Regenerative Agriculture

The Regenerative Agriculture Project is funded by the Australian Government's National Landcare Program (NLP).

The program builds on what has been learnt from previous programs and projects such as the successful NLP Farming for Sustainable Soils project including its delivery method.

Regenerative Agriculture Community Groups strengthen the health and vitality of farming communities by delivering on-ground projects and activities that improve soil health, enhance ecosystem services and increase our communities’ resilience to climate variability.

Regenerative Agriculture Community Groups' contact details

Regenerative Agriculture Community Groups are leading and managing on ground projects and activities including workshops, field days, trials, and farm tours determined by the group to increase knowledge and skills of landholders to manage threatening processes to soil carbon and erosion, biodiversity or vegetation.

Download the Regenerative Agriculture flier

The groups are supported by a local facilitator to assist with planning, delivering and reporting group activities. If you would like to be involved with these groups please make contact with your nearest facilitator.

Central Victorian Regenerative Farmers group

Facilitator: Zoe Crouch

Email: valooka81@bigpond.com

Kara Kara Regenerative Agriculture group

Facilitator: Andrew Borg

Email: bnglandcare@gmail.com

Loddon Plains Future Farming group

Facilitator: Danny Pettingill

Email: facilitator@lpln.org

You can also register to become a member of the Loddon Plains Future Farming Regenerative Agriculture group here: https://forms.gle/fUeQNF7kbskwLgem8

Join the Loddon Plains Future Farmers Regenerative and Sustainable Agriculture group to keep up to date with events.

More information: http://www.lpln.org/loddon-plains-future-farming-regen.../

For more information regarding LPLN's commitment to Sustainable Agriculture: click here

Mt Alexander group

Facilitator: Deane Belfield

Email: deanebelfield@eco2sys.com

Normanville group

Facilitator: Anne Jackman

Email: anne@cropfacts.com.au

Raywood group

Facilitator: Penny Wall

Email: apwallfarmbusiness@gmail.com

Meet our Regenerative Ag Farmers

Group activities

group of farmers standing in a paddock, the one talking is leaning on a shovel

Normanville

Climate & soil moisture monitoring https://www.datafarmer.com.au/
Multi species paddock demonstrations, group discussions/paddock walks at 4 different farms over the next 18 months. On-farm demonstrations of multi species cover crops under guidance of consulting agronomist Jade Killoran, Healthy Farming. Including soil testing and feed testing
Field day soil pit supported by Agriculture Victoria – Rebecca Mitchell and Helen Hayden Autumn 2022

Raywood

Climate & soil moisture monitoring - Dale Boyd, Agriculture Victoria workshops https://extensionaus.com.au/soilmoisturemonitoring/
Yield monitoring and Nitrogen management www.yieldprophet.com.au
Multi species demonstration field walks - improve lucerne based pastures, assess forage brassica crop
Pasture Variety trial - Pasture Genetics Tom McCooey, field visits
Biodiversity demonstration sites of forage trees and shrubs suited to local environment that can be grazed by livestock. Supported by Ken Wellard, Neangar nursery
Soil carbon benefits – multispecies paddocks, deep rooted perennials, stubble retention.

Central Victorian Regenerative Farmers

Bus tour of regenerative farms S/W Vic and Mallee
Stock containment - electric fencing options, construction, moving livestock.
Grazing Naturally (practical intensive planned grazing) with Dick Richardson
Perennial Pastures - species options, establishment, management, value.
Planned Intensive Grazing Demonstration
Member and Formal Demo Trials (pastures) field walks and video conferenced meetings
Follow this group on Facebook

Castlemaine/Mount Alexander

Recap and Review: Purpose is to regroup with members, consolidate learnings and feedback from Year 2 and discuss proposed framework for Year 3
Understanding Your Soil Test - interpreting soil tests and using this knowledge as a basis for correcting soil imbalances and enable those conducting field trials/demos to make better decisions leading to improved soil biology and hence yield
Multi-species cover crop trials and demonstration: to improve knowledge and skill about pasture establishment and management and cover crop types (winter, summer) to help improve soil biology (fungi/bacteria, C:N), pasture nutrient density and balance, ensure maximum vegetation cover, retain moisture, smother weeds and to provide maximum photosynthetic capacity to build soil carbon.
Grass and pasture inventory: Conduct workshop followed by on farm audits of prevalent grasses, forbs, natives, perennials and annuals
Holistic grazing intro and demonstration: Principles of holistic or managed grazing will be reviewed, along with case studies and tools, including tissue testing.
Establish dung beetle nurseries - to build on the field work for holistic grazing and cover-cropping to create capability for farmers to incorporate beetles as part of their regen system and enable local breeding of beetles.
Revegetation, Planting, Shelterbelts, Hydrology: gain an understanding of plant species that will improve soil condition (where and why) water retention and provide biodiverse habitat
Soil Amendments & Biochar: understand the potential of integrating various soil amendments including biochar and compost into the soil, and trial non-farm manufacture and application. Farmers to be encouraged to undertake small trials of on-farm manufacture with potential to combine with cover-cropping.

Kara Kara

Group Meeting (Start/Year 1): review the Action Plan and discuss how it is to be implemented over the two-year period. A guest speaker will be sought to present a topic about the importance of Regenerative Agriculture.
Promoting Knowledge: encourage discussion about different regenerative agriculture techniques, through the acquisition and circulation of published materials for linkage from the KKRAG Website
Workshop - Soils - Biology and Testing: Purpose is to introduce an understanding of soil biology and the soil testing process.
Workshop - Understanding Your Soil Test: interpreting soil tests and using this knowledge as a basis for correcting soil imbalances and enable those conducting field trials/demos to make better decisions
Workshop - Improving Soil: Dung Beetles - introduce members to methods of improving soil using Dung Beetles. The longer-term aim is to establish Beetle nurseries in the region.
Workshop - Erosion Control: Overview of erosion processes and methods of mitigation/rehabilitation.
Workshop - Revegetation, Planting, Shelterbelts, Biodiversity, Hydrology: understanding of plant species that will improve soil condition (where and why) water retention and provide biodiverse habitat.
Multi-species cover crop trials and demonstration: Preliminary design for small scale trials.
Holistic grazing introduction and demonstration: Principles of holistic or managed grazing will be reviewed, along with case studies and tools, including tissue testing.
Workshop - Native Grasses: Purpose is to consider the utilisation of native pastures in agricultural activities.
Workshop / Field Demo - Soil Amelioration: soil ameliorant inputs with a view to improving yields and reducing wastage.

Loddon Plains

Soil testing and interpretation workshop.
Soil pit at each demonstration site.
Pasture cropping for soil health – workshop and demonstration.
Grazing management to maintain ground cover – workshop and demonstration.
Climate adaptation workshop.
Native vegetation on farm – information session.
Group Documentation platform - website for documentation, trial progress, results and resources.
Grazing Management for Nutrition.
Dung beetle’s workshop and property visit.

Resources and links

Resources and Links

Click on the links below for more information

Regenerative Agriculture flier
Ten ways to improve the Natural Assets on a Farm
2020 spring & summer sowing srategies - lessons from the CVRF
Soil Health Guide
Agriculture Victoria Soil Health Guide Presentation
North Central Victoria Soil Health Action Plan
Soil moisture probe and weather data - Agriculture Victoria and Data Farmer and Intelliweb (username dpi and password dpi)
Soil and landscape information

LANDHOLDER STORIES

GROUP FLYERS

OTHER RESOURCES

Regenerative Agriculture Alliance is a collaboration led by Southern Cross University (SCU) to support Australian farmers, foresters and fishers by building on the foundations of the highly successful national Farming Together program and by leveraging SCU’s existing scientific and research capacities.

Soil CRC (CRC for High Performance Soils) was established in 2017 to give farmers the knowledge and tools they need to make decisions on extremely complex soil management issues. The North Central CMA is partnering two Soil CRC funded projects:

Visualising Australasia’s Soils: A Soil CRC interoperable spatial knowledge system, project leader Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus Federation University,
Bioindicators of high performing soils: A design and validation framework for in-field applications (July 2019-June 2022), project leader: Pauline Mele, AVR-Agribio.

These projects will support the delivery of the Regenerative Agriculture project outcomes.

Presentations

Here's a selection of useful videos that are handy resources for any time of the year: