Building soil knowledge | one workshop at a time

The last month has been as busy as it was rewarding. I delivered, or supported, five field days, from the south in Pillar Valley (near Grafton), to Glastonbury (near Gympie) in the north, and as far west as Mitchell in the Maranoa. I was talking about soil with producers and growers from small scale intensive horticulture to extensive grazing operations.

The first soil workshop was held at Chaffin Creek Farm, which was one of the winners of the SQNNSW Innovation Hub 2024 World Soil Day competition. In wet conditions, we discussed a range of soil management issues, including soil condition improvement within an intensively managed syntropic farming system compared to a nearby control.

It appears as a small thing, but one participant took the opportunity to dig a cube of their own soil for the first time, progressing in a better understanding of their most important resource. It was one small shovel of soil, but a big leap in enhancing soil knowledge!

I was invited to deliver a workshop at Kureelpa Queensland to support ECOllaboration and SEQWater’s South Maroochy Rivercare program. Another waterlogged day in the countryside, had meant our focus was targeted to managing wet conditions. This highlighted some of the many practical challenges of farming, where producers wanted to move stock but couldn’t because of soil moisture conditions.

A quick trip to Narrabri NSW followed, talking with the Cotton Info team about building soil capacity with my Southern NSW Regional Soil Coordinator peer, Luke Beange.

Back in Queensland, I had the honour to present about soil health at a Gympie Beef Group event alongside Alejandro Carrillo at Clean Green Local Farming, Glastonbury, Queensland. I was inspired by Warren and Karen’s story of how they improved their property from a drought stricken, badly degraded piece of land into a productive and diverse ecosystem. Achieved through hard work, and trial and error, they were able to do this in a relatively short period of time.

With Queensland Government graduate soil scientist Mali Eagle, a couple of great days were had in the Mitchell District. I provided a presentation to Mitchell and District Landcare summarising their extensive soil testing results from a Queensland Government Natural Resources Recovery Program (NRRP) project. More than 400 soil samples were collected at three depths, across 137 sites and 25 properties. Many graziers attested to a good season, recalling that the region looked fantastic! The highlight was being able to get our hands dirty with the high school students from Mitchell State School. 

The final field day was hosted by GLENRAC Inc at a grazing property near Dundee, north of Glen Innes with a serradella and liming trial taking place. Many good questions and discussions by the attendees were based on topics ranging between grazing management, pasture establishment to addressing soil constraints, such as acidity. 

We also had a fantastic catch up with the entire SQNNSW Innovation Hub team in Toowoomba, a rare opportunity! 

My key takeaway from this broad tapestry of landscapes, soil types, agricultural enterprises and producers/land managers, is the ongoing thirst for soil knowledge. It reconfirmed how each farming business’ story, circumstances and soil understanding are unique, and just how complex the agricultural industry is. There are no templated solutions!  

I feel very grateful to be given the opportunity as a Regional Soil Coordinator to work with people who are dedicated and interested in improving the management of our most important resource, Australia’s soil. 

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The SQNNSW Innovation Hub receives funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.