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31ST JULY TO 5TH AUGUST 2022

The World Congress of Soil Science 2022 (WCSS 22) is a leading international soil science conference, held every four
years in different countries and attended by over 3,000 soil scientists from around the globe. The next Congress is
being organised by the British Society of Soil Science on behalf of the International Union of Soil Sciences.

The Congress theme, ‘Soil Science – crossing boundaries, changing society’ will focus on the link between soil and
society, with sessions covering soil systems, soil processes, soil management and how we interact with and use soils
around the world. There will be opportunities for specialist workshops and discussion sessions across a wide range of
soil disciplines. The core programme is supported by tours and a cultural and arts programme for delegates and the
wider public to explore our diverse environment and culture.

Where & when is it?

The Congress will take place at the award winning and world-class Scottish Event Campus, a riverside venue minutes from central Glasgow in Scotland, UK. The Congress will take place between 31 July and 5 August 2022, flanked by an exciting menu of soil science activities such as the soil tours, soil judging programme and outreach activities under the banner of Our Living Soil.

Who should attend?

The congress is open to anyone who has an interest in the sustainable use of soils, particularly research scientists, regulators and NGOs. There will be a specific policymakers’ programme on Tuesday 2 August 2022 to discuss how scientific research can inform environmental policy.

Speakers

The exciting programme includes the full list of plenary, divisional and interdivisional sessions and the agreed keynote and oral presenters for all sessions. Plenary speakers at the event will include Dr Ranveer Chandra, CTO AgriFood, Microsoft, USA; Prof. Suzi Huff Theodoro, Professor of Soil Geology, Pesquisadora Universidade de Brasilia; Prof Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist, UN FAO and Dr Debra Roberts, CoChair of Working Group II of the IPCC, Durban, South Africa.

If you haven’t already booked, don’t miss out on the opportunity to attend the major soil science conference of the last four years. To book your full congress ticket or one-day delegate pass, please visit www.22wcss.org.

Why should i attend?

At a time of global concern for our planet and its growing population, managing our soils sustainably has never been as important. 90% of our food comes from soil, as does all of our timber and other fibre. Soil, and the ecosystems it supports, have a huge role in mitigating against climate change, is a vast reservoir of biodiversity, plays a significant role in flood management and contains key evidence of past civilisations. Our understanding of the importance of these functions is developing rapidly and the Congress provides the ideal setting to discover the international state of the art in these critical global issues and an opportunity to connect across all who work with and rely on soils.

#GROUNDED

SOIL RESTORATION

Our supporters Lizzie Daly and Riverford Organics recognise the need for effective action and that the protection and restoration of soils must be a global priority. At a policy level, the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) supports the Global Soil Partnership, led by the UN and we will be leading the call for collective change at COP 26 and the World Congress of Soil Science 2022. It is estimated that there are 1,500 gigatonnes of carbon in the world’s soil; three times more than in all vegetation and forests. Deforestation, global warming and poor farming practices can lead to the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere, and in turn speed up the climate warming process.

Our Science Note: Soil Carbon, sets out why soil carbon is so important and outlines our recommendations for governments.

Healthy soil supports biodiversity: biodiverse soils can host millions of organisms in each teaspoon. Sustaining life in soil is essential to ensure soil health, which supports our ability to grow food and farm effectively. When managed well, soil can store significant amounts of rainfall, preventing flooding and stop soil washing away, which can affect the health and safety of communities.

Written by Dave Ablett.

I started direct drilling in 1965, and for 21 years was at the front end of spreading the word. I started on machine design and manufacture and was responsible for the first commercially produced and sold seeding machines in the UK in 1967 and in Brazil in 1973. In those early days direct drilling was mainly promoted by the desire of chemical companies to promote sales of herbicides. I was employed by ICI ( under its various names!) and all my design and development work was given to machinery manufacturers free of charge. In those early days considerable problems were encountered because of the lack of follow up herbicides. My main design and development work was done in co-operation with Howard Rotavator Company in the UK and their Brazilian associate company FNI. In those early days the size of a seeding machine was restricted due to the size and hydraulic capacity of tractors.

The first direct drill I was involved with was the “Fernhurst coulter system” on a Massey standard seed drill. It proved to be an efficient rake when working where there was surface trash.

As a result of these trash problems it was thought that a powered slot cutting system would cope better with any crop residues. The first “Rotaseeder” had normal rotavator blades and moved all the soil. In reality the seed only needed to be introduced into the soil with the least soil disturbance possible so the blades were cut down to provide a narrow slot. Moving from complete width rotavating to narrow slot cultivation with coulters placing seed into the slot was a major step forward in maintaining crop residues on the soil surface. The Rotaseeder was mainly intended for grassland renewal, kale seeding and cereals.

Development field work was carried out throughout Europe. A major demonstration tour through France, Germany, Spain, Holland and Denmark was done in 1966 to get farmer opinion on system.

The final design was launched to the press in 1967 on a farm in Essex. Because of my involvement in design and development Howard Rotavator Company asked me to operate the machine for the launch..

In 1967 the main problem faced by the Rotaseeder was that cutting blade wear was too severe when seeding stony or sandy soils. Also rate of work was slow compared to conventional cultivation seeding machines. Not needing to plough or carry out further tillage operations were not taken in to account when farmers were under pressure to get the seed in the soil. The Fernhurst coulter and triple disc systems left open slots which were an ideal habitat for slugs. The Rotaseeder did not suffer slug problems to the same extent. As a small side diversion I encouraged Howard Rotavator Company to build a trailed machine capable of putting fertiliser on with the seed. It had to be a trailed machine because tractor three point linkage was not strong enough too lift a double hopper machine. I did a little work with it but Howard’s development engineers were too busy involved in big balers and rotary muck spreaders.

Rotaseeders were produced by both Howard Rotavator Company and WMF, their main use in later years was for grassland renewal. Indeed until a few years ago a machine was being used in Wales to stitch in grass seed after a silage cut. No herbicides needed! Kale was a popular crop with dairy farmers but they had serious poaching problems when grazing a conventionally seeded crop. I designed and developed a simple “kale coulter” to put seed into a simple slot with minimum soil disturbance thereby maintaining a firm surface when grazing. The slot producing coulter was a modified injection tine with a simple brush feed seed mechanism. I went on secondment to Brazil and my successors in the UK got Gibbs of Ripley to make a complete simple machine available. A new team of engineers were taken on by the Machinery Section to work on direct drilling coulter systems and and I moved on to design and development of specialised spray attachments to apply Gramoxone for weed control along the row of plants in orchards and vineyards mainly in Eastern Europe..

In February 1972 I was seconded to Brazil, mainly to develop sprayers for weed control in coffee and citrus. I was also heavily involved in the Direct Drilling campaign. Mid August 1972 I was asked to visit a farmer in Parana State to advise on direct drilling soya beans. The farmer had visited me at ICI when he was on a visit to family in Germany. On his farm in Parana he had made a copy of the first prototype UK Rotaseeder. He was using full size rotavator blades cultivating the whole area.

Parana and the other two southern states of Brazil are hilly and all planting was done following contours. Double cropping of wheat followed by soya beans was the standard farming practice. Also heavy rains at soya planting time – late August onwards – gave serious problems of soil erosion. This washed the standard incorporated herbicide down hill and into the water systems and rivers. The terra roxa soil had no stones and made soil moving seeding machines less prone to wear. 

I immediately went to FNI ( Fabrica Nacional de Implementos) who were Howard Rotavator Company in Brazil and suggested we should make a mounted direct drill capable of seeding both soya beans and wheat for use on contour farming system areas of southern Brazil. ICI were in the process of setting up two development teams to promote direct drilling. One based in Parana and the other in Rio Grande do Sul with the principle aim of promoting herbicide sales. They had initially planned to use direct drills imported from the UK but my provision of locally made Rotacaster’s solved their seeding problems.

My design of a new coulter system was rapidly taken up by FNI. Because disturbed soil could dry out the coulter placed the seed at the bottom of the narrow slot and a following press wheel gave excellent seed to moist soil contact. Tractors were getting bigger but still good manoeuvrability in the contoured fields was imperative. This seed placement system consistently gave the best germination performance when compared with others including conventional methods. Direct drilling was called “Plantio Direto” in Brazil and I had helped the Parana development team make an audio visual of the system.

The FNI Rotacaster was launched at the 1973 Sao Paulo state fair. I believe some 80 to 100 machines were made and sold during the few years it was in production. ( Unfortunately FNI followed its parent Howard Rotavator Company into liquidation).

ICI UK had sent a triple disc coulter equipped machine to the team in Parana. It could not cope with soya bean seeds. The double discs both crushed and broke the seed skin and also gave erratic seeding depths. Often on the surface of the slot. I designed an improved “kale coulter” so that the team could use the seeder as a test unit for herbicide application systems. Also Jaime Ozi, president of FNI, had imported a Bettinson triple disc machine with a view to manufacture in Brazil. This had the same problems when seeding soya beans so I made a similar “kale coulter” design for him. My coulter design was to replace the triple disc. The depth wheel which was adjustable to control depth of slot also gave good seed to soil contact to optimise moisture availability.

Other planting machine manufacturers were only half heartedly interested in direct drilling.

in the southern states because their machines were planters and not suitable for wheat seeding. Main problem stopping uptake of direct drilling during the early/mid seventies was the lack of over the top herbicides to aid weed control during the growth of the soya before a canopy could be formed. If there was poor wheat stubble cover then a few weeks after seeding weeds could take over! I designed many tractor mounted machines with a view to applying herbicide along the row. None were produced because a fortunate development, coinciding with my return to UK, was the availability of selective herbicides.

Back in the UK with Alan Bloomfields team from 1976 – machinery technical service and visitors, and specialised Gramoxone application equipment including demonstrations of my citrus machine mounted on a Landrover in north Africa. I was sent on secondment to Argentina in 1978 and moved from machinery design and development to herbicide systems management. Several suitable direct drilling planters were being made suitable for handling soya beans on the flat pampas. I set up a “specialist” team of distributor/ agronomists to promote “Siembra Direto” – local term for direct drilling. I also organised an Argentine conference on direct drilling held in Rosario and sponsored by Duperial the ICI local agents. I produced herbicide tank mix recommendations to improve weed control and an audio visual system for use by the distributors. I also gave a couple of thirty minute technical TV shows on Siembra Direto.

After Argentina I almost immediately went on secondment as Techno/ Commercial manager to Nigeria. Included electrodyn work in cowpeas in cooperation with IITA plant breeders and also writing the users operating handbook/leaflet. 

Back to minimal cultivation and maintaining surface crop residues I was sent to Canada in 1984 to put some sense in to chemical fallow. For years ICI had been promoting the use of a herbicide to control weeds during the fallow year of the Canadian prairie wheat producing system. It was clearly apparent that low wheat yields could not support high cost of herbicide so I finally killed the project. I did actively promote the system of minimal cultivations for winter wheat following the introduction of improved winter wheat varieties. This kept the stubble on top and prevented soil erosion by wind. In the prairies there are 400 kms of wind per day! Following on from Canada in 1975 I was seconded to ICI Americas and based in the mid west -Kentucky. Not involved in machine design, as there were many no till planters available for direct drilling. ICI contact herbicide Gramoxone had been sold by Chevron in the USA and it was being taken back in house by ICI Americas.

My project was to develop the best tank mixes recommendations and train the ICI Americas local staff in how the herbicides and systems work. I had development sites from St Louis , Missouri across to Delaware and down to Tennessee. Some six sites in all. In September 1986 I left ICI before completing the secondment and was headhunted to run the Cooper, Pegler sprayer company. In 1989 I took on a Hill farm in Wales and in the third year I was loosely involved in direct drilling! Having a suckler cow and sheep enterprise I was making silage. Perusing the local farming press I found a 4 metre Moore Uni drill for sale cheap. I bought it and a local engineer helped me cut it down to two and a half metre width which meant I could get down the narrow Welsh lanes and stitch grass seed into silage stubble for my neighbouring farmers. Stitching in and then applying slurry gave excellent establishment results.

Now retired and reminiscing I realise I was actively involved in Direct Drilling on and off for over 30 years and still maintain an active interest in Direct Drilling and |No-Til worldwide.

NB at a machinery exhibition in Rio Grande do Sul in 2007 the FNI Rotacaster was exhibited at the entrance to the show as the “PIONEER” of direct drilling in Brazil.

Originally Printed in Terra Horch – Issue 22-2021

Joe Wecker runs a 9,000-acres farm in Canada. He does not only work according to the principles of organic farming,
but also uses companion crops and inter-crops and improves soil health by applying plant auxiliaries. He talked to
terraHORSCH about his experiences.

Companion crops and inter-crops, auxiliaries, soil health and a varied rotation – these were the topics Joel Williams, an independent plant and soil health educator, wrote about in the last two issues of terraHORSCH. Joe Wecker, a farmer with German roots from Regina Plains in the southeast of the province Saskatchewan, Canada, uses these principles in practice. The family farm which he runs together with his father and two permanent employees is situated between Winnipeg and Calgary just over 100 km north of the US American border. The region is extremely flat, there are no windbreaks. The average annual rainfall amounts to 380 mm, though in the past four years there was significantly less rain – a total of 50 mm per year. However, this season it finally rained some more. Winters in Regina Plains are very cold, the summers are warm.

Wecker Farms are located on a main road. On the one side there are two residential buildings as well as the farm buildings including an impressive silo installation with drying and cleaning. More about why the latter is important later. Only some metres away on the other side of the road are further silos. The farm and the inventory are very well kept. Tractors and combines mainly are from John Deere. The farm uses a 9560 RT, a 8370 RT, a 6215 R as well as a Fendt 1050 Vario, two combines with 14m cutter bar and two swathers with 12 m working width. They sow with an 18m machine with liquid fertiliser system. Moreover, they use a fine cultivator for tillage in spring, harrows and hoes as well as a roller-type harrow. The harvest is transported from the combine with an auger wagon and from the field boundaries with three trailer trucks.

They farm more than 3,500 ha, 2,500 organically, the remainder is in transition to organic farming. “But everything is farmed in a nutritional farming system“, Joe Wecker says. This is why the farmer considers his machine park to be rather large. In his opinion, nutritional farming on the one hand means diversity of crops, cover crops, inter-crops and green manure. Moreover, he relies on the specific use of plant auxiliaries. He grows: durum, HRS wheat, oats, flax, alfalfa seed, khorasan wheat, spelt, emmer, peas, lentils and chickpeas. He flexibly uses different companion crops depending on the rotation. For example: cereals/cereals-clover, cereals-alfalfa, chickpeas-flax, peamustard, pea-oats or barley, lentiloats, lentil-brassica as well as brassicapea-clover.

Less risk

But why does he do this? “Intercropping, i.e. the cultivation of companion crops and inter-crops, means more bio diversity”, the farmer is convinced. “The result are very positive consequences for soil fertility, for beneficial insects, for the encouragement of mykorrhiza and for nutrient exchange – this is particularly apparent for peas as a companion crop, as well as for a synergistic growth. There is no competition, less fertility inputs are needed. There are higher residues for ground cover, less weeds and harvest residues decompose faster. And: risk reduction, especially in very dry years.

My experiences for example with oats in combination with peas were very good. Their root structure and its function, too, are completely different. There are different pH values in the different areas and nutrients, too, are released differently. If you dig up the plants, you can perfectly see the rhizobia that fix the nitrogen. Another example is the combination of brassica and maple peas. We grow them together because the peas often get lodged before the harvest. But the brassica supports them so there are hardly any problems when threshing. It works excellently. For maple peas really are rather difficult to grow. Thus, we get a high price for them, and brassica is a great help“, the farmer explains.

For organic flax with chickpeas. “We cultivated these crops two years in a row”, Joe Wecker says. “Normally chickpeas have to be treated with fungicides five to six times. But being a certified organic farm that’s no option for us. With the combination we had the experience that we don’t need any fungicides at all. There are some processes, probably in the soil, which make them unnecessary. You can clearly see it.

Another combination we like to use is organic Eurasian wheat with clover as an under sown crop. I attach major importance to one thing: For me, intercropping does not only mean to grow mixed crops where both partners are used. In my opinion, it also includes companion crops where only one crop from the combination is harvested. I like to use this for cereals, for example for oats and peas. This actually is one of my most favourite combinations. It is always striking how healthy the leaves are. Another example is oats with marrowfat peas. The latter poses quite some challenges for the farmer. In combination with oats it is much easier. Especially the weed pressure is lower.“

Positive effects

Joe Wecker describes another possibility: HRS with alfalfa as an under sown crop. Especially when producing alfalfa seed there again and again are volunteer plants in the following years. Although, in this case, he specifically uses them as a companion crop, he has to see to it that the alfalfa share does not get too high. The cereals then have a better chance to pass the alfalfa. The positive effect Joe Wecker noticed are 1.5 to 2 % more protein in the wheat. And all that without any yield losses. Using an underseed with alfalfa, thus, is ideal if you want to achieve an increased protein content for wheat. According to his experience, brassica with maple peas also work very well together. Threshing can be carried out without any problems by simply changing a few settings at the machine.

According to Joe Wecker you immediately see the effects of intercropping. Right in the first year he did no longer have to use any fungicides for the combinations flaxchickpeas and flax lentils. With regard to soil health, it takes a little longer. Over a period of three years, step by step we reduced the fertilising intensity and now the quantity is only half as high compared to the time he started. During this time the biological activity of the soil improved – with stable yields. The plants in total, benefit from not being filled up with nitrogen to such an extent. The pressure of fungi and animal pests decreases significantly.

Joe Wecker attaches great importance to soil and nutrient analysis. “I focus on the correlation of what is in the soil and what is in the plant”, he says. “Or rather what is in the soil and what is not in the plant.” For you cannot take it for granted that everything from the soil is available to the plant. You need an intact biological activity of the soil. This is why we do not only carry out soil analysis, but also tissue test of the plants. If we notice any peculiarities, we know that we have to do something for a good biological activity of the soil. In addition to our inter-crops and companion crops which also have a positive effect on it.

No matter if organic or conventional – we apply stimulants on all our fields to encourage the activity of the soil especially in the root area. It thus gets a boost so that the plant can dispose of some nutrients that so far have not been available.”

Regular analysis

At Wecker Farms, the tissue tests are carried out at least once a year. Joe Wecker compares them to the soil analysis and if he notices that nutrients are not available to the plant he spreads them. It usually is boron that is applied together with kelp and fulvic acid. It is not expensive. And it does not do any damage, Joe Wecker says. But he achieves this little boost for the soil activity.

But back to the soil and plant analysis. Joe Wecker describes the results of an analysis of the fields that are still farmed conventionally. “The crop is flax. I did not apply any phosphor. The analysis showed only half as much nitrogen as there actually should be. But I did not worry about that at all. And the population really develops excellently. Before our objective always was how to achieve the highest possible yield with a high effort. Today we do the opposite: we focus on how little effort is necessary to not lose yields. During the vegetation period we always have the refractometer at hand. We, thus, can find out very quickly on site how healthy the plants are. By means of the sugar content we notice if there are any shortcomings. If so, we immediately carry out a laboratory test to get exact data. If for example we apply boron, we mix in fulvic acid, kelp and a little bit of sugar. Sugar is good for beneficial organisms.“

You cannot take it for granted that everything from the soil is available to the plant. You need an intact biological activity of the soil.

Consequent action

The conversion of the farm to organic farming started five years ago. Asked about his reasons the farmer answers: “On the one hand, we ourselves have been eating organic food for quite some time. On the other hand, we noticed soil degradations on the farm. This is why we started to think about intercropping. We also questioned a lot and tried to detect correlations. You often do not notice small things until the problems get bigger. And then you start to think. With regard to the yields, the losses are really minimal compared to my neighbours. However, it depends on the crop. For barley and flax for example it is hardly noticeable, for wheat we talk about 10 to 15 %. In this case it is very important which variety you chose: Modern wheat only achieves good yields if the nutrient supply is optimum. Therefore, we prefer older varieties which usually are still on the market. If not there often are some remaining stocks. Barley in turn is less sensitive according to our experience.

But yields are not everything. I often discuss with the mills I supply directly. This is the reason why the cereals are thoroughly cleaned and dried. My customers often tell me: We love your cereals. Our bread tastes a lot better with it. As I already said before: In the future, our customers will no longer only pay for the quantity, but also for other things. For example chickpeas grown with zero fungicides.

I wanted to farm in a regenerativeorganic way for quite some time. My focus has always been on soil health and especially on what we can do to improve it. This is behind everything we do. For a healthy soil guarantees healthy plants. The same is true for insects. We attach major importance to that the fact that our fields provide a good living environment for bees and other beneficial organisms. In this respect, intercropping is ideal, for we automatically create areas where insects can thrive in an optimum way. And it”.last but not least, I am convinced that our customers expect more from us than just always going on like before. This will not only be an important reason for them to cooperate with us. They will also reward it”.