Growing regenerative agriculture among the cropping sector will be a key focus of a national soils conference in country NSW.
Dozens of farmers will speak on how they implement healthy soil practices at the Soil Stewardship Summit being held near Yass from Tuesday.
Eli Court from summit organiser Soils for Life says while Australian graziers are considered leaders in regenerative agriculture, there are unique challenges facing croppers.
“Cropping operations are happening in a reasonable scale, and we haven’t heard as many of those stories amongst people who are interested in regenerative agriculture,” Mr Court told AAP.
“We’re trying to dispel that myth that regenerative agriculture can’t happen on a large scale.”
Obstacles facing croppers looking to build soil health will be in focus at the summit, with case studies of several farmers to highlight mistakes made and lessons learnt.
“It’s different for every farm and the whole idea is to do the things that work to build landscape health, while continuing to have a profitable business,” Mr Court said.
One of those case studies is Queensland seed producer Russell Young, from Dalby on the Western Downs.
The third generation farmer has been using regenerative agricultural practices across his 850-hectare property since 2018, and says his input costs have dropped by ten per cent.
He wants to share with other producers how easy it can be to use some regenerative practices, but warns it’s not quick.
“You’ve just got to believe in the process, it will take time, you don’t turn around 70 years of bad behaviour within five minutes,” he said.
“You’ve got to be sensible about the changes you make … there’s no point in making silly decisions and going broke.
“I think all of Australia can take advantage of some of the knowledge that’s in that regen space and do what they’re doing a whole lot better than what we currently are as a nation.”
Regenerative beef farmer Martin Royds has been applying regenerative practices at his Braidwood farm in southern NSW for 25 years.
His area has been in drought since the end of July, but Mr Royd says he’s doing better than others there thanks to a more holistic approach.
The regenerative farmer will tell the conference how he hasn’t had to start feeding his cattle, unlike some of his neighbours.
“I’ve got water in my systems thanks to natural sequence farming practices,” Mr Royd told AAP.
“My costs are less and my production per 100 millilitres of rain is more.”