing and matching crop nutrient demand can allow for significant savings compared to applying amendments without that knowledge.

Carmen Wong collects soil samples from research plots on an organic vegetable farm in Pemberton, BC for the UBC nutrient management regional field trial study Credit: Amy Norgaard.

Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming

SAL’s Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming research project is studying the interactions between organic nutrient management and water issues (e.g. too much, too little, wrong timing) on organic farms. Increased fall and spring precipitation shortens the soil workability time window, thus shortening the growing season and increasing the challenge of establishing and incorporating cover crops as part of a nutrient management strategy.

Raelani Kesler, Master of Science student, explained that the Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming research project hopes to quantify the impact of three alternative approaches to soil management: fall application of organic amendments, tile drains, and overwinter tarping. Silage tarps are increasingly being used to cover soil in places where it is difficult to establish or maintain a cover crop. With tarping, the soil is protected from erosion, but there are no inputs from cover crop biomass. Drainage tiles are being used to manage moisture but this too can lead to losses. The project is currently gearing up for its second field season.

Amy Norgaard in the field. Credit: Kira Border.

Knowledge Sharing

The benefit of having the research on-farm extends beyond the access to regional data. Including farmers as partners allows for horizontal learning between both researchers and farmers, as well as supporting farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange.

Amy Norgaard, a Master of Science student in SAL, spoke to the knowledge-sharing elements of the project. “I was able to be physically on farm having conversations with the farmers and learning from them about what they do and why, and was able to incorporate each farm’s unique amendment strategy into the study,” she said. “Farmers were able to see how their ‘business as usual’ compost and fertilizer applications compared to strategies targeting N and P crop demand, and also saw how their strategies compared to other farmers.”

Chris Bodnar, a project farm partner, said “The on-farm research and collaborative sharing of results was incredible for us to be part of”.

Although not a direct goal of the program, Norgaard shared that getting out and having conversations with partner farmers allowed her to gain useful information that she was then able to share across the community. “I really enjoyed the relationship building and knowledge sharing aspects of the program and wish I could continue doing it even though my two-year research project has come to an end. I think there is a lot of value there.”

In the Kootenays, SAL was able to partner with Rachael Roussin of the Kootenay Boundary Farm Advisors (KBFA) program. KBFA has been providing extension services for farmers for several years, and Kesler said the established relationships and close contact Rachael had with growers made it much more feasible to conduct regional field trials in the Kootenays. For example, Rachael was able to reach out to her network to recruit farm research partners. Her existing relationships and proximity to the growers made it easier to check in about details, such as when they were planning on removing their tarps so she could get to the farm to take a soil sample. Coordinating on this level would be very difficult to do from UBC and so having a partner like KBFA opens up regional on-farm research possibilities that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Kesler hopes to see more regions across BC adopt similar extension programs that would allow for these forms of university-farm partnerships to become more widespread.

Similar Approaches Happening Across Canada

The topic of collaborative on-farm research with mother-sister sites, and the many benefits of approaching agricultural research this way, also came up at a recent meeting I attended for provincial and federal organic specialists. The Quebec organic specialists spoke highly of the mother-daughter model to ensure a constant exchange and mutual learning between farmers and researchers.

In 2019 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced a new Living Laboratory Initiative. Similar to UBC’s SAL lab, it will use mother-sister sites as part of a “collaborative approach to research that will bring stakeholders together on working farms to develop, test and adopt new practices and technologies that will tackle important environmental issues.”

You can find more details about this announcement here.

Further reading:

Organic Vegetable Nutrient Management Project

BC’s New Agricultural Environmental Management Regulation

The Organic Vegetable Nutrient Management Project and the Climate Resilient Vegetable Farming Project were funded in part by 1) the Farm Adaptation Innovator Program (FAIP), a program through the BC Climate Action Initiative and funded by the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a five-year federal-provincial-territorial; and 2) the Organic Science Cluster 3 under the AgriScience program of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Emma Holmes is the Organics Industry Specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries. She studied Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Science at UBC, and then farmed on Salt Spring and worked on a permaculture homestead on Orcas Island. She now lives in Vernon with her partner and toddler, and loves spending time in the garden. She can be reached at: Emma.Holmes@gov.bc.ca

Feature image: Carmen Wong weighing amendments (compost and organic fertilizer) to apply to research plots on an organic vegetable farm in the lower Fraser Valley for the UBC nutrient management regional field trial study. Credit: Amy Norgaard.

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Footnotes from the Field: Waste Not, Want Not

in 2020/Fall 2020/Footnotes from the Field/Livestock/Preparation/Soil

Empowering the Human Micronutrient Supply Chain from the Soil Up

Marjorie Harris

I have long accepted that the saying “Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy people” fully explained the human nutrient supply chain. Turns out, this is not entirely accurate. In fact, the mineral requirements for healthy plants, animals, and people are quite different.

During organic farm inspection tours, I met a BC farm family diagnosed with selenium deficiency syndromes. The local health unit had identified the conditions. One person suffered from a significant fused spinal curvature from a skeletal muscle disease caused by selenium deficiency.

The farm’s soil tests confirmed that the garden soils were indeed deficient in selenium. The farmer was aware that his newborn livestock required selenium shots to prevent white muscle disease and that his livestock were fed selenium-fortified commercial organic livestock feed.

That BC farmer’s “Aha!” moment came when he made the connection between his garden soils’ lack of selenium and his family’s health problems. My curiosity was piqued. What was going on here—what is selenium and where do we find it?

Selenium is recognized as an essential trace mineral for healthy livestock and it is standard best practice to give selenium shots shortly after birth. In the year 2000, the Canadian government, along with the rest of North America, mandated the addition of selenium minerals to commercial livestock feeds (poultry, swine, beef/dairy, goat, and sheep) as a way to increase animal health and fortify the human food supply in dairy, meat, and eggs. Canadian wildlife surveys have determined that wild creatures also suffer from selenium deficiency diseases. Chronic and subclinical selenium deficiency could be a contributing factor to recent wildlife population declines, as other causes have not been identified.

I was surprised to learn from the government of Alberta’s Agri-Fax sheet that plants do not use selenium and do not show deficiency symptoms from its lack in the soil. At the same time, there are a few plants, such as locoweeds, that can hyperaccumulate selenium to levels that are toxic to livestock when selenium concentrations are high in the soil.

It was only relatively recently that we realized selenium was essential for human health. In 1979, Chinese scientists made the discovery while investigating the deaths of thousands of young women and children in the Keshan County of North Eastern China. The condition associated with these deaths was named Keshan disease, after the county where it was first recognized. The Chinese scientists discovered that selenium supplementation could correct the disorder. Since then, much has been learned about how selenium acts as a mineral in the human body in conjunction with other trace minerals such as chromium and iodine, which are also not used by plants.

Selenium deficiency is regarded as a major worldwide health problem with estimates of between 500 million to 1 billion people living with selenium deficiency diseases. Even larger numbers of people are consuming less then what is needed for optimal protection against cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases.

Researchers have found that selenium is widely distributed throughout the body’s tissues and of high importance for many regulatory and metabolic functions. Selenium is very much like a “Goldilocks” micronutrient: you need just the right amount. Too much or too little can lead to serious health consequences. The Recommended Daily Amount (RDA) in Canada for adults and children 14 and up is 55 micrograms per day. Our dietary selenium is taken up in the gut and becomes incorporated into more than 30 selenoproteins and selenoenzymes that play critical roles in human biological processes. Selenium is considered a cornerstone of the body’s antioxidant defense system as an integral component required for glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity. The GPx enzyme family plays a major role in protection against oxidative stress.

In addition, selenoproteins regulate many physiological processes, including the immune system response, brain neurotransmitter functioning, male and female reproductive fertility, thyroid hormone functioning, DNA synthesis, cardiovascular health, mental health, and heavy metal chelation. Selenoproteins have a protective effect against some forms of cancer, possess chemo-preventive properties, and regulate the inflammatory mediators in asthma.

Many chronic diseases have been linked to selenium deficiency. A short list includes: diabetes, Alzheimer’s, lupus, autoimmune disease, arthritis, schizophrenia, cardiovascular disease, degenerative muscle diseases, neurological diseases, and rheumatoid arthritis. The selenium GPX-1 immune defense system has demonstrated antiviral capability. GPx-1 is found in most body cells, including red blood cells.

Some lipid-enveloped viruses pirate host selenium resources as a strategy to outmaneuver the host immune selenium-activated GPX-1 antioxidant system. If a host is selenium-deficient the virus can overwhelm the host GPX-1 immune response. In selenium-competent individuals the GPX-1 initiates an immune response cascade which inhibits viral replication and clears the virus from host. Selenium’s antiviral defense ability has been documented for Ebola, coronavirus, SARS-2003, influenza viruses (swine and bird flus), HIV, herpes viruses, cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), hepatitis B and C, Newcastle disease virus, rubella (German measles), varicella (chicken pox), smallpox, swine fever, and West Nile virus. There are a number of studies showing that selenium deficiency negatively impacts the course of HIV, and that selenium supplementation may delay the onset of full-blown AIDS.

While the research is still unfolding and it is too early to make determinative conclusions about COVID-19 and potential treatments, preliminary research indicates several interesting lines of inquiry. COVD-19 researchers in China published new data on April 28, 2020 making an association the COVID-19 “cure rates and death rates” and the soil selenium status of the region. Higher deaths rates were observed in populations living inside soil selenium-poor regions such as Hubei Province. Regional population selenium status was measured through hair samples. Samples were collected and compared from 17 different Chinese cities: “Results show an association between the reported cure rates for COVID-19 and selenium status. These data are consistent with the evidence of the antiviral effects of selenium from previous studies.”

By now, you’ve probably figured out that we can’t live without selenium. The evidence is clear: human and animal health is dependent on selenium, and yet it is the rarest micronutrient element in the Earth’s crust. Selenium is classed as a non-renewable resource because there are no ore deposits from which Selenium can be mined as the primary product. Most selenium is extracted as a by-product of copper mining.

Selenium has many industrial applications because of its unique properties as a semi-conductor. The most outstanding physical property of crystalline selenium is its photoconductivity. In sunlight electrical conductivity increases more than 1,000-fold, making it prized for use in solar energy panels and many other industrial uses that ultimately draw selenium out of the food chain, potentially permanently.

Selenium is very unevenly dispersed on land masses worldwide, ranging from deficient to toxic concentrations, with 70% to 80% of global agricultural lands considered to be deficient. Countries dominated by selenium-poor soils include Canada, Western and Eastern European, China, Russia, and New Zealand. Worldwide selenium-deficient soils are widespread, and increasing.

Naturally selenium-rich soils are primarily associated with marine environments. Ancient oceans leave behind dehydrated selenium salts as they recede. Here in Canada the receding salt waters of the Western Interior and Hudson seaways left mineral deposits from the Badlands of Alberta, following along the southern borders of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Some countries, including Finland and New Zealand, have added selenium (selenite) to fertilizer programs to fortify the soils with some success. Results show that only a small proportion of the selenium is taken up by plants and much of the remainder becomes bound up in non-bioavailable complexes out of reach for future plant utilization. On this basis, it is thought that large scale selenium biofortification with commercial fertilizers would be too wasteful for application to large areas of our planet. The geographic variability of selenium content, environmental conditions, and agricultural practices all have a profound influence on the final selenium content of our foods. Iodine, which works hand-in-hand with selenium, is even more randomly variable in soils and food crops.

The Globe and Mail ran the following January 2, 2020 headline: “Canadian researchers combat arsenic poisoning with Saskatchewan-grown lentils.” In 2012, it was estimated by the WHO that 39 million Bangladeshis were exposed to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water, and the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed Bangladesh’s arsenic poisoned groundwater crisis the “largest mass poisoning of a population in history.” As it turns out, the lentils from southern Saskatchewan accumulate enough selenium that they could be used as a “food-medicine” in Bangladesh as a cure for arsenic poisoning. Clinical trials conducted from 2015 to 2016 found that participants eating selenium-rich lentils had a breakthrough moment when urine samples confirmed that arsenic was being flushed from their bodies. Other studies have also shown that selenium binds to mercury to remove it from the body.

Now that we are finally wrapping our minds around the fact that our personal health depends on just the right amount of selenium, we find out that the health of future generations may depend on it even more. It takes more than one parent’s generation to produce a single child. While a female fetus is growing in the womb, the eggs of the gestating mother’s grandchildren are also being formed in the ovaries of the fetus. The viability of the grandchildren’s DNA is protected from oxidative stress damage by antioxidant selenium. Oxidative stress on the new DNA could potentially result in epigenetic changes for future generations. The selenium intake of the grandparent directly affects the grandchildren. From this point of view, it is seen as imperative that all childbearing people have access to sufficient selenium. Selenium is essential for healthy spermatogenesis and for female reproductive health, as well as the brain formation of the fetus. In short, humanity is dependent on selenium for health—now and forever.

The world’s selenium resources are scarce and need to be carefully managed for future generations. Since both the human and livestock food chains are being fortified with this scarce resource, the manures from these sources are worth more then their weight in gold. The natural cycles of returning resources dictates that livestock manures need to be guided back into the soil for crop production. Human biosolids can be guided into fiber crops or forest production. Over time, livestock manures will fortify the soils with all of the micronutrients passing through their systems. Human manures passing through fiber crops can eventually be composted and recycled into crop production, returning selenium continually to the human micronutrient supply chain.

Waste not, want not.

Marjorie Harris, IOIA VO and concerned organophyte.

References:
Evans, I., Solberg, E. (1998). Minerals for Plants, Animals and Man, Agri-Fax Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development: agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex789/$file/531-3.pdf?OpenElement
Haug, A., et al. (2007). How to use the world’s scarce selenium resources efficiently to increase the selenium concentration in food, Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease: Dec 19: 209 – 228. DOI: 10.1080/08910600701698986
Jagoda, K. W., Power, R., Toborek, M. (2016). Biological activity of
selenium: Revisited, IUBMB Life – Review: Feb;68(2):97-105. DOI: 10.1002/iub.1466
Brown, K.M., Arthur, J.R. (2001). Selenium, Selenoproteins and human health: a review, Public Health Nutrition: Volume 4, Issue 2b pp. 593-599. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1079/PHN2001143
Harthill M., (2011). Review: Micronutrient Selenium Deficiency Influences Evolution of Some Viral Infectious Diseases, Biol Trace Elem Res. 143:1325–1336. DOI: doi.org/10.1007/s12011-011-8977-1
Zhang, J. et al. (2020). Association between regional selenium status and reported outcome of COVID-19 cases in China, Am J Clin Nutr. doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa095.
Carbert, M., (2020). Canadian researchers combat arsenic poisoning with Saskatchewan-grown lentils, The Globe and Mail: theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-canadian-researchers-combat-arsenic-poisoning-with-saskatchewan-grown/
Sears, M.E. (2013). Chelation: Harnessing and Enhancing Heavy Metal Detoxification—A Review, The Scientific World Journal. doi.org/10.1155/2013/219840

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Organic Stories: Covert Farms, Oliver, BC

in 2019/Climate Change/Crop Production/Fall 2019/Grow Organic/Land Stewardship/Organic Community/Organic Stories/Water Management
Covert Family Farm - Portrait proud family vintners in vineyard

Fighting Drought through Complex Ecosystems

By Emma Holmes

Irecently had the pleasure of visiting Covert Farms Family Estate in Oliver, where Gene Covert, a third-generation farmer, gave me a tour of his family’s 650 acre organic farm, vineyard, and winery. Gene’s grandpa George Covert bought the desert-like piece of land back in 1959, and although some laughed, thinking the land would not be suitable for agriculture, he, his son, and eventually grandson, Gene, have built the farm into a robust, flourishing, certified organic farm that embraces biodynamic, permaculture, and regenerative farming methods.

Gene studied ecosystem complexity as a Physical Geography student at UBC and has carried this learning through to his farming career, approaching it with a high level of curiosity for the natural world and experimentation. His wife, Shelly Covert, a holistic nutritionist, has been co-managing the family farm and in 2010 they were awarded the Outsanding Young Farmer Award BC/Yukon. Gene and Shelley are deeply connected to their land: “The relationships of our land are complex and most have yet to be discovered. As we learn more we find interest, intrigue, and humility.”

Like many places in BC, Oliver is expected to face increasing warmer and drier conditions. Already a drought prone desert, it is more important than ever to find ways to slow the water down, trap it at the surface, give it time to infiltrate, and store it in the soil.

The secret to storing more water lies in soil organic matter. Soil organic matter holds, on average, 10 times more water than its weight. A 1 percent increase in soil organic matter helps soil hold approximately 20,000 gallons more water per acre.1

The Covert’s guiding philosophy is that “only by creating and fostering complexity can we hope to grow food with complex and persistent flavours. Flavours are the ultimate expression of the mineralization brought about by healthy soil microbial ecosystems.” To increase the organic matter content of his sandy soil, Gene took inspiration from organic and regenerative farmers in other agricultural sectors and began experimenting with cover crop cocktails, reduced tillage, and integrating livestock into his system.

Cover crop cocktails. Credit: Covert Farms

Cover Crop Cocktails

Cover crop cocktails are mixtures of three or more cover crop species that allow producers to diversify the number of benefits and management goals they can meet using cover crops. Farmers like Gabe Brown are leading the way and driving the excitement around cover crop cocktails, and research is following suit, with universities starting research programs such as Penn’s State Cover Crop Cocktail for Organic Systems lab.2

To help him in meeting the right mix for his system, Gene uses the Smartmix calculator, made by farmers for farmers3. He has found that seven or more species affords the most drought tolerance. He uses a combination of warm and cool season grasses, lentils, and brassicas. Some of the species in his blend include guargum, a drought tolerant N-fixing bean, radish to break up soil at lower depths, and mustards as a cutworm control.

Gene plants Morton lentils right under the vine to fix N and suppress downy brome. This type of lentil was developed by Washington State University for fall planting in minimum tillage systems. Crop establishment is in the fall and early spring, which is when evapo-transpiration demand is minimal, thus improving water-use efficiency.

The diverse benefits of his cover crop include N fixation, increase in soil organic matter, weed control, pest control, and increased system resilience in a changing climate.

Gene Covert. Credit: Covert Farms

Low-Till

Frequent tillage can negatively impact soil organic matter levels and water-holding capacity. Regular tillage over a long-time period can have a severe negative impact on soil quality, structure, and biological health.

The challenge for organic systems is that tillage is often used for weed control, seedbed preparation, soil aeration, turning in cover crops, and incorporating soil amendment. Thus, new management strategies need to be adopted in place of tillage. Cover cropping, roller crimping, rotational grazing, mowing, mulching, steaming, flaming, and horticulture vinegars are cultural weed control practices that can be used in organic systems as an alternative to tillage. The most successful organic systems embrace and build on the complexity of their system, and utilize several solutions for best results.

Gene used to cultivate five to six times a year, mostly for weed control, but now cultivates just once a year to incorporate cover crop seeds under the vines. Instead of regular tilling to control weeds, he uses cover crops that will compete with weeds but that won’t devigorate the crop and that can be controlled through non-tillage management strategies like roller crimping and rotational grazing. For cover crop seeds between the rows, he uses a no-till seeder.

Intensive Rotational Grazing

Integrated grazing sheep or cattle in vineyards is not a new concept, but it became much less common since the rise in modern fertilizers. It has been increasingly gaining steam in recent years due to the myriad benefits it provides. The animals act as cover crop terminators, lawn mowers, and weed eaters while also improving the overall soil fertility and biological health4. The appropriate presence of animals increases soil organic matter, and some on-farm demonstration research out of Australia showed significant reductions in irrigation use, reduced reliance on machinery, fuels, and fertilizers, and increased soil organic matter.5

Incorporating livestock into a horticultural system adds a completely new management challenge and thus level of complexity. It comes with the risk of compaction and over grazing if not managed properly. The key is to move herds frequently, controlling their access to different sections and never letting them stay too long in one area. As well, the grazing window needs to be limited to after harvest and before bud-break to prevent damage to the cash crop

Grapevines and mountains. Credit: Covert Farms

Increased Resiliency

Since experimenting with and adopting these management practices, Gene has found his cost of inputs has dropped and he has noticed a significant increase in soil organic matter and reduced irrigation requirements. Based on his success so far, he has a goal of eventually dryland farming. No small feat on a sandy, gravelly, glacio-fluvial soil in a desert climate facing increasing droughty conditions!

On-Farm Demonstration Research

A farmer’s experience and observations are critical in problem solving and the development of new management practices. Increasing farmer-led on-farm research is fundamental to improving the resiliency of producers in the face of ongoing climate change impacts, such as drought and unpredictable precipitation.

Farmer-led on-farm research compliments and builds experience by allowing a farmer to use a small portion of their land to test and identify ways to better manage their resources in order to achieve any farming goal they have, including climate adaptation strategies such as increasing soil organic matter to reduce irrigation requirements. The beauty of on-farm demonstration research is that it is farmer directed, it can be carried out independently, and it uses the resources a typical farmer would have on hand.

If you’re inspired by an idea, or a practice you have seen used in another agricultural system and are interested in conducting your own field trials, I highly recommend the BC Forage Council Guide to On-Farm Demonstration Research: How to Plan, Prepare, and Conduct Your Own On-Farm Trials.6 It is an accessible guide that covers the foundations of planning and conducting research, allowing you to achieve the best results. While it was created for the forage industry, the guide covers the basics of research and is applicable to farmers in any sector.

My highest gratitude and praise for the farmers who are finding the overlaps at the edges of agricultural models, where one becomes another—and leading the way into the new fertile and diverse opportunities for sustainable food production in a changing climate.

Thank you to Gene Covert and Lisa Wambold for their knowledge, passion, and insights.

Emma Holmes has a BSc in Sustainable Agriculture and an MSc in Soil Science, both from UBC. She farmed on Orcas Island and Salt Spring Island and is now the Organics Industry Specialist at the BC Ministry of Agriculture. She can be reached at: Emma.Holmes@gov.bc.ca

References and Resources:

1. Bryant, Lara. Organic Matter Can Improve Your Soil’s Water Holding Capacity. nrdc.org/experts/lara-bryant/organic-matter-can-improve-your-soils-water-holding-capacity
2. agsci.psu.edu/organic/research-and-extension/cover-crop-cocktails/project-summary
3. greencoverseed.com
4. Niles, M.T., Garrett, R., and Walsh, D. (2018). Ecological and economic benefits of integrating sheep into viticulture production. Agronomy and Sustainable Development. 38(1). link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13593-017-0478-y
5. Mulville, Kelly. Holistic Approach to Vineyard Grazing. grazingvineyards.blogspot.com
6. BC Forage Council. (2017). A Guide to On-Farm Demonstration Research. Farmwest.com. farmwest.com/node/1623

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