Blake Vince says some of the most highly-valued help on his 1,200-acre Ontario, Canada, farm never show up on a payroll sheet.
They live under his boots.
“One day I went out with a shovel, flipped over a slice of soil about 12 inches by 12 inches, and I started counting earthworms,” Vince recalls. “I counted 40 in that one square.”
He quickly estimated how many earthworms likely live in one acre of his cropland: “Multiply that 40 by 43,560 [the square feet in one acre] and you get 1,742,400. That’s a hell of a lot of earthworms out there in my soil doing the work.”
For Vince, earthworms are more than a sign of good soil — they’re central characters in how he farms, evaluates risk and stays profitable. In a production system shaped by no-till, planting green and cover crops, he sees earthworms as the quiet workforce that’s helping hold the whole thing together, he recently told farmers attending the 2026 Soil Health Conference in Aberdeen, S.D.
From Traditional Tillage To Tiny Tillers
Vince grew up believing that aggressive tillage comes at a cost. The renowned fifth-generation farmer from Merlin — a 750-person farming community in southwest Ontario — is considered a conservation farming pioneer in the region, having used no-till for over 40 years to protect soil structure.
“(I learned early) that tillage was eroding our largest capital investment, our soil. Soil is not an infinite resource. I can’t stress that enough,” he says.
Blake’s father and his brothers started to no-till in 1983 when he was just 11 years old.
“Our motive for what we do on our farm first and foremost is to remain financially viable,” he says. “And then what’s important is the fact that we’re protecting the environment.”
Those two goals continue today on the farm, which he operates with his father, Elwin. Together, they grow commercial corn, soybeans and winter wheat, and cover crop for seed on approximately 1,200 acres.
The father-son team seeds cash crops directly into living covers such as cereal rye to suppress weeds, protect soil and extend the period of living roots. Vince says they use planting green to cut passes, reduce herbicide pressure and boost resilience in dry spells, evaluating the benefits by agronomics and economics, not appearances.
Even with its proximity to the Great Lakes (see image below), the farm’s heavy Brookston clay operates within a moisture-strapped, 16-inch rainfall zone. In such an environment, soil disturbance is critical.
Vince categorizes soils as either “defensive” or “offensive.” On offensive soils, he believes aggressive tillage can continue for years with little visible impact.
“You can till it with the most aggressive tillage passes, and you can still grow a crop… So the decline is gradual,” he contends, noting he believes much of the upper Midwest has offensive soils.
His own ground is the opposite, and he refers to his soils as being defensive. As a result, the wrong tillage pass at the wrong moisture level could smear the soil profile, seal off pores and restrict roots just when crops need water the most.
“We can’t go down into the depth of the soil to bring up the much-needed moisture during that critical period of year when it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside and the corn is trying to pollinate,” Vince says.
Betting On Biology Instead Of Iron
When Vince talks about earthworms, he sounds like a businessman who’s discovered an overlooked, underpaid labor force.
“When an earthworm poops, it’s pH neutral,” he says. “So it’s bringing all of those nutrients from depth, turning organic material — last year’s crop residue — into plant-available nutrients for subsequent crops that we grow.”
In other words: free nutrient cycling, free aggregation, free tillage.
A moment that cemented Vince’s faith in earthworms started with a disagreement. His independent agronomist, looking at soil test results, told him he needed to apply lime. Vince didn’t dispute that. The sticking point was how to use it.
“She suggested to me, ‘Blake, you need to add lime, which I agreed, but in order to use that lime and make it most effective, you need to till it in,’” he recalls. “And I said, ‘No. That’s where the buck stops. I am not interested in doing tillage. It costs time, it costs energy, it costs money — diesel fuel, depreciation, as we all know.’”
Vince’s answer sounded simple, almost unbelievable, even naive.
“I’ve got so many earthworms, they’ll do the work for me,” he told her.
Later, while installing tile drainage, he found the proof he’d been looking for. At the top of an earthworm midden — a vertical burrow —he saw a dusting of white on the soil surface.
“So folks, this is an earthworm midden,” he told the audience as he showed the image (see below). “You can see at the top of the picture, that’s lime that’s been broadcast on the surface. That earthworm has crawled to the surface. It’s got its body coated in lime that we’ve spread just on the surface, and now it’s bringing it down in its middens, down in its vertical burrows.”
For most farmers, incorporating lime means fuel, wear on steel and the risk of compaction or smearing. For Vince, it meant waiting on the night shift.
“If we think back to that picture where I was standing there with those earthworm casts, how much horsepower would be required to do tillage at that depth?” he asked the audience. “More than I have.”
In his view, every pass he doesn’t make is one more way he can reduce costs and protect his bottom line.
The contributions of earthworms to global food development have been assessed by the National Institutes of Health. The agency reports earthworms contribute to roughly 6.5% of global grain (maize, rice, wheat, barley) production and 2.3% of legume production, equivalent to over 140 million metric tons annually.
The Unseen Economics Underfoot
Behind Vince’s enthusiasm for earthworms and farming green lies a hard-edged focus on economics. From a brief stint in financial services, he brought one non-negotiable rule home to the farm: pay yourself first.
“The number one rule of financial planning is what? Pay yourself first,” he says. “With that mentality, I started thinking: how do I do that here? I don’t control the price of seed, chemicals, fertilizer, diesel, or machinery. But I can control how I manage my soil.”
One of his major “pay yourself first” decisions a decade ago was switching to 100% non-GMO soybeans. Growing them allows him to brown bag his own seed without worrying about patent infringement, all while securing a market premium.
“I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now,” he says. “Mathematically, I figure I’m well over a million dollars ahead in net profit, simply because of my willingness to think differently.”
That thinking applies to earthworms, too. To Vince, every earthworm burrow is a tiny cost-saving device. Every casting is a granule of fertilizer he doesn’t have to buy or risk losing to runoff. Every year he skips deep tillage is a year he avoids burning diesel and breaking shear bolts.
“Doing nothing, in all actuality, is doing something,” he told the audience. By “nothing,” he doesn’t mean neglect; he means resisting the urge to disturb the natural infrastructure the worms are building for him.
More Than A Soil Test Number
Vince doesn’t romanticize his soils. He’s pragmatic, often blunt, about what’s at stake when farmers ignore the biology just beneath the surface.
“We abuse our land because we regard it as a commodity,” he says, quoting conservationist Aldo Leopold. Then he adds his own twist. “‘Dirt’ is a four-letter word I wish everybody in agriculture would remove from their vocabulary… It’s soil. It’s a collection of living, breathing organisms, and we need to treat it with respect.”
On his farm, that respect looks like cover crops to keep the soil armored, no-till to protect structure and planting green to keep living roots feeding the underground food web as long as possible. Earthworms are both beneficiaries and drivers of that system.
“My main focus is preparing our transfer of our farm to the next generation, regardless if they’re our kids, or they’re somebody else’s kids,” Vince says. “I want [the farm] to be as productive as possible, so they can be a success.”
As long as he keeps the soils covered and the roots living, he knows his million-man workforce underground will be clocking in for their shift every single day, helping the farm thrive.
Listen to Vince’s keynote presentation during the 2026 Soil Health Conference here.
