Regenerative agriculture in practice 2020/2021

Building resilience

Project Resources

Presentations & Webinars:

Podcasts:

The Project:

The 2020/2021 Regenerative Agriculture in Practice project – ‘Building Resilience’ sees the continuation and further development of the 2019/2020 Regenerative Grazing program, with an important additional focus on building soil health and resilience.

Soil is the lifeblood of agriculture and is fundamental to our survival. Healthy soils are essential for healthy plant growth, food production for human nutrition and ecosystem services such as clean water and air. Healthy soils help to regulate the Earth’s climate and store more carbon than all of the world’s forests combined.

By providing farmers with a deeper understanding of how soils function & providing them with the ability to identify the limiting (or enabling) factors within their soils, as well as learning how to incorporate animals effectively into the farming system, farmers can take a first step towards regenerating their soils, restoring water cycles, and bringing vitality back to ecosystems.

The full project is open to 15 grazing landholders in the Lower Blackwood LCDC catchment.

The Project Part 1: Building Soil Health & RESILIENCE

Component 1: Soil Health & RESILIENCE Workshops

Workshop 1 & Field Walk: ‘An Introduction to Building Soil Health and Resilience’

Presented by internationally respected author, educator, & farmer, Graeme Sait, this workshop & field walk will give farmers a deeper understanding of how soils function, what factors may be the limiting their soils productivity, & what steps they can take to ‘breathe life’ into their soils for year round soil health.

In addition to the 15 project participants, the workshop will also be open to 40 other attendees from the wider AMR shire.

Who is Graeme Sait?

Graeme is the CEO and co-founder of Nutri-Tech Solutions (NTS), a world leader in sustainable agriculture. He is also an author/educator responsible for over 300 published articles and a popular book, “Nutrition Rules!”. He created the internationally acclaimed, ‘NTS Certificate in Nutrition Farming®. This course has now extended the understanding of over 40,000 farmers, on four continents.

Graeme is a sought-after speaker, specialising in soil, plant, animal and human health. More recently, that emphasis has expanded to include planetary health, in recognition of the profound link between soil humus and carbon sequestration. His popular TED Talk, ‘Humus Saves The World’, has 200,000 views.

Graeme has had a major impact influencing farmers, consultants, governments and key decision makers in Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Europe, Asia, India and of course, Australia and New Zealand (his original home country). He recently consulted with the Minister of Agriculture in the U.K., to help develop a more sustainable post-Brexit agriculture policy. In February, 2019, Graeme travelled to India to train a large group of Professors, some of whom will be involved in the World’s first organic university, soon to be established in that region.

Graeme is an inspirational teacher, and the descriptor most commonly used by his students is., “life-changing”.

Workshop 2: A half day workshop on ‘Regenerating Country – working for a productive balance’

Facilitated by the Undalup Association, this workshop will provide an introduction to understanding country; the cultural connection of landscape people, plants, animals, water, soils and landforms.

In addition to the 10 project participants, the workshop will also be open to 30 other attendees from the wider AMR shire

Who ARE the Undalup Association?

Undalup Association is a not-for-profit organisation formed in 2012 by a group of passionate people turning ideas into reality. Undalup is the Wadandi word for Busselton named after a great Wadandi Warrior, ‘Undal’. Undalup Members believe that “from little things, big things grow”.

Their goals are to:

Share the Wadandi culture, traditions, knowledge and history

Teach the importance of Boodja (Country)
Teach the importance of respect for Wadandi Elders and Traditional Custodians.

Component 2: Soil Health Consultations

The 15 full program participants will each be entitled to an Individual Soil Health Consultation and a Soil Health Regeneration Plan with local regenerative agriculture agronomist, Anthony Quinlan.

The consultation & plan will include:

Soil Testing
Interpretation & Identification of Limiting Factors
Recommendations for next steps.
A follow up project webinar (project participants jointly) for mid-project support and advice.

Please note that this component is open ONLY to the 15 full program participants.

Who is Anthony Quinlan?

Though his business, Soil Dynamics, Anthony performs land capability assessments and consults to many organic growers from vineyards to vegetables. He has also been making compost for over 20 years and was a pioneer in the development of compost extracts.

In recent years Anthony has developed a range of bio-stimulant based fertiliser products and a custom blending facility that produces prescription mineral blends for individual client needs.

What’s your limiting factor?

The Project Part 2: Regenerative grazing management

Component 1: A 1 day workshop & field walk on Regenerative Grazing – working with nature to produce greater resilience and profitability.

Facilitated by regen grazing management expert Dick Richardson, the workshop will be an introduction to ‘Grazing Naturally’, a grazing method that combines observing the environment and responding appropriately with comprehensive planning, risk mitigation and grazing animals. Topics covered include:

The value of soil depth and maturity

Soil building and the carbon cycle
The functioning of ecological communities in relation to soil building
How plants, animals and living organisms build soil
Understanding soil cover
The natural functions of a grazing ecosystem
Impacts of over-grazing and selective grazing explained
The effects of light and heavy set stocking
Why multi paddock rotational grazing systems often work at first, then stagnate and fail
Working with natural patterns to generate ecological shift

Building soil carbon and soil depth using natural grazing patterns of animals
The basics of the Grazing Naturally Method
The basics of matching stocking rate to carrying capacity
Assessing feed availability using the simple STAC method
Practical session on plant health and soil building in the paddock
Afternoon includes a question and answer session

In addition to the 15 project participants, this workshop will also be open to 40 other attendees from the wider AMR shire.

Who is Dick Richardson?

Dick Richardson is an internationally recognised leader in the practice of natural grazing to improve soil depth and health, water retention, increased biodiversity and animal production.

Dick was born and raised on cattle and sheep properties in South Africa. Like most South Africans, Dick managed cattle and sheep using rotational grazing. He then adopted Allan Savory’s Holistic Management planned grazing. He became a certified Holistic Management Educator in 1996 and consulted to producers and conducted training across Southern Africa. From 1999 Dick trained educators for Allan Savory.

Dick’s ‘Grazing Naturally’ method has evolved from his experiences in working with the various different grazing systems & methodologies (e.g. Holistic Planned Grazing and Cell Grazing) & their limitations. Grazing Naturally is about creating a ‘fit for purpose’ grazing orientated community of organisms to create the environment for grazing and animal production with regenerating soils.

Component 2: On-ground Regenerative Grazing Resource Pack

This includes mobile fencing and/or mobile watering points up to the value of $450 + GST per pack.

Please note that this component is open ONLY to the 15 full program participants.

Component 3: Individual Farm Consults

with regenerative grazing management expert Dick Richardson (1 per participant) to develop a tailored regenerative grazing management plan for their farm.

Also included is a follow up webinar (project participants jointly) for mid-project support and advice.

Please note that this component is open ONLY to the 15 full program participants.

Other Project Components:

– To increase the reach and the longevity of the information disseminated in the workshop and field days, the Lower Blackwood LCDC Information Hub will continue to be developed with project resources including:

4 x Lower Blackwood Regenerative Farming Farmer profiles / Case Studies

4 x Regenerative Agriculture Podcasts
2 x Soil Health and 2 x Grazing Management Talkin After Hours webinars (or face-to-face seminars)

PROJECT Timeline

November 2020: Participant Project Applications Open
December 2020: Participant Project Applications Close
February 2021: Individual Soil Health Consultation Farm Visits
February 2021: 1 day workshop & field walk: An Introduction to Building Soil Health and Resilience
March 2021: Cover Cropping for Improved Soil Health, Livestock Health, & Farm Profitability Webinar
June 2021: 1 day workshop & field walk on “Regenerative Grazing to Increase Soil Health and Profitability”
June 2021: Individual Regenerative Grazing Consultation Farm Visits
July 2021: ‘Regenerative Grazing Management’ follow up Q & A webinar
October 2021: Half day workshop on ‘Regenerating Country – working for a productive balance
November 2021: Rebooting Your Farm Landscape: The Essentials Webinar
December 2021: Grazing Naturally Part 1 – A Regenerative Grazing Masterclass
December 2021: Q & A with Dick Richardson & Project showcase.
December 2021: Project Completion.

Project Eligibility

The full project is open to 15 grazing farming landholders in the Lower Blackwood LCDC catchment. To be eligible to participate in this project applicants must:

Be a current landholder or land manager residing in the Lower Blackwood LCDC catchment and are grazing cattle or sheep on their property.
Agree to actively participate in all components of the project:
Agree to be included as a potential farmer profile & case study (a one-page profile on who you are and why you chose to be part of the project, a summary of your production system & current landscape function, your, aims, challenges & desired outcomes). Profile & case study to be housed on the LCDC website & in project publications.
Pay the project application fee:
$400 + GST

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

This project has been enabled through the Augusta Margaret River Shire Environmental Management Fund.