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This Farmers helping Farmers episode is coming to you from a regenerative rice farm in Southern Tuscany, Italy. Picture yourself there by listening out for the town bells, the birds and a tractor going past. Angus 'Gus' Ingram is travelling through Italy with his family, exploring all the things the country is renowned for - food, food, food. Not just any food, high quality, nutritious, regeneratively-grown food. In this episode Angus visits the farm of Ariane Lotti from Tenuta San Carlo. Ariane was recognised in 2024 as one of Europe's Top 50 farmers, an initiative started by Foodprint Nordic to recognise farmers who are working in harmony with nature, regenerating the land, restoring biodiversity, and building resilient ecosystems. Ariane Lotti spent summers on the farm with her family as a child, and since 2014 has been leading Tenuta San Carlo with a vision for certified organic agriculture with a regenerative approach. Under her leadership, the farm has become certified organic, expanded its crop diversity, restored natural ecosystems through reforestation, and launched a line of farm-branded products. A Yale graduate and former U.S. agriculture policy expert, she also has roles within Italian and European farming organisations. Ariane provides a valuable insight into the economic considerations of changing from a conventionally managed farming system to a regenerative one. This episode also highlights the incredible innovations that can happen when you look for opportunities within your farm business and follow through on your vision to grow healthier food. Ariane is honest, practical and thoughtful, giving a realistic view of the challenges along the way, and the things she would do differently. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we do. It once again highlights the power of 'farmers helping farmers', no matter where you are in the world.

Guest host Joel Williams talks to Michael Gooden and Dan Fox about the evolution of this grassroots farming group over the past 24 years, and the announcement of its new name - Farmers helping Farmers. NEW NAME | SAME PRINCIPLES | SAME SUPPORT| SAME FARMERS HELPING FARMERS In 2002 a group of innovative broadacre cropping farmers formed the Victorian No Till Farmers Association as an independent, practical, grassroots group of ‘farmers helping farmers’. Fast forward through 24 years of droughts, floods, fires, hail, frost and amazing seasons and a lot has changed in Australian agriculture. The group has also changed – membership has extended beyond state borders, the core focus has gone well beyond no-till farming systems, and the knowledge and experience that comes out of member paddocks is teaching everyone something new every day. One thing that has never changed though is the reason for being. Farmers helping Farmers. "We welcome all farmers, no matter what system they are in, to join us as we launch Farmers helping Farmers Australia. Together we will continue to strive to regenerate agriculture for future generations. From the ground down, and the ground up." Go to our new website to find out more and get involved.

In this episode, Michael Gooden catches up with board member Carol Fitzpatrick and her husband Brian to delve deeper into their on-farm brewing set-up which is providing nutrition to their family's combined 6000-hectares of broadacre crops in one of Australia's harshest farming environments - the Mallee. Carol attended her first VicNoTill conference in 2022, just one year into being full-time on the farm. Although she felt like a fish out of water at first, VicNoTill has taken her knowledge to the next level. She joined the board in 2024 and has never looked back. “You've got to talk to farmers for that knowledge if you don’t know yourself. You need to speak to other farmers to find out when to apply, when it's worked and when it hasn’t. “The theory is all great and it's good to keep that in the back of your mind, but the practical implementation is just as difficult sometimes. Listening to other farmers tell you how they do it and how they've spent their money and time is more valuable in the long run.” If you enjoy listening to this podcast episode with Carol and Brian, they will be at the Farmers Helping Farmers Conference in Yarrawonga on September 2-3, 2026. They would be more than happy to answer your questions and share their knowledge. Farmers helping Farmers is what we are all about.

"I didn't get to Dad's until 12:30am Friday. I’ll never forget coming over the hill I’ve been coming over my whole life to home and seeing the area glowing. The whole horizon wasred. It was like an apocalypse." VicNoTill board member Callum Lawson and his partner, large-animal veterinarian Lyndall Barwick, were on the frontline of the Longwood bushfire in Victoria that started on January 7, 2026. This fire burnt over 140,000 hectares. Callum manages ‘Allanvale’ at Avenel and his family farm is at Highlands, about 45 minutes southeast. Callum and Lyndall did everything they could to create firebreaks and protect livestock at ‘Allanvale’ in catastrophic conditions before making an emergency dash to Highlands to help save the family farm. Seven months on, Michael Gooden catches up with Callum about the steps he's taken to restore and repair burnt soils, and rebuild his regenerative grazing system using tools such as natural sequence farming, virtual fencing, applying foliars, stimulating his underground biology and just sitting back patiently letting his landscape rest and recover as his soils rebuild themselves. A huge thank you to Callum for his generosity in sharing his story and for the time he's put into sharing his knowledge and experience to help others. Farmers helping farmers is what it's all about.

We are re-releasing our very first Farmers Helping Farmers podcast episode with former VicNoTill president and sixth generation Lockington farmer Grant Sims. This conversationwith Dan Fox was recorded way back in 2022 is our most highly listened to episode of all time. Grant joined the VicNoTill board in 2015 and was president until 2020. Landline Australia featured Grant and the benefits of regenerative farming system on its May 10, 2026 episode. It is exciting to see regenerative agriculture finally get the airplay it deserves. It might have taken a world war and a global fueland fertiliser crisis to get this attention, but the reality is that VicNoTill farmers like Grant have been successfully farming regeneratively in large-scale broadacre cropping and livestock systems for over 10 years. Grant has long been at the forefront of innovation and was president of VicNoTill when our farmer-based, grassroots organisation started testing and trialling regenerative tools. Grant credits VicNoTill as taking his passion and vision for better soils, better livestock and better, more profitable and sustainable farming systems to the next level. “Farmers helping farmers is a powerful way to lead change, and I don’t know any other organisation out there who does this as well as VicNoTill does,” he says. Grant’s excitement and passion for a new approach to how farmers feed the world is contagious, as you will discover in this episode of Farmers Helping Farmers - soil health, soil function and grassroots agriculture. Grant is also the founder of DownUnder AG. You can find out more about Grant on the ⁠VicNoTill website ⁠– he’s a wealth of knowledge and is generously sharing that knowledge around the world.

Farmers Helping Farmers, The Podcast is dropping into your ears with a paddock chat between VicNoTill president Michael Gooden and board member James Manning around how they're managing budgets, future plans and other farm activities during the current fuel and fertiliser shortage. James manages 'Northwood Park' at Seymour for one of three farms in a 10,000 acre thoroughbred stud owned by Sheik Mohammed of Dubai. James, his wife Lisa and their two young children also run a small regenerative beef block near Eurora. When it comes to breeding race horses, James' focus is on improving the nutritional value of pastures to give the horses the best possible opportunity to be the best athlete in the stable. He's not saying it will make them run any faster, but if they can improve their overall health, fertility and longevity, that's a good thing. We've also included an off-topic paddock chat between Michael and James to give you an insight into the grass roots conversations that are happening every single day in the VicNoTill network. Farmers Helping Farmers since 2002. All welcome.

April 2026: Life is full of challenges, especially in farming, and the global situation can be a heavy weight. It feels like the perfect time to re-release this encore conversation with UK farmer Tim Parton. If you want to be inspired, Tim is your man. We’re wanting to remind everyone that Farmers are Heroes, nobody else can do what we do. Since this episode was recorded in 2023, Tim has faced even more personal challenges due to a serious farming accident. We caught up with him when we attended Groundswell in the UK last year, and look forward to another podcast chat with him soon - watch this space! ... UK arable farmer of the year and Green Farm Collective founding member Tim Parton spent a week in Australia as part of VicNoTill's annual conference TRAN$ITION23. As well as inspiring over 100 farmers in the conference room, Tim hung out in soil pits and dug into soils with a shovel to gain a deeper understanding of regenerative farming systems in the Australian context. Dan Fox sat down in the podcast studio with Tim to discover what new ideas his visit had sparked. VicNoTill was also keen to find out how Tim is changing the narrative about farmers being the heroes when it comes to sequestering carbon and feeding the world.

In 2017, a Sydney TedX crowd went wild when farmer turned agronomist Guy Webb stood on stage to pitch his idea for using fungus to capture carbon in the atmosphere and plant it back into the ground to combat the lack of carbon in Australian soils. The applause was thunderous and what followed has been almost a decade of intensive research into developing a technology that provides a return on investment to farmers through their efforts to be ‘Carbon Capturing Superheroes’. Guy sat down in a canola field with Angus Ingram at the VicNoTill conference field day in spring 2025 to talk about how his lifelong mission to ensure the agricultural industry remains sustainable and profitable for the long-term future. Large scale broadacre cropping is his focus, providing a massive opportunity for change – and to hear how this humble and very passionate innovator has gotten to where he is today will both surprise and delight. We would like to share with listeners in advance that the sound quality in this episode varies due to some technical difficulties. VicNoTill is a farmer-based, grassroots organisation of Farmers Helping Farmers, and although we are proud to be at the forefront of change and systems thinking, we are honest and open about the challenges along the way – mastering the art of podcasting equipment is one!

VicNoTill is proud to re-release what was our second episode of Farmers Helping Farmers The Podcast for those who may have missed it! Dan Fox sat down with Graeme Sait during VicNoTill's 2022 annual conference Carbon Power to record what continues to be one of our most popular episodes On Why Nutrition Rules. Graeme knows so much about growing nutritious food and we’ve only crammed in a tiny portion of what he knows into this conversation! Three years on, and everything Graeme shares in this podcast remains as relevant and true as ever. VicNoTill is also sharing a whole range of other resources we have with Graeme Sait on our website as we're sure listening to this will spark your interest in wanting to know more!

VicNoTill president Michael Gooden describes stepping intothe paddocks of broadacre cropping farmer Brendan 'Patto' Pattison at Marrar NSW, as like stepping 10-15 years into the future and seeing what broadacre cropping systems have the potential to become. Michael sits in the tractor, ute and walks through Patto's paddocks for this Farmers Helping Farmers episode that brings real farm life to your ears, learning more about cropping and soil health in just over an hour than what he could in a decade. "Whenever I visit Patto on farm, am blown away bywhat he’s doing and how far he’s taken it,” Michael says. “He is a quiet achiever and a true innovator. He is deeply knowledgeable about systems farming and where he wants to take his. In his own quiet way he has contributed a lot, not only to VicNoTill, but to Australian agriculture as a whole.” Brendan has a long history with innovation, being the first in their district in the NSW Riverina to use a disc seeder in 2007 as a way to gain more groundcover. He started minimum till 10 years prior to this, and gradually phased out sheep to go 100% cropping. He took a 'whole of system' approach to introducing the disc and has maintained that focus ever since. It has taken time for their system to click into placeand he says it has been a ‘pretty slow’ journey for the dual benefit of improving soil quality without compromising profitability. After joining the board, Patto made big steps forward in his system by dropping synthetics out and putting more focus on biology. He says being involved with VicNoTill continually inspires him to further tweak his system and trial new things. Patto was a VicNoTill board member from 2018-2024. An indepth look at his farming system features in Issue 74 of VicNoTill's member magazine From the Ground Up. His presentation at the VicNoTill Carbon Power conference is available to watch on VicNoTill's You Tube channel.

Back in 2023, third generation Victorian farmer Tom Briggs candidly shared the things that went right, and wrong, when he returned home to his family farm with a head full of new ideas of how to shift into a more regenerative farming system. Since that time a large number of farmers have contacted VicNoTill to say how much they appreciated and learnt from this episode. Tom joined the VicNoTill board in 2018 and filled the role of Vic President for several years. Tom made a difficult decision this year to step down from the board to dedicate more time to his growing family. We are releasing this conversation as an Encore episode to honour and thank Tom for his contribution to Australian agriculture during his time on the board. Tom also features in the summer harvest edition of VicNoTill's member magazine From The Ground Up, distributed to members in December 2025.

In this podcast episode, Angus Ingram catches up with Don Piper. Don is a mixed farmer from Violet Town in Victoria who is typical of farmers who want to create a more resilient system that builds up their soils for future success, in that he believed he was the exception and could change everything all at once. He learnt pretty quickly he needed to build his 'on ramp and off ramp' that we covered with John Kempf in a recent Farmers Helping Farmers episode. But not to be deterred, Don sees the things that went wrong as being just as important as the things that went right. He is early into his changes but is clear in his direction, recognising that his below-ground health is the key to getting his system right. Don is also a new member of the VicNoTill board and our farmers helping farmers group is rapt to welcome someone with Don’s curiosity and enthusiasm for wanting to understand how he can maximise the productivity and profitability of his farming system. Farmers Helping Farmers podcast episodes are recorded in various locations including in the paddock, on the homestead verandah, in the tractor and machinery shed. From time to time we experience technical issues, and apologise in advance for a few sound glitches during this episode including some very noisy white cockatoos.

In this ENCORE episode you'll get an insight into what you can expect at the VicNoTill annual conference on September 2 and 3 at Moama, NSW when you meet our dinner guest speaker Will Bignell. VicNoTill board members met Will last year at the Grounded Festival in Tasmania, and couldn't wait to get him over to the mainland to share his story. Limited tickets to the conference are still available. Visit VicNoTill's website to purchase. VicNoTill members get discounted tickets, so if you're not a member, you can join here first. ... Agricultural investment manager and VicNoTill board member Angus Ingram steps in as guest host for this fast-paced, action-packed interview with Tasmanian farmer and ag scientist Will Bignell. Angus pulled Will aside after hearing him speak at the Matthew Evans Grounded Festival in southern Tasmania in December 2024. Will is a 7th generation farmer and father of three boys from Bothwell in Tasmania and it's remarkable what he's managed to cram into his life so far. The Bignell family farm is well known for pioneering and innovating a number of new and emerging Australian industries. Will has a fascinating back story and runs a highly diverse operation in an extremely challenging environment. Will runs a 2300Ha farm with his parents and produce wool, poppies, lamb, venison and a number of boutique specialty root vegetables. He is highly regarded for his skills at breaking down complex problems and bringing together people and resources to create simple, effective and economical solutions. We really appreciated Will's openness and his transparency about all the various challenges, successes and failures that he's had so far in life, and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

NSW broadacre cropping farmer Dan Fox has a fascination for understanding the intricacies of how plants and soils function, and his conversation with Omnia research and development manager Andrew Doecke takes him into some deep rabbit holes on nutrition, chemistry and science. Dan is in his element in this sponsor episode in piecing together how bio-stimulants fit into broadacre cropping systems. This indepth discussion covers humates, inoculants, fertilisers, balancing nutrients and some of the misconceptions around biological stimulants. Andrew outlines how Omnia are part of Fertiliser Australia's code of practice for labelling, to ensure farmers who purchase their products know exactly what's in them, and gives an invaluable insight into how farmers can be more targetted with their applications. Omnia's core philosophy is sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on optimising the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. Based in Morwell, Victoria, they manufacture organic based soil conditioners and fertilisers that maximise and sustain soil productivity. Due to access to unique quality of raw materials in Australia and innovative product development, Omnia has grown into the largest Australian manufacturer of natural humate-based products. They collaborate with Monash University and other Australianresearch institutions to develop new products and tools locally for use in Australia and worldwide.For more information visit Omnia's website.

“If you have a decline in yield as a result of a transition to regenerative ag, it is not a result of regenerative ag, it is the result of poor agronomic management. Accepting a yield loss is a choice. Don’t say it’s a result of regenerative ag because it’s not, and I will die on this hill.” It is a strong start to this Farmers Helping Farmers special episode with John Kempf – a true visionary in regenerative agriculture. VicNoTill board member Angus Ingram catches up with John as he launches his new agronomic AI tool, Field Lark. It is an honour and a privilege that John chose our podcast as the first public recording about this tool. VicNoTill members have already started testing and using Field Lark and believe this has the potential to be very powerful in assisting with information interpretation and decision making. It is a lightning-fast fact checker and a valuable sounding board. However, to our minds, AI will never replace a farmer's experience or their intuition – that ability to detect when something isn't quite right. In this episode we also cover: Building an ‘on ramp’ for biological nutrition, whilst also building an ‘off ramp’ for chemistry- focused nutrition.The easy-to-achieve return on investments that nutritional and biological seed treatments offer, and the superior nutrient uptake efficiency that foliar applications provide.Non-linear agronomy - when you begin combining all these smaller variations to your inputs, you can see a compounding effect in the outcome. He calls it the ‘one plus one equals three’ scenario.A specific example relating to Australian conditions and how we can ensure that our crops and pastures have enough in the tank as we plant into cooling soils. VicNoTill has long admired John’s vision and ambition, and he provides some great, relatable analogies for Australian farmers in this episode. Enjoy! Test Field Lark here.