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likening it to a bank account for crop production. “I talk to farmers who tell me they don’t test their soil,” he says. “I ask them, ‘How often do you check your bank account?’”
Soil health is a cool term, but soil tests will give farmers the real dirt. “It’s all about balance and
the proper nutrients,” says Dueck. “It doesn’t matter whether you get there by organic or conventional practices; when your soil is in balance the worms will be there.”
He says a farm’s real wealth is its soils.
“I hope there comes a time
when we value our land by what is in the soil,” says Dueck.
Interseeding project
The council’s field day was held at Bar WT Farms in Cherryville. Host Mike Witt welcomed 25 attendees to his property where they viewed four demonstrations. These included a plot
where Witt is working on a five-year project under the province’s Farm Adaptation Innovator Program looking at new corn production technologies, including interseeding with cover crops such as brassicas and rye, the effect of variable-rate planting and strip-tillage
Serena Black shows a millet crop to BC Forage Council president Garth Healey. TOM WALKER PHOTO
practices. BCFC executive director
Serena Black discussed trial plots she has developed for 12 annual forage cover crops including millet, Italian
ryegrass, fall rye, sorghum, teff, clovers and brassicas. Dueck led a discussion of
lab test results from an on-site alfalfa field and how soil conditions affected the crops.
Dave Ralph with the Invasive Species Council of BC brought samples of local invasive plants and discussed proper identification and management.
Armyworm warning
Producers need to be on the lookout for Western yellowstriped armyworm, Laura Code, regional agrologist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture, told BC Forage Council
members at their annual general meeting in Coldstream on August 9. “We need to hear about them to be able to help you,” she says. While ministry staff
are deploying traps to track adult moths, she says there’s a high risk of spreading the worms through shipments of fresh hay. “Don’t move hay from
an infected property for three weeks,” she urges. “The worms only feed on green plants and that will be sufficient time for them to starve in infected bales.”
This summer has seen
the worms infest farms in Spallumcheen, Vernon and Lumby. —Tom Walker
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • SEPTEMBER 2019
FUNDING FOR NEW POST-HARVEST SOIL TESTING REQUIREMENTS
The Environmental Farm Plan Program (EFP) is introducing a soil nutrient assessment at no cost to producers with a current EFP.
The assessment will be conducted by a planning advisor* who can take up to four basic** soil tests.
Contact your planning advisor or call ARDCorp at 1-866-522-3447.
*Subject to timing and availability **Basic soil tests include N, P, K, pH and EC levels.
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