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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/  We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did. If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

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 agricultureThe economics of getting into farming today, and how Courtney and Ian navigated the challenge of accessing landBuilding 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 managementThe decision to start milling their own flour, turning a commodity crop into a paddock-to-plate product with a loyal following among Melbourne bakersHow Courtney and Ian test new ideas cheaply and quickly, and "fail fast" rather than risk the whole businessSoils 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 Find out more If you're interested in the upcoming Cropping Communities training program for growers and cropping advisors, head to soilsforlife.org.au/cropping-communities/ Get in touch 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 [email protected].

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/

About the podcast David and Ruth Read own and manage Woodcote, a 470 hectare beef cattle trading farm located in East Gippsland, Victoria.  In this episode, we talk about: How the Millennium Drought sounded a wake-up call for their farmThe changes they have made since that time including moving towards higher density grazing, establishment of fencing and water infrastructure to support thatShifting to a primarily trading enterprise and refocusing from feeding animals to feeding biology.  Ruth and David also share their enthusiasm for learning and adapting, and share a wealth of resources for people to tap into as they make their own farm learning journey. David and Ruth featured as case study farmers in Soils for Life’s recently released Practice Guide: Grazing for Soil and Landscape Regeneration. They are also hosting the third of our national series of field days launching the guide. If you’re interested to see their work in action, and hear more about their farming practices - alongside grazing educator Brian Wehlburg - join us on September 15 for a day of on-farm learning. If you’re unable to attend that event in-person, we’ll also be running an online webinar on September the 2nd with Rod and Katrina Butler, another of the farming families featured in the grazing guide. Resources, links and events from the episode Soils for Life Practice Guide: Grazing for Soil and Landscape Regeneration: https://soilsforlife.org.au/practice-guide-grazing-soil-landscape-regeneration/ Grazing field day: Strategies to build soil and landscape health, 15 September: https://events.humanitix.com/grazing-for-soil-and-landscape-health-field-day Grazing Webinar: Getting started with grazing for soil and landscape health: https://events.humanitix.com/grazing-for-soil-and-landscape-health-with-rod-and-katrina-butlerWoodcote Pty Ltd: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057240318507Soils for Life’s interview with Grant Williams:⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/4yQTkVCoaAXNnwPuROxSib?si=rPR1lf6-QkqI_xu3pdL3RQ⁠ Education providers RCS Grazing For Profit course: https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/farming-grazing-for-profit-programs/ Graeme Hand: https://www.handfortheland.com/ Dick Richardson: https://www.naturesequity.com.au/ Jim Elizondo: https://www.rwranching.com/ KLR Marketing: https://klrmarketing.com.au/Joel Williams: https://integratedsoils.com/ If you have any feedback 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 [email protected].

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/

Murray Gomm is a regenerative farmer and winemaker based near Albany in Western Australia. With his partner Pamela Lincoln, he runs Oranje Tractor Farm, a small organic vineyard and orchard that’s become known for its focus on soil health, biodiversity and carbon-positive farming. Since the late 1990s, Murray has transformed a degraded property into a thriving, diverse landscape producing wine, fruit, and olive oil. The farm integrates cover crops, composting, mulching, and biological soil management instead of relying on synthetic fertilisers and chemicals. Murray is a long-time advocate for working with natural systems and is passionate about sharing the message that healthy soils lead to better produce and stronger communities. He regularly speaks on sustainable tourism, carbon farming, and the intersection of agriculture and ecology. In our conversation, we talk about the value of having a peer group to learn with rather than operating in a vacuum, the role of cover cropping in building diversity and unlocking crop health, soil and plant health monitoring that have helped Murray grow his best tasting peaches ever, and why he now sees himself as a ‘manager of ecological relationships’. Links and resources Oranje Tractor Wine and farmSoils for Life’s Orchard Resilience projectThe Orchard Underground WA program for commercial fruit and nut growers, delivered by Soils for Life and RegenWAMurray has also worked with RegenWA as a cover crop demonstration siteIf you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Emily House began her career as a geologist before an unlikely path led her into ruminant nutrition. After moving to New Zealand, she started working with two vets who wanted to shift from treating livestock disease reactively to preventing it, which meant looking closely at pasture as the major component of the diet.  Emily brings a background in earth science to her work interpreting pasture and soil analysis for animal health and performance. She was part of the team that developed the DietDecoder™, an online tool that assesses the mineral profile of pasture and flags risks to animal health before they show up as clinical problems. In this episode, she explains why testing the mineral content of pasture goes further than the more familiar measures of dry matter, crude protein and energy that many farmers already use. She talks through real examples, from calcium and milk fever at calving, to copper deficiencies caused by excess sulphur and molybdenum in the soil, and how these mineral gaps can affect everything from hoof health to wool quality. We also discuss the range of responses available once a problem is identified, from targeted supplementation through to adjusting fertiliser regimes and building more mineral-dense pasture through species diversity, along with some striking parallels between what we're learning about animal nutrition and human health. In this episode Emily's path from government geologist to ruminant nutrition consultantWhy pasture mineral testing reveals more than standard dry matter and protein analysisHow mineral deficiencies and excesses show up in animal health, from milk fever to coat and wool qualityThe DietDecoder™ tool, and how it's used seasonally around key events like calving and matingAddressing mineral imbalances through supplementation, fertiliser decisions and pasture diversityParallels between livestock nutrition and the gaps in our understanding of human nutritionLinks and resources DietDecoder™ – dietdecoder.nz, including the quote from Dr Pat Poletti referenced in this episode in the FAQ Register to join our upcoing Dairy Convo where Emily will talk about Pasture Nutrition. Mon 13th July, 12pm AEST, details at the link: https://events.humanitix.com/dairy-convos-ask-me-anything-series If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, get in touch on social media or at [email protected]

Brian Wehlburg is one of Australia’s most highly regarded Holistic Management educators and a board member of Holistic Management International and the Australian Holistic Management Cooperative. He has delivered training and consulting to businesses, land managers, families, environmental groups and pastoralists all over Australia, as well as in New Zealand, USA and Zimbabwe. He is also a farmer himself, having experience growing crops in Southern Africa, working  as a pasture and cattle manager in South West Queensland and managing a mixed-species property in New South Wales. This is one of the longer conversations we’ve featured on the podcast, but it easily could have been twice this length given the depth of Brian ’s well of knowledge and experience. We talk about his perspective on regenerative grazing, about the key insights of Holistic Management, the deeply held paradigms that often prevent people from seeing these insights, the practical steps that he has seen work to help people get started, and the positive life changes that can result when people succeed. This episode is one of a series of interviews we’re doing with graziers and educators involved in the development of our recently released guide to grazing for soil and landscape regeneration. Details and registrations for our upcoming grazing field day on 15 July 2026 with Dr Judi Earl at the Curtis family farm in Milmerran Queensland - soilsforlife.org.au/grazing-for-soil-health-field-day-curtis. Links and resources: Brian’s consultancy Inside Outside Management - insideoutsidemgt.com.au Soils for Life’s Guide to Grazing for Soil and Landscape Regeneration - soilsforlife.org.au/practice-guide-grazing-soil-landscape-regeneration More about Holistic Management from the Savory Institute - savory.globalAndre Voisin - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Voisin Jan Smuts, Holism and Evolution - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism_and_Evolution If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Grant Williams is a dairy farmer at Hallora in West Gippsland, Victoria, where he and his wife Leesa run Willora Farms - an almost 600-cow operation across 430 hectares. He has been a generous and engaged contributor to the dairy community for many years, and previously served on the Board and as Chair of GippsDairy. Despite having been an early adopter of robotic milking, Grant describes himself as cautious about making changes on the farm. Over the past decade, however, he has made a change that many dairy farmers wouldn’t dream of, transitioning the whole farm to multispecies pastures, and in the last four years, cutting out all synthetic fertilisers. In this episode, Grant describes how he ‘fell into’ multispecies pastures, how his early trials didn’t work out the way he hoped, and how he eventually became confident that he could profitably roll out multispecies across the whole farm. Links and resources: Soikee machine - soilkee.com.au Soils for Life’s dairy resources and activities - soilsforlife.org.au/dairy-resilience-projectIf you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Dr Paul Horne is an award winning entomologist and founder of integrated pest management consultancy IPM Technologies. He began his career at the Victorian Department of Agriculture in the mid-1980s, his work has been published across scientific journals and industry platforms, and he has written several books on insects and pest management. Paul’s work focuses on supporting adoption of IPM strategies to manage invertebrate pests in a wide range of crops including cut-flowers, berries, vegetables, tree and vine crops, nurseries, broad-acre crops and pastures. As our new initiative to support fruit and nut growers kicks off, I wanted to talk with Paul about the state of play with integrated pest management, and what he has found works well to support adoption of IPM in perennial horticulture. If you’re involved in perennial horticulture, check out our new Orchard Resilience Project. With funding from the Australian Government’s Climate-smart Agriculture Program, we’re working over the next three years with perennial horticulture growers across Australia to strengthen soil health and landscape function in tree and vine crops. This episode was recorded live from the Grounded festival in Victoria. Enjoy! Links and resources: IPM technologiesSoils for Life Orchard Resilience ProjectIf you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Graeme Hand is a holistic land management and grazing educator based near Bairnsdale, Victoria, where he has farmed for more than 35 years. He came to the land via an unlikely route, a decade as an industrial chemist, before applying that scientific background to regenerative agriculture. A Certified Holistic Management educator and Board member of Regenerative Agriculture Network Tasmania, Graeme has been supporting farmers in adopting regenerative grazing techniques since 1996, and has spent the better part of three decades helping farming businesses rebuild topsoil, restore pasture, improve the water cycle and strengthen their resilience to a changing climate. At the heart of Graeme's work is a conviction that lasting change on the land starts with the decisions made each day in the paddock, with ‘safe to fail’ trials at the heart of his approach. As Graeme explains in this episode, trials are the key strategy that enables farmers to manage the complexity of biological approaches to grazing. It was a pleasure to record this episode with Graeme, live from the Grounded festival in Victoria, and I hope you enjoy our conversation. ** Keep an eye out for our new grazing practice guide, which will be launched on the 20th of May at a special field day and launch event in Mundarlo NSW. Details and registrations via soilsforlife.org.au/events/ ** Links and resources: Hand for the Land: Heaps of resources and advice from Graeme Hand’s holistic land management and training consultancyMonitoring ecological indicators of rangeland functional integrity and their relation to biodiversity at local to regional scales: Study mentioned in this episode, authored by David Tongway and othersIf you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Find out more and register for the special event to launch our Introductory Guide to Grazing for Soil and Landscape Health, on 20 May at Nick Austin’s farm in Mundarlo, NSW (near Wagga) - events.humanitix.com/grazinglaunchfieldday This episode was recorded live at the third Grounded Festival at Yan Yan Gurt West farm in Victoria’s Otways. One of my highlights of the festival was hearing from third-generation New Zealand dairy farmer Gavin Fisher. Although, dairy is only the tip of the iceberg of Gavin’s farm. He also raises deer, chickens and ducks, and bees. The pastures are multi-species, but every paddock is also surrounded by diverse plantings of trees and shrubs, including fruit and nut trees, and medicinal plants for the cows. This is the product of a decades-long process through which Gavin has steadily transformed his family’s farm from a flat, treeless series of paddocks, into a diverse and multi-layered production system. With the principle of biological diversity and synergy at the centre of his vision, and farming deeper and higher rather than expanding his land area, Gavin has created a low cost, minimal input, highly resilient and profitable enterprise that is filled with life: Links and resources: Gavin’s Instagram - www.instagram.com/off_the_planet_organicsGavin’s LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-fisher-a28b8280If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

What happens when a commercial dairy farm runs regenerative and conventional systems side-by-side, and measures the results? In this episode, Clare Buchanan from Align Farms shares insights from an ongoing trial in Mid Canterbury, New Zealand. Half the farm is managed conventionally, while the other half uses diverse pastures, lower synthetic inputs and a different approach to grazing and stocking. The aim has been to test how these systems perform in the same conditions, across production, environment and profitability. Clare talks through what they’ve been observing in the five years the trial has been running, including pasture production without synthetic nitrogen, how soil biology is tracking, and what they’ve learned about pasture diversity over time. Early research is also pointing to differences in milk quality, with links between pasture composition and fatty acids and plant compounds in the milk. Financial performance is a key part of the trial. The regenerative system is currently profitable, but not yet matching the conventional side, largely due to lower stocking rates and production. As input costs shift and the system continues to evolve, that gap is something they’re watching closely. Clare reflects on what they would do differently, what still isn’t clear, and where there may be opportunities for farmers looking to test similar approaches on their own farms. Links and resources: Find out more about the trial and Align Farms here: https://alignfarms.co.nz/Lincoln University study, Regenerative Farming Enhances Human Health Benefits of Milk and Yoghurt in New Zealand Dairy Systems, 2025, https://www.mdpi.com/2624-862X/6/4/39If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Australia's fertiliser crisis has been building for weeks as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. Around 60 per cent of Australia's urea imports travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been severely disrupted, leaving shipments stranded and future orders cancelled. Some reports suggest urea prices have already more than doubled since December 2025, from around US$350 per tonne to US$750, and there are serious doubts about whether any supplies will be available beyond the next few months if the conflict continues. Even if stock becomes available, the prices are eating into margins, with reports that many growers are choosing to cut production because the economics simply don’t stack up. The federal government has formed a Fertiliser Supply Working group and responded with a package of measures including new legislation to underwrite the import of emergency fertiliser supplies. But what can producers themselves do? Today we're talking to soil and plant health educator Joel Williams about what farmers can do right now to manage this situation on the ground. Links and resources: ​Soils for Life Cropping Practice Guides​Joel Williams’ Foliar Nitrogen Course​GRDC Resources page If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

Dr Jonathan Lundgren runs 1,000 Farms, the largest and most comprehensive study of regenerative agriculture anywhere in the world. Despite the name, the program now includes more than 2,000 farms across all eco-regions in North America, with a minimum of 500 data types for each farm, including data on production, economics, soil, water, biodiversity, carbon, nutrition and more. The results - according to Jon - are illustrating what farmers themselves have been reporting, that working with natural systems on farms can be as profitable, with greater stability and resilience, improved environmental outcomes and much improved mental and physical health and wellbeing for the farmers. But that incredible research is just the tip of the iceberg of this conversation. After a highly distinguished scientific career, including a PhD in entomology, more than a decade with the USDA, receiving the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering, and writing more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, Jon pivoted. He established Ecdysis Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Estelline, South Dakota, dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture through relationship-based, independent research, and bought and now runs a farm - Blue Dasher Farm. He has become a passionate advocate for reorienting food and agriculture systems away from centralised corporate commodity chains and back to the farmers on the land, their health and wellbeing, and that of the communities in which they operate. This, he argues, is the pathway to more secure and resilient agriculture, and to realising the true potential of regenerative agriculture to deliver on our most pressing social, economic and environmental issues. Further reading: ​Ecydsis Foundation​1,000 Farms Initiative​Periodic Table of Food Initiative​Project Avalanche​Wilmot Field Day