By Cathy Dibble, Thames Valley Regional Communication Coordinator
Long-time Elgin SCIA member and director, Andy Kieraszewicz, was recently featured in a Soil School episode on RealAgriculture.com. Andy farms 1,000 acres of former tobacco land near Rodney, Ontario. He’s had great success increasing organic matter and yields in his very sandy soils. Adding compost from a local mushroom operation for the last 10 years, particularly to highly eroded knolls, has resulted in corn yield increasing from between 90-150 bushels/acre to over 200 across the farm. Organic matter has increased from 1.1% to 2.6% in that time. During the Soil School episode Andy explains his approach and how his soil changed over the past decade, especially in the drought-prone areas. Andy says there are time and equipment costs to using compost to build organic matter, but the yield boost more than pays for the investment.
Andy and Laura Kieraszewicz and the 2022 Elgin SCIA summer tour.
In initial side-by-side trials, Andy was able to gain 60bu/ac with 11 tonnes of mushroom compost. The compost contains straw, chicken and horse manure, and many micronutrients. The mushroom compost delivers high levels of phosphate and potash, which contributes to the overall fertility of the soil, especially on the eroded knolls. After 10 years of trials, Andy finds about 8 tonnes/acre seems to be the sweet spot for his crops’ needs and this compost use has drastically reduced his need for commercial fertilizers. Relying on regular soil testing, Andy knows he has been able to reduce the farm’s lime requirements from 280 MT to 4 MT. He is also impressed with the increased water holding capacity of his land that comes as a result of raising its organic matter levels.
After Andy retired from 30 years of service as Deputy Chief and Chief of the West Elgin Fire Department, he found he had more time to dedicate to farming, and to his local Soil and Crop association. Andy has been an Elgin SCIA director for about 20 years. He is very active with the Elgin board, can be found at every local SCIA event, and rumour has it he puts in more plots than anyone in Elgin County!
Around the Elgin board, Andy is keen to participate with well-planned plots and always submits his trial data reliably. He often establishes field trials in conjunction with OMAFRA field crop specialists as well.
Andy joined the local association because “it sounded like the thing to do.” He feels that active Soil and Crop members are always ahead of the game with new ideas and technologies due to all the plots and side-by-side comparisons that are organized both locally and on a broader scale. He says that local directors are always at the forefront with new ideas, and it is always interesting to hear what others are doing on their farms. Andy enjoys the meetings, and being a director is not too time consuming or overtaxing. Annual meetings are always full of great information, with speakers on bigger picture project reports. For Andy, the networking, learning, and sharing of ideas are all benefits of being a member of his local SCIA.
It is always a pleasure getting to know our active OSCIA members who value the benefits of being part of the organization and are keen to test new ideas to improve Ontario agriculture.
