A year in the soil

It’s been a big year in the soil for the SQNNSW Innovation Hub. Let’s recap! 

World Soil Day competition winners

World Soil Day was held on 5 December. As part of the SQNNSW Innovation Hub’s commitment to supporting land managers, and those who support them, in enhancing soil management practices, we have run our third World Soil Day Competition.

This year we have three winners: Gwymac Landcare’s Mastering Soil Health Group, Casino's Alice Moore and Moree's Casey & Jack Travers.

The Mastering Soil Health Group has 16 committed members across a range of enterprises brought together by a common interest in soil, peer to peer learning and practical activities.

Alice Moore from Casino is using agtech and GIS, combined with on ground observation, to help identify areas of low productivity in her pasture and soil testing will be the next step.

Casey and Jack Travers run trade steers on Vertosol soils around Moree NSW. Being new to the region they are aiming to learn more about their soil as they improve soil health through legume incorporation and reducing soil disturbance, and deepen their understanding of soils so they can make better management decisions that support drought resilience.

Congratulations to our winners. We look forward to organising visits in the new year!

Reflecting on 2025

As a Regional Soil Coordinator, the two most important priorities that I can achieve are to help build soil capacity and promote the importance of soil – particularly amongst decision makers. In 2025 we have made good progress in both of these areas, but there is still much to be done.

From a capacity building perspective, 2025 has been a very productive year. I have had the opportunity to support many land managers and primary producers at numerous workshops and field days, as well as providing detailed soil advice to the winners of our 2024 World Soil Day competition. For those who provide advice to our producers, it has also been busy with events such as a two-day soil get together at Dubbo for NSW Local Land Services, training in soil sampling and description for staff from the Burnett Mary Regional Group and the Queensland Government’s Graduate Soil Scientist program, and coordinating the delivery of the Field Training Module of Soil Science Australia’s Soil Management Training. The next generation has also been a focus with soil workshops at three High Schools, supervising one undergraduate student as part of a Work Integrated Learning unit, presentations on a career in soils to soil science students at six universities, and coaching the University of Southern Queensland team at the recent Australian Soil judging Competition.

In the big picture, getting policy and investment decisions to consider soil is incredibly important. Along with my fellow Regional Soil Coordinators we have had some encouraging outcomes resulting from our Regional Soil Capacity Gap Analysis Reports. Of particular note was the reference to these Reports in the justification for a ‘Soil Education Opportunity’ tender released by the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Still there is much work to be done in this area as demonstrated by the Institutional Scan of public facing strategy documents that found that on the whole there is still an inadequate focus on soil.

Cropping systems evolution

I was recently interviewed by Eliza Spencer for The Land about how cropping systems can evolve for better outcomes in the soil and on-farm in a warming climate.

Warming soils increase the activity of soil microbiology, chewing up inputs for crops and leaving less organic matter in the soil. Organic matter which is our best defence to combat erosion and run-off across our agricultural landscapes. You can read more in this article.

I am greatly looking forward to build upon this important work in 2026 and thank the many people who have helped me on this journey in 2025.