Farmers Helping Farmers

The road to regeneration with NSW farm manager and Sober in the Country Bush Tribe Member Matt Tonkin looks at how important it is for farmers to be profitable, not only in the financial sense but also from personal and landscape perspectives.

When Matt's life on the land hit rock bottom he realised he needed to make big changes. Instead of a farming system that relied on chemicals and synthetic inputs he chose to start thinking about one that promoted life, took a more natural approach and had the long-term health of the ecosystem at its heart.

His decision to explore regenerative farming systems also provided a life-altering jolt on how he was managing his own health and wellbeing.

Farmers Helping Farmers guest host Michael Gooden walked around the paddocks of the farm Matt manages in the NSW Riverina district before catching up for this deeply personal conversation. They cover a lot of different topics, including how easy it is for farmers to get so wrapped up their financial health that they lose their own health along the way.

Matt was a special guest speaker at VicNoTill's 2023 annual conference, Tran$ition23.

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Join our host Dan Fox in Part 2 of an indepth conversation with Phil Peterson about rebuilding soil carbon on farms.

Dan has talked numerous times with Phil in the paddock, and wanted to capture some of these conversations in a podcast. He spoke to him earlier in the year but still had so many questions that he has recorded a follow up.

If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we suggest you go back to Episode 6 of Farmers Helping Farmers first.  In Part 2 Phil discusses the importance of sap tests for identifying your risk to plant disease, how to rebuild your soil structure, the importance of context when you’re making farming system changes, and what some of Loam Bio’s paddock trials of simplifying the seed dressing process are finding.

Phil has been at the grassroots of agriculture for many years, asking questions about the environment and how farmers can improve both the yield and quality of the crops and pastures they grow.

This has led to a role with Loam Bio, which researches how farmers can build more carbon in their soils and improve their bottom line.

The worms at NutriSoil are treated like royalty, because they are the key to sustainability, healthy soils, plant, human and planet health.

Nakala Maddock is the chief executive officer of the Baranduda-based business and is helping Nutrisoil take worm farming to all new heights. Nakala, also the host of the Biological Farming Roundtable Podcast, stepped out from behind the hosting microphone for this interview withDan Fox during VicNoTill's annual conference in July 2023.

A farm chemical accident for Graham Maddock in the mid-1980s triggered a rethink of chemical and fertiliser applications and set in motion the establishment of Nutrisoil.

In this Farmers Helping Farmers podcast episode, Nakala gives a wonderful insight into the Maddock family's lifelong journey to learn how plants and soil function naturally, and how they're developing their biological stimulant products. This episode is proudly brought to you by Nutrisoil.

Our host Dan Fox catches up with Col Bowey from CB Farming Systems, who was one of the guest speakers at VicNoTill's 2023 conference. Col also led a soil pit discussion and spent the week visiting NSW farms.

Col says success in farming always comes down to having a good ‘farming system’ in place. In 2008 he founded CB Farming Systems and dedicated himself to learning as much as he could from soil scientists and other farmers. He helps farmers build systems that understand healthy soils are at the heart of farm and ecosystem health, while also understanding they need to be productive and profitable.

Col’s interest and drive to know more and understand more about the links between soil health, landscape and personal health has introduced him to some of the most successful farmers in the country.

This episode is proudly brought to you by VicNoTill sponsors:

UK arable farmer of the year and Green Farm Collective founding member Tim Parton spent a week in Australia as part of VicNoTill's annual conference TRAN$ITION23. As well as inspiring over 100 farmers in the conference room, Tim hung out in soil pits and dug into soils with a shovel to gain a deeper understanding of regenerative farming systems in the Australian context. Dan Fox sat down in the podcast studio with Tim to discover what new ideas his visit had sparked. VicNoTill was also keen to find out how Tim is changing the narrative about farmers being the heroes when it comes to sequestering carbon and feeding the world.

In this episode of Farmers Helping Farmers our host Dan Fox catches up with vice president Tom Briggs. As a third generation farmer in Victoria, Australia, Tom was never a big fan of school; especially the reading and research assignments that were required. But since discovering the practice of regenerative agriculture there isn’t enough reading, research reports and information available to consume.

Tom has been known to say on many occasions, “I eat, sleep, breathe this stuff and consume every bit I can get.”

Tom is candid in this conversation about the things that have gone right and the things that have gone wrong as he's worked with his father to introduce new ideas into their mixed broadacre cropping and livestock system. They take a positive and open-minded approach to challenges so they can keep moving towards the goal of better soil health and better farming.

In this episode of Farmers Helping Farmers our host Dan Fox catches up with Phil Peterson who is passionate about rebuilding soil carbon on farms. In the many conversations Dan has had with Phil in the paddock, this passion has come through clearly, and Dan thought it was about time he captured some of these conversations in a podcast episode. Phil has been at the grassroots of agriculture for many years, asking questions about the environment and how farmers can improve both the yield and quality of the crops and pastures they grow. This has led to a role with Loam Bio, which researches how farmers can build more carbon in their soils and improve their bottom line. Phil’s advice to farmers is don’t be too proud to learn something new. Read, listen, observe. And learn and try something new every day. He says we need to think outside the paradigm as often as we can and be open minded, which all of us at VicNoTill thinks is very sound advice.

In 2016 a VicNoTill story with Ardmona irrigation farmer Fraser Pogue’s began with: ‘The pages in books might be black and white but farming certainly isn’t.’ The analogy drew on Fraser’s ever-increasing book collection on soil biology and his pursuit of a new way of farming that was outside the norm, and definitely not black and white.

Fraser and his wife Leanne are always looking outside the square and among the innovations they are pursuing are organic farming and value-adding under the name 'The Good Dirt'. In spring 2020 the Pogue farming story moved from the pages of books to the silver screen and a chance appearance on the documentary ‘2040’ from award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) opened a Pandora’s box of new questions and reignited Fraser’s inquiring mind and passion for sharing what he’s learnt to help others.

“We always talk about wanting to have healthy soils but we need to talk more about why we want healthy soils. Originally I was attracted to soil health as a means to increase yields and profits when I could see that conventional farming methods weren’t delivering. Now I understand the ‘bigger picture’ advantages of creating healthier yields, healthier food and healthier catchments.

"We’ve gone through all the different names to describe the way we farm, but our hearts have always been in the same place - to be 'good farmers'. Be good to the environment, be good to other people and be good to the bank balance of course." Don’t forget to tell your friends about our podcast and if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review. The more people who join the conversation, the more we learn from each other. Subscribe to Farmers Helping Farmers on your favourite podcast app and connect with VicNoTill by becoming a member or following us on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.

LINKS

One of the world’s most respected leaders in soil health, carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture Dr Terry McCosker struggled terribly in primary and high school, before discovering he 'learnt by doing'. Since then he has never stopped learning or doing, and is one of the masterminds behind farmers getting paid for improved land management practices and building their soil carbon. After 20 years of lobbying for monetising soil carbon increases, Terry’s focus has now turned to farmers getting paid for their ‘natural capital’. In this episode he provides a valuable insight into the dos and don’ts of setting up a carbon project, and how the model of ‘farmers helping farmers’ is the key to a better future for our landscape and our people.

Over the past decade, Field Systems Australia founderMichael Eyres and Soil Science Australia vice president Edward Scott have stood in around 7000 soil pits around the world. They focus on soil performance in managed agricultural landscapes, and help farmers identify the most limiting factors affecting production. From that starting point they generate soil management strategies that result in profitable outcomes. In this episode they cover precision agriculture, building carbon in broadacre cropping systems and a whole lot more. One of the big take home messages for farmers is to have confidence in the changes you’re making but be patient. Sometimes it takes a few years to see the impacts of the change.

Don’t forget to tell your friends about the Farmers Helping Farmers podcast and if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review. The more people who join the conversation, the more we learn from each other.Subscribe to Farmers Helping Farmers on your favourite podcast app and connect with VicNoTill by becoming a member and following us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Internationally renowned nutritionist and farmer Graeme Sait is a wealth of information. 

After a tragic family accident, he has dedicated the past 28 years of his life to sharing all that he knows and all that he has learnt about improving plant and human health. VicNoTill is honoured to sit down with Graeme in this episode where he encourages farmers to take small steps towards change and they will reap the rewards, both financially and personally.

You can find out more about Graeme on our website – he knows so much about growing nutritious food and we’ve only crammed in a tiny portion of what he knows into this conversation! 

Don’t forget to tell your friends about the Farmers Helping Farmers podcast and if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review. The more people who join the conversation, the more we learn from each other. 

Subscribe to Farmers Helping Farmers on your favourite podcast app and connect with VicNoTill by becoming a member and following us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

When sixth generation farmer Grant Sims reintroduced stock into his no-till cropping system, he discovered a whole new world living underneath his soils. Grant’s excitement and passion for a new approach to how farmers feed the world is contagious, as podcast host Dan Fox discovers in the very first episode of Farmers Helping Farmers - soil health, soil function and grassroots agriculture.

Sixth generation mixed farmer Grant Sims is also the founder of DownUnder Covers. You can find out more about Grant at the VicNoTill website – he’s a wealth of knowledge and we’ve only just scratched the surface! 

Don’t forget to tell your friends about the Farmers Helping Farmers podcast and if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review. The more people who join the conversation, the more we learn from each other. Subscribe to Farmers Helping Farmers on your favourite podcast app and connect with VicNoTill by becoming a member and following us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.