Soils & Pastures
Earthworms as
indication of soil health
Earthworm
farming
When most people hear about
earthworm farming, they immediately
think about making compost with
earthworms. In fact, making compost
with earthworms is about two
processes with two different goals in
mind. On the one hand one you could
compare earthworm farming with
cattle farming. This process is also
called vermiculture. You want to grow
your earthworm "herd" and maintain it
at a certain number. On the other
hand, the reason why you multiply
your earthworms is to get to a point
where the earthworms turn a specific
amount of waste into compost. When
you reach the desired point, the focus
shifts towards compost making,
processing and marketing, also known
as vermicomposting. Although the two
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goals (vermiculture and
vermi compost) have the same
results, i.e. in both instances you will
have both earthworms and compost
to sell to consumers. If you sell too
many earthworms in the initial
multiplying stage, it will take longer to
get to a point where you can say that
you have a commercial size
vermiculture and vermicomposting
business.
Although vermiculture and composting is a very rewarding
business to be in and vermicompost is
an amazing fertilizer and
vermicompost make plants grow so
much better, I realised that the way in
which I did vermiculture, it wasn't
sustainable. I had to pick up truck
loads of cow manure per day, drive it
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to my farm, take three months to turn
the manure into compost and then I
had to spread it in my orchards.
Although the manure was for free, the
whole process cost too much in
manpower and transport.
Once I realised this, I took a different
aproach. My focus shifted once again.
This time from earthworm farming to
farming with earthworms. In Teaming
with microbes by Lewis and Lowenfels I
read that soil that went through a
earthworms gut had 7 times more P, 10
times more K, 5 times more N, 3 times
more Mg, 1.5 times more Ca. The book
further showed that on one hectare of
healthy soils the resident earthworms
could create as much as 30 tons
vermicastings per year, Looking at the
vermiculture and –composting process
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