From feeding animals to feeding biology: Learning to graze differently with David and Ruth Read

Ben Simpson runs Thistlebank, a 22,800 hectare cattle property near Aramac in Central Queensland that has been in his family for five generations. He came to the property from a very different life as a fitter and turner on the Gold Coast and has run it since 2010, joined by his wife Kim in 2014. A hard drought in the late 2010s meant more money was going out the door than coming in, so Ben went looking for a different approach. In 2022 he did the KLR Marketing and RCS Grazing for Profit courses, followed by RCS’s Next Steps coaching and Executive Link programs. Since then, Ben and Kim have moved from set stocking to cell and rotational grazing. Their minimum ground cover has gone from around 40% to 60% or more, and their benchmark carrying capacity has risen from around 6 to 15–20 stock days per hectare per 100 mm of rain. They now rank in the top 20% of RCS’s profitability benchmarks. Ben has also started working with RCS as a coach and adviser. In this episode, we talk about: How Ben went from the Gold Coast to running Thistlebank, and what made him stay Why financial pressure during drought led him to seek out training, starting with marketing and business skills Starting small and scaling up, from 16 or 17 mobs down to four mobs of 700 to 1,200 head Running intensive cell grazing on 6,000 hectares and a slower rotation across the rest of the property, working with flooding, access and labour constraints Planning grazing 12 to 18 months ahead with feed budgets, so that small adjustments made early avoid forced sales later Shifting from breeders to trading cattle to match stocking rate to carrying capacity, and to suit the people running the place day to day How goats fit into the system, and the paradigm shift of seeing grass grow back under timber Why coaching, peer support and a written vision have been central to the change

Today’s guest Frank Ashwood is a soil ecologist with a side passion for macrophotography - photographing the incredible creatures and organisms living in the soil. He has an academic background in biology and land restoration to woodland. He mostly studies the biological diversity and associated functions of forest soils, but three years ago Soils for Life brought Frank Ashwood to Australia to turn his camera to the life in the soil on farms across six regions. The photographs were astounding, and a number of them have now been included in his new book: The World Beneath our Feet: The Hidden Life of Soil and Why It Matters to Us All. In today’s chat, we discuss some of the incredible creatures that live in the soil, diving into how each layer of soil differs, and some of the experiences and observations on farms around Australia. Links and resources: The World Beneath our Feet: The Hidden Life of Soil and Why It Matters to Us All, by Frank Ashwood https://www.frankashwood.com/twbof Frank Ashwood book launch at Fat Pig Farm on 10 October: https://zfszi4-wi.myshopify.com/products/frank-ashwood-book-launch?variant=50520122654964 A recap of Frank’s work with Soils for Life, visiting and photographing Australian farms: https://soilsforlife.org.au/frank-ashwood-soil-life-up-close/

Courtney Young farms organic grain with her husband Ian in Rutherglen, Victoria, and is also Soils for Life's Farmer Learning Manager. In this episode, she talks with Eli about building a farming life from scratch, growing healthy soil and grain, and turning wheat into a value-added business. In this episode How Courtney's path into farming began, from her dad's oyster farming on the NSW South Coast, through a disillusioning stint in conservation, to discovering regenerative agriculture The economics of getting into farming today, and how Courtney and Ian navigated the challenge of accessing land Building soil and crop health on their 100-acre property and the family's 2,000-acre organic farm at Berrigan, including intercropping wheat with clover and improving grazing management The decision to start milling their own flour, turning a commodity crop into a paddock-to-plate product with a loyal following among Melbourne bakers How Courtney and Ian test new ideas cheaply and quickly, and "fail fast" rather than risk the whole business Soils for Life's new Cropping Communities program, an eight-location, on-farm and online initiative helping grain growers and mixed farmers interpret soil and plant health data and turn it into action plans

World Fungus Day is in October and to mark the occasion we spoke with two mycologists - fungi experts - Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher and Julie Fielder about this amazing and mostly hidden lifeform. Sapphire is a lecturer in plant and fungal Ecology at the University of New England and Julie runs consultancy Phytos Environmental in WA, and both are involved with Fungimap, one of Australia’s longest running citizen science organisations. They’ve both also been involved in the recently published book Fungi for Land: A practical guide for land managers, which draws on the work of more than 25 Australian scientists to explain what fungi do in the landscape and how to manage land in ways that support them. In this conversation we delve into the weird and wonderful world of fungi, from their ancient beginnings almost 400 million years ago as partners to plants, to their incredible and bizarre present day forms. And we discuss how healthy and diverse fungal ecosystems are so deeply interconnected with, and essential for, healthy and resilient soils, plants and people. Correction: In the intro we say World Fungus Day is on October 2nd. The date actually varies by country, it's marked across the first week or so of October rather than on one fixed day.Mentioned in this episode: ​Fungi for Land: A practical guide for land managers - https://fungi4land.com/ ​Fun Fungi Ecology - https://www.funfungiecology.com/ ​Fungimap - https://fungimap.org.au/ ​iNaturalist - https://www.inaturalist.org/ PhD on metarhizium - https://eprints.qut.edu.au/117674/

Hugh and Katie Finlay manage a 30 hectare farm in Central Victoria, including a commercial stone fruit orchard and fruit tree nursery. The farm also includes a range of small enterprises run by others under the banner of the Harcourt Farming Co-op, including a dairy, market garden, and bush foods plot. Since 2013, Hugh and Katie also have been educating others in how to grow organic and regenerative fruit through their business, Grow Great Fruit. Perennial horticulture is a fairly new area for me, but this conversation reveals some very familiar themes. Hugh and Katie focus on the soil above all else, and have seen how taking care of soil biology by adding organic matter, fostering plant diversity, and elimination of all synthetic inputs supports healthy trees that are resilient to pests and disease and require little in the way of pest and disease management. While many of their strategies are applicable at much larger scale than their now downsized operation, Hugh and Katie are also passionate about the value of smaller scale ... about the value of smaller scale enterprises to not only support resilient agricultural businesses, but also connected and thriving regional communities. Please enjoy this delightful conversation with Hugh and Katie Finlay. And if you're an orchardist yourself or interested in perennial horticulture, don't forget to check out our website for all the resources and events that we're rolling out through our Orchard Resilience project. Links and resources Grow Great Fruit - https://growgreatfruit.com/ Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op - https://hofcoop.com.au/about/ YIMBY Compost - https://www.yimbycompost.com/