Name: Regenerative Agriculture: what it is, and why it’s important — Granite Belt Sustainable Action Network — Stanthorpe, Qld
Start: 2021-09-04T08:00:00+1000
End: 2021-09-04T16:30:00+1000
Location: Stanthorpe Civic Centre

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Granite Belt Regenerative Agriculture Symposium

Regenerative agriculture: What it is, and why it's important

Granite Belt Sustainable Action Network (GBSAN) is hosting a one-day Regenerative Agriculture Symposium in Stanthorpe on 4 September 2021.

The symposium will address adapting land management and agricultural practices for improved productivity and resilience in the face of climate change, tailored to the needs of the Granite Belt.

The keynote speaker for the symposium is Dr Charles Massy, regenerative farmer and author of Call of the Reed Warbler. Other speakers include local growers who are or have transitioned to more sustainable management regimes.

Register your interest in future engagement on regenerative agriculture and land management

Symposium Program

8:00 - 8:30 REGISTRATION & COFFEE

8:30 - 8:45 Opening and introductions, Robin McConchie, MC, Former ABC rural reporter

8:45 - 10:15 Renewing the family farm while saving the planet, Dr Charles Massy, Regenerative farmer & Author

Regenerative agriculture is gaining worldwide popularity and is being adopted now at unprecedented rates, and covering millions of hectares. This is because it has many key solutions to some of the major problems confronting both our planetary systems, our farming systems, and human and societal health. By focussing on regenerating the four key biogeophysical landscape functions (solar, soil, and water cycles and biodiversity), large volumes of carbon are being returned to the soil (instead of the opposite under industrial cropping or set-stocked grazing). This in turn impacts seven of earth's ten destabilized planetary systems. The enrichment of soil carbon, for example, also means soil biology returns to better health again. In turn, and because this biology is largely what delivers soil nutrients, micronutrients and phytochemicals to our food, then this positively impacts human and animal health. Along the way, in the face of greater climate change, regenerative farmers are increasing the resilience of their farms and their families and their health.

10:15 - 10:45 MORNING TEA

10:45 - 11:15 What we need to do, and what’s happening in Southern Queensland, Paul McDonald, Southern Queensland Landscapes

Agronomists report our soil carbon lies around 0.5% to 1% when it should be around 5% on the Darling Downs and Granite Belt, and pastoralists have become fixated on drought and fodder budgets with increasing weed incursions and airborne soil loss and overland erosion impacts. These are signs of a deeper issue around how we look at land management. In southern Queensland, there are 132 registered projects with the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) covering 4.825 million hectares (11.2% of our region). Only 9,315 hectares (6 projects) are for carbon sequestration in soils, and to date, no credits have been issued for these, yet 12.7 million credits have been issued for vegetation offset projects. The good news is our land managers understand the need to improve soil health and are increasingly asking for assistance on the back of recent climactic conditions and know the current management practices are not working so well anymore. A recent soils workshop around making good soil in Highfields was over-subscribed (capped at 208 people). The message for SQ Landscapes is clear, we need to help our land managers improve our soils to ensure agriculture survives and thrives in the coming environmental conditions. To do this, we have looked at “regenerative agriculture”, natural systems farming, soil biomes and biology, landscape re-hydration techniques, the role of mycorrhiza, micro-algae and bacteria, and associated herd and cropping management techniques. The way forward is clear and it requires major changes in our company’s thinking so we can better help our land managers.

11:15 - 12:00 From vagueness to specificity: A pragmatic framework for optimising sustainable and profitable land outcomes, Prof John Bennett, University of Southern Queensland (USQ)

Regenerative agriculture is ill-defined, while conventional agriculture is so diverse the definition becomes meaningless. Either way, the discussion on which camp you sit in is very much redundant. The time would be better spent looking at the principles of good land management specific to your patch. The fact is, it is possible to be both profitable and sustainable. It just requires some rethinking of our soil resource (and reinforcement of things we might already know), how we treat it, and how to optimise its use within the local environment. This discussion will focus on how the soil resource is spatially variable, even when it doesn’t appear so, and how this can be used to the manager's advantage. We have heard that oils ain’t oils, well soils ain’t soils. A framework for optimised land management will be introduced, with specific discussion on the local soils you will be familiar with. Through this discussion, it will be demonstrated that soils as capital assets require capital investment, and that we can help identify the best assets in which to invest. From this, how investment in our soils can be leveraged into environmental credits as a potential additional income. Understanding our soils takes the vagueness out of the regenerative versus conventional agricultural popular debate, and focusses on the specifics of landscape complexity to provide a sustainable and profitable outcome.

12:00 - 13:00 Local stories of the journey to regeneration

Rowan Berecry
Orchard Manager, The Good Rich Fruit Co

Michelle Coelli
Co-Owner, Twisted Gum Wines

Donna Gabbott
Co-owner Farmer, Rising Sun Farm

13:00 - 14:00 LUNCH

14:00 - 15:30 Panel discussion facilitated by Robin McConchie & Charles Massy

Panelists:

Rowan Berecry, The Good Rich Fruit Co

Michelle Coelli, Twisted Gum Wines

Donna Gabbott, Rising Sun Farm

Jeff McMahon, McMahon Bros Orchards

Angus Ferrier, Rosemary Hill Orchard

David Andreatta, Atta Farms

15:30 - 16:00 Closing

16:00 - 16:30 NETWORKING

What’s the symposium about?

It’s about regenerative agriculture and land management, and how it can be applied locally to improve long-term resilience and productivity in the face of uncertainty and change.

Regenerative agriculture:

Is an ecological approach to farming. It’s about enabling landscapes to renew themselves as part of the management process, rather than degrading the land by over use. Regeneration enables the land to be resilient to change and to maintain productivity.
Can increase the productivity of agriculture, and improves the resilience of land to withstand drought and other disasters. It also has significant potential to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
Is most commonly practiced in small, family-run operations, but these have potential to make a huge impact. Regenerative farming has the potential to keep farming families on the land.
Encompasses a wide range of farming and land management practices, including: permaculture, agroforestry, biodynamic farming, food forestry, holistic/ecological grazing, cropping with biological inputs and cropping into native landscapes. Other variations include natural sequence farming and natural intelligence farming.

Who is the symposium for?

The symposium is for horticulturists, viticulturists, orchardists and graziers, as well as managers of public and private land in the Granite Belt and surrounding area. It will also be useful for scientists and policy makers in land management and agriculture. You don't have to be a farmer to use regenerative practices. Everyone can benefit from regeneration.

What will you get from the symposium?

The symposium will provide you with local and relevant information and experience to support your journey to regeneration.

You will hear from local farmers who have implemented regenerative practices, and have the opportunity to ask questions about their experiences, good and bad.

You will be able to ask questions to address your concerns, for example:

Is it even relevant to farms like mine?
Is it scalable to my farm?
Is it profitable?
Doesn’t it cost a lot to implement?
Will it make me uncompetitive?

You will have the opportunity to share ideas, build networks, and plan implementation strategies with your colleagues and community.

The symposium will generate discussion, facilitate sharing of experiences and testing of ideas, build networks and community, and ultimately, stimulate action toward more regeneration of land in the Granite Belt and surrounds.

Speakers

Charles Massy
BSc PhD OAM
Regenerative farmer and Author

Charles Massy gained a Bachelor of Science (Zoology; Human Ecology) at ANU in 1976 before going farming for 35 years and developing the prominent Merino sheep stud 'Severn Park'. Concern at ongoing land degradation and humanity's sustainability challenge led him to return to ANU in 2009 to undertake a PhD in Human Ecology. Charles was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services as Chair and Director of a number of research organizations and statutory wool boards. He has also served on national and international review panels in sheep and wool research and development and genomics. Charles has authored several books on the Australian sheep and wool industry, including the widely acclaimed Breaking the Sheep's Back (UQP 2011), which was short-listed for the Prime Minister's Australian Literary Awards in Australian History in 2012. Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture - a New Earth is Charles's fourth book; it has attained best-seller status and has been shortlisted for a number of literary awards.

Watch this video to get a taste of Charles Massy’s story of regeneration on his property.

Robin McConchie
B.AgSc Dip Ed
Former ABC rural reporter

Robin McConchie is a well known voice on the ABC Country Hour, reporting on the social, economic and environmental issues impacting on the bush from 1983-2017. She was Executive Producer of the Queensland Country Hour from 2000-2017. Robin reported on agripolitics from Parliament House, Canberra from 1990-2000. Robin worked in Adelaide and Regional Queensland in the 80’s. She was a Director of the National Press Club and is a member of the Qld Rural Press Club Hall of Fame. Robin remembers the 1990’s debates over returning water to the Murray and Native Title. She has fond memories of teaching agriculture to secondary students. Her passion is fair and balanced reporting, she is curious and excited by development in regenerative agriculture.

John Bennett
BSc (Res&EnvMgmt)(Hons) ANU, PhD Sydney, Certified Professional Soil Scientist (CPSS)
Professor, University of Southern Queensland Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems

Professor John McLean Bennett's research delivers results for sustainability and resilience in Queensland and beyond. John works at scales from sub-nano through to catchment level, harnessing advances in soil structural stability research to guide sensible land management policy. Policy that incentivises landholders’ management processes and enhances Australia’s resilience to changing climates, delivering ecosystems service, without compromising profitability on-farm. Combining sensing, soil data and soil-plant-climate system models, John’s team is cultivating real-world solutions being put into action as we speak. John is the Deputy Director of Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems and a Past President of Soil Science Australia, the non-governmental peak-body for soils and soil science; through these he continues to work towards Soil Security for Australia.

Paul McDonald
CEO, Southern Queensland Landscapes

Paul McDonald has a background as a licensed surveyor and long term practitioner in natural resource management, business development and management, environmental planning, catchment management, strategic leadership, community engagement and entrepreneurship developed over his 38 year professional career. He is the inaugural Chief Executive of Southern Queensland Landscapes (one of 54 natural resource management groups in Australia). Paul has a Masters in Information Systems and holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship with the University of Queensland (Earth Sciences).

Rowan Berecry
Orchard Manager, The Good Rich Fruit Co

Rowan Berecry is the manager of The Good Rich Fruit Co orchard at Warroo, west of Stanthorpe. The orchard was planted in 2010-11 and comprises 75,000 Queen Garnet plums and pollinators. Rowan transitioned to growing biologically / regeneratively nearly 20 years ago, having introduced biological practices to his own operation on the NSW Central Coast. The success of this change led him to introduce and expand these methods after taking on the Warroo orchard.

Michelle Coelli
Co-Owner, Twisted Gum Wines

Michelle Coelli is a co-owner of Twisted Gum Wines, where they make small batches of premium quality wines from a 3-hectare sustainably managed vineyard, surrounded by over 30 hectares of native bushland. They use large quantities of mulch under vine and a permanent midrow pasture to help build soil carbon and fertility and to encourage insect biodiversity in the vineyard. They use zero or minimal irrigation to force the vines to push their roots deep into the sub soil, and use no chemical insecticides and minimise the use of other chemicals where possible. As a result they produce low yields of premium quality grapes with unique savoury flavours.

Donna Gabbott
Co-Owner Farmer, Rising Sun Farm

Donna Gabbott is the co-owner farmer of Rising Sun Farm, landmarked by the Old Bendee Wool Shed, Springdale Road, Nundubbermere, which they have owned for five years. The farm is operated on a free-range regenerative basis, using minimal chemicals on the land and livestock. It runs 400 dorper ewes, 130 alpacas, endangered heritage large black pigs consisting of 10 breeders plus mobile chicken caravans. It is at start of a work in progress. Donna grew up in suburban North Manchester but always had access to small-scale farming. She lived next to a small dairy farm. Her stepfather was from a farming family and has mentored her and three of her siblings to follow in diverse agricultural enterprises across the world. A love of animals, domestic and native, the natural environment and good clean food, give her motivation to repair and regenerate the landscape now and into the future.

Jeff McMahon
Part Owner/Manager, McMahon Bros Orchards

Jeff McMahon is from an organic family farm that grows a variety of produce. Jeff made the switch to organic growing 20 years ago.

Angus Ferrier
Rosemary Hill Orchard

Angus Ferrier is President of Granite Belt Growers. He is a second generation stonefruit producer focusing on early season production of peaches, nectarines and plums. His business is always keen to consider new farming practices and adopt a best management practice approach.

David Andreatta

Co-owner, Atta Farms

David Andreatta is a conventional tomato and capsicum grower who has been farming for over 20 years. He believes in good soil health and is open to new ideas.

More speakers and information to come!! Visit again…