Soil & Pasture Health
| Activity: | Details: |
| Welcome & Introduction to Regenerative Agriculture in Practice Program | When? Thursday January 22nd 2026 What? This 2 hour session will provide an opportunity for participants to meet each other and the LCDC team. The session will explain the program in detail and will include a Q & A to clarify any aspects of the program for the participants. The session will be presented by Lower Blackwood LCDC Project Manager Declan McGill, and Program Coach Mark Tupman. Topics covered will include: – Welcome and introduction to the RAPP program components – A discussion on what Regenerative Agriculture is and what you want to get out of the program – An Introduction to Talkin’ After Hours and enrolment – Your soil testing pack and what to do with it. – Your multispecies seed voucher and what to do with it. |
| Workshop 1: Soil Health for Grazing Enterprises – what is it and how do we get there? | When? Thursday February 12th 2026 What? A full day workshop presented by Regenerative Agriculture Coach & Cover Crop Expert Kevin Elmy. Topics covered will include: – the characteristics of healthy & unhealthy soils – the processes that drive the development of functional, fertile healthy soil. – how to use plants & microbes to enhance soil systems |
| Workshop 2: DIY Farm Fertility | When? Thursday June 11th 2026 What? A 1/2 day workshop presented by Program Coach Mark Tupman. Topics covered will include: – An overview of plant nutrition – Interpret your soil test (bring your own) – Make up & apply your foliar nutrition |
| Soil & Pasture Health Peer Group Coaching Sessions | The 2 hour Peer Group Sessions provide an opportunity for you to share in context, information about your goals, practices & challenges. The purpose of the sessions are to share learnings, provide support for each other, measure progress, and promote commitment & accountability for your own enterprise goals achievement in relation to the program. The Peer Groups sessions will be facilitated by Program Coach Mark Tupman, on site at selected participant properties. Session 1: Thursday March 12th 2026 – Introduction to Biodiverse Pastures. – how biodiversity contributes to pasture, soil & animal health – what does biodiversity in your pastures look like – strategies to integrate biodiversity into your pastures Session 2: Thursday April 23rd 2026 – Understanding Soil Fertility – the fundamentals of nutrition for healthy plants – interpreting your soil test results – how to develop a cost effective balanced nutrition program for your pastures Session 3: Thursday August 20th 2026 – Monitoring Soil & Pasture Health – introduction to range of planning and practical activities to monitor the health & productivity of your soil & pasture. |
| Nutrients Soil Test | Each enterprise is entitled to send one soil sample to APAL laboratory to receive a complementary comprehensive soil test result including totals for macro & micro nutrients. Enterprises are encouraged to take soil samples from a paddock or area they plan to conduct a multi species pasture seeding trial, and / or implement regenerative grazing management on. |
| Individual Enterprise Soil & Pasture Health Coaching Session | Each enterprise will have access to 1.5 hours of our Program Coach Mark Tupman’s time. Mark’s role for this component is to provide you & your enterprise support and guidance outside of the peer group sessions, on any matters related to the regenerative practices you are implementing or would like to implement as part of this program. |
| Biodiverse Pasture Seeds or Mobile Fencing Voucher | Each enterprise is entitled to a voucher to the value of $500 to be used towards the purchase of seeds for a multi species pasture seeding trial, OR towards mobile fencing for trialing adaptive grazing. |
Whole Farm Planning
| Activity: | Details: |
| Plan Your Farm Landscape Course | When? Part 1: Monday April 13th 2026 and Tuesday April 14th 2026 Part 2: Monday July 13th 2026 What? Presented by David Hardwick from Soil Land Food, this innovative course will show you how to design and plan a healthy, resilient and productive rural landscape for your farm business. At the end of this course you will have the confidence to identify issues, make decisions and take action to start improving landscape health and enterprise productivity on your property. You will develop a well thought out & whole of farm plan for your place. The course is hands on, group based and combines theory with lots of practical activities. |
| Trees & Shrubs in Grazing Systems: Benefits, Challenges and Practical Solutions. | When? Thursday August 6th 2026 What? A full day workshop presented by Rowan Reid from Bambra Agroforestry . This workshop offers practical strategies for integrating trees & shrubs into grazing systems. Learn how to boost productivity while enhancing environmental sustainability and climate resilience, with real-world examples and practical solutions you can apply to your farm enterprise. |
Grazing Management
| Activity: | Details: |
| Regenerating Land Through Grazing Livestock | When? Monday May 18th 2026 What? In this 1 day workshop, presenter and Holistic Grazing expert Dr Judi Earl will describe the range of approaches to grazing management and the impact of the different strategies on pasture dynamics, growth and production. Topics covered include: – Managing animals in tune with seasonal growth cycles – The effect of the number of paddocks on rest and recovery of plants – Matching stocking rate to carrying capacity – feed budgeting – Methods to measure available feed and pasture growth – The importance of residual herbage mass and pasture utilisation |
| One on One Grazing Consults | When? Tuesday May 19th 2026 to Saturday May 23rd 2026. Individual appointment days/times to be confirmed with you. Dr Judi Earl will visit all enterprises for an individual 2-3 hour farm consultation to assist you to develop a tailored regenerative grazing management plan for your farm. |
| Grazing Peer Group Coaching Sessions | The 2 hour Peer Group Sessions provide an opportunity for you to share in context, information about your goals, practices & challenges. The purpose of the sessions are to share learnings, provide support for each other, measure progress, and promote commitment & accountability for your own enterprise goals achievement in relation to the program. The Peer Groups sessions will be facilitated by Program Coach Mark Tupman, on site at selected participant properties. Session 1: Thursday July 23rd 2026– Grazing on the Ground 1 (Growing Season) Session 2: Thursday September 17th 2026 – Spring Pasture and Grazing Review (Spring & Non Growing Season) |
Community of Practice
| Activity: | Details: |
| Talkin’ After Hours Membership | Talkin’ After Hours is the Lower Blackwood LCDC’s online community & information hub – created to give our farming community the opportunity to have conversations, and to share knowledge, skills & practices in a no stress, no judgement, easy access space – any time & anywhere. The project participants will receive automatic membership and within it, membership of a closed RAPP discussion group for all project communications. |
| Case Studies | 2 participating enterprises will be selected for a detailed written case study on their motivations, challenges and practices implemented. |