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PODCAST

Soils For Life

The Soils for Life podcast brings you the voices of farmers around Australia who are regenerating our precious soils and landscapes. In each episode we share the stories of farmers who are discovering ways to farm with nature, and explore how we can all help more farmers to head in this direction, for healthier food, humans and planet. These stories show how resilient, regenerated soils and landscapes can support profitable food-producing businesses, thriving and resilient people and regional

science earth sciences

All Episodes

00:37:31

Figuring out regenerative grain in the paddock and...

Soils For Life ·

2026/09/22

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 episodeHow 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

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00:38:54

The network underpinning it all: Fungi with Dr...

Soils For Life ·

2026/09/08

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

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00:47:10

From feeding animals to feeding biology: Learning to...

Soils For Life ·

2026/08/25

About the podcastDavid 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

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00:48:52

Feeding the soil first: Hugh and Katie Finlay on...

Soils For Life ·

2026/08/11

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,

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00:39:34

Creating diversity above and below the ground: Murray...

Soils For Life ·

2026/07/28

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

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00:26:55

The power of pasture analysis, with Emily House

Soils For Life ·

2026/07/07

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

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00:57:38

Regenerative grazing and the key insights of Holistic...

Soils For Life ·

2026/06/23

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

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00:46:02

Building confidence in multispecies pastures, with...

Soils For Life ·

2026/06/09

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

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00:34:07

Working with biological control agents in perennial...

Soils For Life ·

2026/05/26

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,

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00:27:45

Managing risk in grazing through safe-to-fail farm...

Soils For Life ·

2026/05/12

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

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00:38:00

‘Intensification’ through biology, synergy and...

Soils For Life ·

2026/04/28

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/grazinglaunchfielddayThis 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

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00:35:43

Tracking milk quality, profit and soil health: A five...

Soils For Life ·

2026/04/14

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,

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00:41:17

RAPID RESPONSE: Managing the nitrogen fertiliser...

Soils For Life ·

2026/04/07

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

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00:43:52

Studying regenerative agriculture at scale: The human...

Soils For Life ·

2026/03/31

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

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00:30:33

Nature’s army: Using functional biodiversity for...

Soils For Life ·

2026/03/17

Dr Mary Retallack is an agricultural scientist, third-generation viticulturist and agroecologist who has spent more than three decades advancing environmental stewardship within agricultural landscapes. She grew up on a fruit block in SA's Riverland growing grapes, apricots and pears, and now lives on a small vineyard and apple orchard surrounded by native insectary plants in the Adelaide Hills.Mary is the founder and custodian of the award-winning National EcoVineyards Program, working in

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00:34:33

Milk, the original superfood, with Matthew Evans

Soils For Life ·

2026/02/24

Matthew Evans is a chef, farmer, author, food advocate and founder of Australia's Grounded Festival (coming up in April - tickets available at groundedaustralia.com.au).Soils for Life is kicking off a new national program working with dairy farmers around the country (join our launch event in March, details via https://events.humanitix.com/dairy-profitability-and-resilience-through-diversity-and-soil-health), and we thought it was the perfect time to talk to Matthew about his most recent book,

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00:05:05

A sneak peek at 'Soil - Rewilding the Underground'

Soils For Life ·

2025/11/27

Today, we’re bringing you something a little different. I’ve recently been involved in a new podcast series called 'Soil: Rewilding the Underground'. It does a fantastic job of telling the big picture story of soil, why it’s so important not just for farmers and food production, but also for water, for biodiversity, for climate stability, and for human health.Today we’re giving you a sneak peek of the first episode, and we encourage you to check out the full six part series wherever you get

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00:39:41

Navigating soil science, with Dr Susan Orgill

Soils For Life ·

2025/11/11

Dr Susan Orgill is Chief Scientist at Impact Ag Australia and a leading soil scientist with more than 20 years’ experience. She specialises in soil health, carbon farming, and regenerative agriculture, delivering science-based strategies that improve farm resilience, natural capital, and climate outcomes across research, policy, and sustainability initiatives.Suz has long been a friend of Soils for Life. She’s one of the most interesting and impressive soil scientists working in agriculture, and

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00:19:28

Earning the right to reduce pesticides: Building...

Soils For Life ·

2025/10/21

Western Australian farmer Brad Campbell has spent years refining his mixed cropping system to build healthier, more resilient plants and reduce reliance on synthetic inputs. Over time, he’s cut out routine fungicides and insecticides, moved away from chemical seed treatments, and now only uses pesticides strategically when needed.In this conversation, Brad talks about how targeted plant nutrition, sap testing and careful observation are helping him make management decisions and improve crop

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00:32:18

SHORT: From problem paddocks to healthy soils,...

Soils For Life ·

2025/10/07

This episode of the Soils for Life podcast is part of our series of mini-episodes with farmers profiled in our series of cropping practice guides.In this short episode, Eli Court chats with Victorian farmer Grant Sims about how multispecies cover cropping has transformed his mixed farming system at Pine Grove near Lockington. After moving away from synthetic fertilisers, fungicides and insecticides, Grant began experimenting with diverse seed mixes to bring more life back into his soils.He explains

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