In this episode we talk with Gabe Brown, a farmer and educator from North Dakota. Gabe and his family run Brown's Ranch, a 6, 000 acre operation that's become a model for regenerating land.
After years of tough seasons and crop failures, Gabe recognized a need to build a farming system that works with nature instead of against it. Through no till, cover crops, diverse rotations and integrating multi species livestock, he restored soil health, boosted resilience and almost eliminated the need for synthetic inputs. Gabe advocates for ‘profit over yield’ and says that farming with nature is the way to get there.
Beyond his own farm, Gabe's helped thousands of farmers transition to regenerative practices through his work with Understanding Ag, the Soil Health Academy, and his book Dirt to Soil. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Gabe Brown.
This episode was hosted by Eli Court and produced by the Grow Love Project.
Head to soilsforlife.org.au to find out more about our work, and if you like what you hear don’t forget to rate and review our podcast. Every review helps to make our podcast easier for others to find.
If you have feedback, or suggestions of people or topics we should cover, you can reach us at info@soilsforlife.org.au, we love hearing from you. Thanks for listening.
Mentioned in this episode:
Gabe’s book ‘Dirt to Soil’
Over the years we’ve heard from many farmers about creeks and rivers that are severely eroded, and landscapes that have lost their ability to absorb and store water. In big rain events water runs off and is gone in a matter of days or even hours. We’ve become accustomed to this, but what did those landscapes look and function like 100 years ago, or 200 years ago? Can farmers restore creeks and landscapes to their full potential, holding on to water for longer and utilising better?
This episode is a collaborative effort with our friends at Mulloon Institute as part of their Communities of Practice Project. In it, we chat with Charlie Maslin, an amazing land steward raising cattle and sheep on the Monaro in New South Wales.
Charlie took us on his journey of landscape repair, which began with a change in grazing practices to improve ground cover, and then moved on to focus on repairing his degraded waterways to rehydrate the landscape and support a thriving and productive agro-ecosystem.
We first visited Charlie’s farm in 2021 and the land was alive with water, grass, frogs, birds, insects and platypuses playing in the waterways. The effects of his steady, thoughtful changes to his management approach were crystal clear, and we’re delighted to share his story in this episode. Enjoy.
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This episode was hosted by Eli Court and produced by the Grow Love Project. The Communities of Practice Project is jointly funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, Mulloon Institute and Soils for Life.
Head to the Soils for Life website to find out more about our work, and if you like what you hear don’t forget to rate and review our podcast. Every review helps to make our podcast easier for others to find.
If you have feedback, or suggestions of people or topics we should cover, you can reach us at info@soilsforlife.org.au, we love hearing from you. Thanks for listening.
You can read our case study about Charlie Maslin’s farm soilsforlife.org.au/gunningrah-shifting-mindset-from-animals-to-the-land/
Find out more about the ‘Communities of Practice Project soilsforlife.org.au/landscape-rehydration/
Jill Clapperton is a farmer and applied rhizosphere ecologist. She grows crops with integrated livestock in Kansas in the U.S. and advises farmers the world over. Talking with Jill was eye opening and fun. We go big talking about gaia theory and the interconnectedness of all life on Earth. But we mostly dive deep into the fascinating ecological communities that plants create above and below the ground.
As Jill explains, plants are not passive. They are purposeful masters of their own fates, wielding chemical arsenals and mustering armies of microbes to secure their survival. And if we plant with purpose, we can harness the incredible power of plants to create farming systems that are productive, resilient and great for the soil and our health.
This episode was hosted by Eli Court, and produced by Soils for Life and the GrowLove project. Head to the Soils for Life website (www.soilsforlife.org.au) to find out more about our work.
If you like what you hear, don't forget to rate and review our podcast. Every review helps to make our podcast easier for others to find. If you have feedback or suggestions of people or topics we should cover, you can reach us at info@soilsforlife.org.au. We love hearing from you. Thanks for listening!
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Find out more about Jill Clapperton at www.rhizoterra.com/
Check out the Grounded Festival in Cygnet Tasmania on 4-5 December 2024 - details and tickets via groundedaustralia.com.au/.
Other people mentioned in this podcast:
- Felice Jacka OAM (foodandmoodcentre.com.au/team/felice-jacka/).
- Dan Kittredge (www.bionutrientinstitute.org/meetdan).
- An article on Lynn Margulis and James Lovelock, and their development of gaia theory (www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-06/james-lovelock-legacy-gaia-climate-science-lynn-margulis/101297574).
- Anna Krzywoszynska, the Finnish researcher at the University of Oulu whose name Jill didn’t dare try to pronounce (www.oulu.fi/en/researchers/anna-krzywoszynska).
- Grant Sims, Soils for Life case study farmer (www.downundercovers.com/about), who was recently featured in our Multispecies Cover Cropping Practice Guide (soilsforlife.org.au/practice-guide-multispecies-cropping/).
Taking the first steps into regenerative agriculture can be intimidating. In this episode of the Soils for Life podcast, Eli Court has a chat with Penny Goodwin from Goodies Farm in Kendenup, WA
Goodies Farm grows an incredible variety of crops, with minimal inputs, and is an integral part of the south west WA food system.
While things can look nice and shiny on the outside, Penny very generously shares the ups and downs of their journey to become better stewards of the land and the soil.
We hope you enjoy this episode!
Ever wondered about regenerative agriculture and the impacts it can have on farmers? Join us as we learn about real life experiences shared by seasoned farmers at the recent Soil Stewardship Summit near Yass, NSW. Over two enlightening days, participants explored the concept of regenerative agriculture, discussing key topics such as tapping into indigenous wisdom, enhancing drought resilience, transitioning from high production to natural methods, and prioritizing soil health for improved yields and healthier societies. The stories embody values of patience, gratitude, and deep respect for nature, offering valuable inspiration for those considering or embarking on the journey towards sustainable farming practices. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion that encapsulates the transformative power of regenerative agriculture and a return to natural processes.
Thank you to our guests featured in this episode:
Eli Court (Soils for Life)
Paul Girrawah House
Rhonda Daly
Colin Seis
Garry Kadwell
David Marsh
For more information:
Soils for Life - https://soilsforlife.org.au/
Paul Girrawah House - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-house-57055860/?originalSubdomain=au
Produced by Grow Love Project and originally aired on The Big Shift Podcast hosted by NSW Greater Sydney Local Land Services
The United Nations General Assembly recently voted 2026 as the International Year of the Rangelands and Pastoralists. An incredible 81 percent of Australia is considered rangelands, and despite the sometimes challenging conditions, the opportunities for landscape repair through agriculture are immense.
In this episode, we hear from three farmers who all grew up in the semi-arid rangelands with a deep connection to the environment and a desire to heal the land.
Jody Brown is a fourth generation farmer from Longreach in central west Queensland. The family farm Latrobe station is certified organic running cattle, goats, and a couple of horses on around 45,000 acres.
Alejandro Carillo owns Las Damas ranch in Chihuahua Mexico, and has become well known around the world for using livestock to restore soils and landscapes in semi-arid environments.
And Glenn Landsberg owns a small farm in Southwest Queensland, and works as a natural resource management consultant with a focus on landscape rehydration.
Thank you to all of our guests for sharing their stories and wisdom.
You can follow Jody Brown on linkedin.com/in/jody-brown-93648932/ and find out more about Latrobe Station on facebook.com/people/Latrobe-Station/100063555377640/
Alejandro Carillo can be found online on instagram.com/lasdamascattleranch/ and linkedin.com/in/alejandro-carrillo-b3a7a7/ and you can read more about Las Damas ranch desertgrasslands.com
Glenn Landsberg can be found on linkedin.com/in/glenn-landsberg-758a02198/
Soils for Life CEO Eli Court recently attended the Regenerative Rangelands Conference at Jody’s station, and wrote about the experience and what he learned from Alejandro and the other speakers soilsforlife.org.au/inspiration-from-the-chihuahuan-desert/
A film has also been released about this conference and rangelands regeneration, which can be viewed youtube.com/watch?v=G5IuR4YAIJY
In the episode, Glenn mentions maps of what used to be the ‘native grain belt’. A representation of this map can be found on page 3 of https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/faculty-of-science/research/potential-native-grass-production.pdf from the University of Sydney.
Episode produced by growloveproject.com
In this episode we talk with Joel Williams about how growers can start weaning off costly chemical inputs, rules of thumb for seed treatments and foliar sprays, why he likes tweaks and incremental improvements, the growing scientific evidence behind regenerative farming practices and more!
Joel Williams is an independent plant and soil health educator based in Canada, working on soil management, plant nutrition and integrated approaches of sustainable food production. Joel is interested in designing farming systems that focus on managing soil biology along with crop and soil nutrition to optimise plant immunity and soil function.
At Soils for Life we’ve recently launched a major project focused on cropping systems, and we thought Joel would be the perfect person to talk about why and how growers are transitioning to a more regenerative, resilient approach to cropping.
Find out more about the project via soilsforlife.org.au/cropping-resilience/.
If you have any feedback or questions about this podcast, or suggestions of topics or people you’d like us to include in future episodes, please reach out on social media or via info@soilsforlife.org.au.
We’ve all heard the saying “You are what you eat”. But, as we'll hear in this episode, it really should go “You are what you eat, and the soil it grows in.”
Over half of our adult population are considered to be malnourished, and this is in part due to a decline in the nutrient density of our food. As the world's population grows and remaining arable land decreases, growing healthier, nutrient dense food might just be a part of the answer to improving human health outcomes.
In this episode we talk with two farmers and two researchers about the question: ‘Is soil the key to better human health?’.
What we find is a complex tangle of connections between soil, plants, animals, and humans that science is only just beginning to understand.
Thank to our wonderful guests
Matthew Evans - Farmer, chef and food writer and the author of ‘Soil: The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy”
Courtney Young - Co-owner at Woodstock Flour and project manager at Soils for Life
Robyn Alders - Honorary professor with the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University.
Dr Stephan van Vliet - Assistant professor of nutrition at the Center for Human Nutrition Studies at Utah State University He holds a PhD in Kinesiology and Community Health. Dr. van Vliet also holds a Masters in Nutrition Science.
Additional research links
Hosted by Susannah Kable from the @GrowLoveProject and James Diack from Soils for Life. This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with @SoilsforLife.
For more episodes of our podcast, head to soilsforlife.org.au/podcast
If you’re a long-time listener to this podcast, you’ll be used to our in-depth episodes co-hosted by Grow Love Project’s Susie Kable and Soils for Life’s James Diack. We’re continuing to make these episodes, but from time-to-time we’ll be bringing you shorter interviews with farmers doing interesting things to regenerate soils and landscapes. This is the first of these interviews, with actress-turned-farmer Rachel Ward and farm manager Mick Green.
Mick and Rachel jointly manage a farm in the Nambucca Valley on the NSW mid-north coast. As newbies to regenerative farming, they decided to make the most of Rachel’s lifetime of experience with film making to produce a documentary about their journey. That documentary - called Rachel’s Farm - is out now on limited release.
This is a broad ranging conversation about getting started in a new approach to farming, working as a team, learning from friends and neighbours, and dealing with pests and extreme weather. Most of all, I enjoyed hearing about Mick and Rachel’s incredibly humble and curious mindset - always questioning, never afraid to admit to a mistake and learn from it. I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation. And just a note, you’ll hear some references to ‘Normy’ in this podcast - Normy worked with Mick and Rachel during the early days of their journey, and was the ideas man and inspiration behind many of their shifts.
If you have any feedback or questions about this podcast, or suggestions of topics or people you’d like us to include in future episodes, please reach out on social media or via info@soilsforlife.org.au.
Thank you to Rachel Ward and Mick Green for sharing their story and their wisdom.
Hosted by Eli Court from Soils for Life. This podcast has been produced by Soils for Life, and edited by Michelle Watts.
#regenerativeagriculture #biodiversity #soilsforlife #podcast #farmingpodcast #samvincent
Building cropping resilience through diversity
In this episode we hear from croppers who are growing multispecies crops as a way of building soil health and improving diversity. We discover why and how these farmers are moving from growing monocultures to establishing polycultures.
Find out more about how croppers around Australia are regenerating soil and landscape health by reading Soils for Life’s new cropping case studies: soilsforlife.org.au/case-studies
Thank you to all our guests:
Rob and Judi Hetherington - Walma
Martin Williams - Nyngan Seed Graders
Grant Simms - Down Under Covers
Hosted by Susannah Kable from the Grow Love Project and James Diack from Soils for Life
This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with Soils for Life. This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s Smart Farms Program.
The industrialisation of agriculture has created large paddocks of monoculture crops and increased the chemical burden on farmers and their environments. Global herbicide use has continued to increase as farmers have shifted to no till practices and adopted herbicide-tolerant crop cultivars over the last 30 years. One result of this is that the list of herbicide resistant #weeds is growing.
Some farmers spend huge amounts of money on herbicide and scarce time removing weeds; Meanwhile, exactly how much damage is being done to native plant species and soils is not yet fully known. Either way, the current model is not sustainable
In this episode we are exploring a paradigm shift to an ecological systems approach to weeds with Soils for Life agroecologist Sarah Fea. We visit four farmers to understand their changing relationship to plants. Including a grazier, seed producer, a farmer who has enlisted the help of goats and another who has developed no kill cropping.
We take a fresh look at weeds and how we can benefit from seeing them through a different lens. We hear how specific weeds germinate to heal damaged soils, showing us what the soil needs and how we can help them heal it.
James Diack from Soils for Life visits grazier Martin Royds at his farm Jillamatong in Braidwood. They sit down to have a yarn over Martin's fascinating story of change and repair. James also talks to farmer and soil microbiologist Bruce Davidson, who has a great story about how he approaches Blackberries and African Lovegrass. And Agroecologist Sarah Fea talks to seed producer Russel Young who talks about the challenges he’s facing as someone who is earlier on in his journey of transition to a more biological approach to farming. She also visits Bruce Maynard to hear more about his approach to weeds. Bruce is a farmer and educator who has developed methods such as No Kill Cropping and Self-Herding.
Thanks to all the our guests
Martin Royds - Jillamatong
Bruce Maynard - Willydah
https://soilsforlife.org.au/willydah/
Bruce Davidson - Soil Smith
https://www.soilsmith.ag/about/
Russell Young - Young Seeds
Hosted by Susannah Kable from Grow Love Project and James Diack and Sarah Fea from Soils for Life
This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with Soils for Life. This project is supported Australian Government’s Smart Farms Program.
Agricultural scientific research is really good at honing in on specific issues in the sector to investigate targeted solutions. But nature doesn’t always work that way. A fundamental principle of regenerative agriculture is to observe landscapes as a whole system and to build resilience by embracing ecological complexity.
The importance of farmer and researcher collaboration is highlighted in this episode with the need for research models and questions to meet with the complexity of farming with a whole systems and holistic approach.
In this episode we ask how the experience of regenerative farmers can contribute to research and build a strong evidence base for regenerating agricultural soils and landscapes. We will hear from two farmers that have transitioned to regenerative farming practices and two researchers working in the space.
Hosted by Susannah Kable, Grow Love Project and James Diack, Soils for Life
Thank you to all our guests:
David Marsh: https://soilsforlife.org.au/david-marsh-the-regenerative-farmer
Colin Seis: https://soilsforlife.org.au/winona-pasture-cropping-the-way-to-health/
Kirsty Yates: https://soilsforlife.org.au/about-soils-for-life/our-people/
Liz Clarke: Senior Executive Designer and Consultant https://www.thinkplace.com.au/
The book David Marsh refers to is Andre Voisin the French farmer scientist who wrote Grass Productivity
Australian agriculture currently has a labour shortage of over 100,000 people. It’s not an easy gig for someone to start from scratch on a farm and many younger generation farmers are moving from farms to urban areas.
We rely on farmers to sustain our way of life as they produce our food and fibre. It’s critical that young and new farmers are encouraged and supported to supply for our needs in a way that regenerates soils and landscapes.
Some major barriers and challenges that young and new farmers are faced with include access to land and capital, climate change issues and access to learning, particularly learning about regenerative practices.
In this episode, learn from a researcher, writer and farmer who has walked the walk, and started her own regenerative farming practice. Be inspired by an additional six young and new farmers who embraced a regenerative mindset to overcome these challenges.
Thank you to all our guests:
Tanya Massy https://sustainabletable.org.au/advisors/
Josh Gilbert https://www.joshuagilbert.co/
Harriet Finlayson https://soilsforlife.org.au/womens-day-regenerative-agriculture-chicken-egg-farmer/
Adam Lilleyman https://soilsforlife.org.au/chickens-for-a-change/
Trish Smith https://www.youngfarmersconnect.com/
Luke Winder https://www.tathraplacefreerange.com/
Thank you to https://www.farmerincubator.org/regenerationreport for producing the much needed report: Regeneration which you can download from the website. And thank you for the audio featured in this episode from the launch of the report.
Hosted by Susannah Kable, Grow Love Project and James Diack, Soils for Life
The 8 families farmer group formed more than a decade ago after a holistic management course. Since then, the group has evolved and experienced transitions in all the businesses and families.
In this episode we explore environmental markets through the lens of two members of the 8 Families group. The 8 families explain how their motivation to build natural capital was not primarily to gain market outcomes, but rather a desire to fulfill their Holistic Context.
This includes building the productivity and profitability of their farming systems, as well as an intrinsic desire to rebuild the function and health of their landscapes in their roles as soil and landscape stewards.
In this episode we’ll hear from some of the group about how and why they came together, their consideration of environmental markets and the benefits of working through those together.
Thank you to all our guests:
Michael Gooden and Rebecca Gorman - 8 families Soils for Life Case Study: https://soilsforlife.org.au/8-families-land-stewarship/
Kim Deans - https://www.reinventingagriculture.com.au
Rowan Foley - https://www.abcfoundation.org.au
Ian Loane - https://www.carbonlink.com.au/
Andrew Ward - https://regenfarmersmutual.com/
Dieuwer Reynders - https://www.bct.nsw.gov.au/
Hosted by Susannah Kable, Grow Love Project and James Diack, Soils for Life
Farmer, forester or conservationist. It might seem like you need to choose one but more and more landholders are challenging this. With the right management, trees on farms can provide better farm productivity and forest products and increase biodiversity. But in many ways forests are still treated as either conservation reserves or plantations, making it difficult for farmers to take this path.
In less than 100 years as a nation we have gone from removing trees to wanting to plant them back. Tree planting programs are not achieving the scale of restoration required to repair Australia's landscapes. We need to rethink how we support landholders to invest in trees.
In this episode we hear from two farm foresters who have approached farming trees very differently, as well as a scientist and a forest policy professor. They discuss why more farmers have not adopted forestry, how trees can be managed for multiple outcomes and what mindset and policy shifts are required to move to a whole-of-landscape approach.
Thank you to our guests:
Farm forester and grazier - James Henderson https://soilsforlife.org.au/colodan/
Forest scientist and grazier - Rowan Reid https://www.agroforestry.net.au/
Professor Peter Kanowski - https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/kanowski-pj
Associate Professor Cris Brack - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cris-brack-233a117a/
Your hosts Eli Court @soilsforlife and Susannah Kable @growloveproject produced by Edgars Greste
There are millions of hectares of degraded soils in Australia's agricultural landscapes. But there are a billion reasons why compost offers a solution to this problem, teeming with micro-organisms and organic matter that can help regenerate soils. But not all composts are the same and there is still a lot that we're learning about this precious, carbon rich resource. How can governments, farmers and industry work together to return organic matter to the soil and close the loop from paddock to paddock?
Thanks to all our guests for their time and insights.
Soils for life case study with Milgadara, Rhonda and Bill Daly - soilsforlife.org.au/case-study-catch-up-milgadara
Rhonda and Bill Daly, Milgadara and YLAD Living Soils - yladlivingsoils.com.au
Eric Love - Centre for Organic Research and Education - core.asn.au
Amanda Kane, organics manager, NSW EPA - epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/waste/waste-facilities/organics-processing-facilities
Virginia Brunton, environmental scientist - MRA consulting - mraconsulting.com.au
Gerry Gillespie, compost industry consultant - gerrygillespie.net/about.html
Phil Lavers, Moonacres Farm - moonacres.com.au/farm
This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with Soils for Life.
This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program
How could the emerging market for soil carbon support farmers to regenerate soils?
Soil carbon offers so many benefits both above and below the soil surface, from improving farm productivity to revenue raising in carbon trading. But while the case for building soil carbon is clear, the carbon market is still evolving. So what’s the potential, what are the risks and what can be done to unlock the potential of soil carbon as an enabler of better farm management and soil stewardship? In this episode we talk to farmers, scientists and policy makers to explore the soil carbon opportunity.
Thanks to all our guests for their time and insights.
Stuart Austin, Wilmot Cattle Co. - soilsforlife.org.au/wilmot
Craig Carter, Tallawang - soilsforlife.org.au/tallawang-greener-pastures-through-restoring-landscape-hydrology
Dr. Susan Orgill - Soil Scientist, NSW Department of Primary Industries
Skye Glenday, Co-CEO, Climate Friendly - climatefriendly.com
Dr Michael Crawford, CEO, Soil CRC - soilcrc.com.au
Konrad Muller, Assistant Manager, Land, Forest and Blue Carbon Methods, Clean Energy Regulator - cleanenergyregulator.gov.au
Anthony Bennie, Assistant Secretary, Natural Capital and Markets - Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Have your say about the new soil carbon methodology - submissions close by Monday 27th September
https://consult.industry.gov.au/soil-carbon-method-proposed-new-method
For the latest updates please subscribe to the Soils for Life newsletter
soilsforlife.org.au/the-newsletter
This Podcast has been produced by Grow Love Project in collaboration with Soils for Life.
This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program
This is Soils For Life. A podcast about connecting farmers, researchers and policy makers, to shed light on agricultural best practice and explore current policy barriers and mindsets that are getting in the way of adoption and how to overcome them. Each episode we’ll delve into a topical issue around soil health in agriculture. We’ll hear from farmers about what inspired them to change their practices and we’ll talk to industry experts about the challenges and opportunities to help improve soils for life.
Sign up to the newsletter by visiting soilsforlife.org.au/the-newsletter/
