Russell Calder is certain worms helped save his life.
About 20 years ago, his health collapsed so badly that he temporarily lost the power of speech.
He believes his illness was caused by prolonged exposure to chemicals including insecticides and fungicides that, as a greenkeeper, he relied on heavily for manicuring ovals and bowling greens.
His health crisis forced him to revamp his life and discover the value and extraordinary role of worms.
“I recall there was not a single paragraph about an earthworm in three years of training [as a greenkeeper]but earthworms have been around a hell of a long time and they contribute so much to the soil,” Mr Calder said.
He planted an extensive garden, ate almost entirely from it, and learned to make rich compost by cultivating compost worms.
These days he’s back to full health and his thriving worm business at Nyah West, in Victoria’s north west, is set to double in size.
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Mr Calder produces and sells “worm tea” — essentially worm castings, or worm poo, in liquid form.
It’s becoming increasingly popular with farmers who are keen to move away from using synthetic chemicals or fertilizers.
They arrive and buy the “tea” in 1,000 liter containers, pumped from underground storage filled with worm juice leaching from rows of compost.
Not surprisingly, being worms, most of the action happens underground.
Soil microbiologist and plant pathologist Mary Cole said that was perhaps why only now modern science has a better understanding of their vital role in life on earth.
Over a 50-year career, Dr Cole had observed the presence and influence of these “microscopic super-shredders” in tens of thousands of soil samples.
“They break the material down so the bacteria and the fungi and the nematodes or those protozoa are able to take that organic matter and release the elements back into elemental form, which is plant available,” Dr Cole said.
“It’s Mother Nature’s perfect gift to plants. Mother Nature has been recycling nutrients from everything that once lived.”
Life without worms ‘a giant rubbish dump’
Dave “Davo” Davidson is a worm farmer and compost producer at Bloomfield in western Victoria.
“Without worms, I believe that the whole planet would just become a giant rubbish dump,” he said.
His foray into worms began with a quest to clean up piles of dung left by his trotting horses.
These days the Davidson family gets paid to deal with a range of organic and green waste, such as potato peelings from a local factory — much of it previously converted to landfill.
They also take organic material from Melbourne, a two-hour drive away.
“It’s also broken down woodchips from demolition, old wooden buildings that have seen their best days, so that’s chipped up and comes here,” Mr Davidson said.
The mixture is allowed to sit heaped in a corner of the farm for up to three years to let the worms and microbes and billions of micro-organisms do their work, breaking down pretty much everything — except plastic, which is easily screened from the finished castings.
Mr Davidson sells the castings in kits and sends them around Australia with instructions on how to reactivate the material into “worm juice”.
It is then sprayed on pastures and plants to promote worms and beneficial micro-organisms.
These days his farm, with its worm-enriched soils, stays green for longer, the animals are healthier and the land no longer needs a regular spray of “worm juice” because Mr Davidson said the soil was back in balance.
Growing popularity for worm juice
Mr Calder has never had to advertise his product, but increasingly broadacre farmers are attracted to this natural compound for boosting soil and plant health.
Initially, Swan Hill grain and cereal grower Ross Watson gave it a go because of the rising cost of chemicals.
Now he soaks his seeds in it at sowing time.
“I’m convinced that it’s giving more vigour to the plants and it makes me feel good because I’m not using chemicals that I don’t understand,” Mr Watson said.
Organic vegetable grower Adam Farley is another producer upping his application of worm juice, and this year plans to soak seedlings in it before transplanting.
He believed it re-balanced soil, regenerated it and, in doing so, allowed beneficial earthworms to flourish.
“I think every farmer strives for worms in the ground and it can be a pretty hard-up thing to say you’ve got them but we can put a shovel in the ground and find worms and they do the work for you,” Mr Farley said.
Why isn’t it more widely used?
Mr Calder said his worms were excellent workers.
“They work 24/7, they don’t ask for public holidays, RDOs, long service leave. Nothing. They’re great,” he said.
Dr Cole said more education was needed about the benefits of worms.
“Agricultural companies, agronomists, universities don’t teach soil microbiology in their agricultural courses, and there’s money in it, it’s economics,” he said.
“So you have agronomists coming out who have been raised in a chemical paradigm. You have chemical companies that will offer free agronomists if you stop using organic methods.
“It’s nothing to do with saving the planet. They don’t care. It’s money.”
Stories from farms and country towns across Australia, delivered each Friday.