Farmers Helping Farmers

VicNoTill
  • 5.0 (1)
  • NATURAL SCIENCES
  • UPDATED MONTHLY
Farmers Helping Farmers

Farmers Helping Farmers: soil health, soil function and grassroots agriculture Celebrating the people at the grassroots of agriculture who are doing things differently. Hosted by fifth generation Australian farmer and VicNoTill president Dan Fox, ‘Farmers Helping Farmers’ asks the tough questions and, most importantly, give the honest answers. Subscribe, leave a review and listen now. You can also become a VicNoTill member or sponsor. Web: www.vicnotill.com.au Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VicNoTillFarmers Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicnotill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/

  1. NOV 11

    FARMERS HELPING FARMERS PODCAST - Dan Fox & Michael Gooden, VicNoTill President handover

    VicNoTill is at the forefront of change in Australian agriculture, and for the past three years fifth generation Marrar farmer Dan Fox has been president of this farmers helping farmers organisation. Dan sits down with new president Michael Gooden to share how leading change in Australian agriculture has helped him from both a practical and personal perspective. Soil health has been a progressive journey for Dan. His non-negotiables are 100% groundcover and no soil disturbance, which come about through his strip and disc system. But once he understood what else he could achieve, he opened Pandora's box. Stepping into the president’s role enabled Dan to further understand soil systems and how soils function, through the opportunity to form stronger relationships with other farmers, agronomists, soil health specialists and scientists that are passionate about ‘good farming’. During the past three years he travelled extensively to farms across southern Australia and learnt a ‘hell of a lot’ about soils in different contexts and soils in general. Meeting people from around the world who are as passionate as he is about a positive, progressive future for agriculture that is focussed on growing nutrient-rich food has helped Dan take what he and his family are doing in their own paddocks to the next level.

    1h 6m

  2. OCT 24

    MATTHEW EVANS - The reluctant celebrity farmer and chef using his fame to spread the word about healthy soils, healthy foods and healthy people

    VicNoTill farmers were rapt to welcome food writer, farmer, television broadcaster and chef Matthew Evans to the Food for Thought Conference in Wagga Wagga. After Matthew walked around the paddocks, stood in a soil pit and sampled the beef grown on the cattle stud of VicNoTill’s Michael Gooden, they sat down to talk about the links between healthy soils, food and people. Matthew shares how he went from a city boy who was always hungry to a reluctant celebrity who uses his fame to ‘bang on about healthy soils’. His purpose is to spread a deeper appreciation of the broader health impacts when people values farmers like those in VicNoTill who are changing their farming systems and improving their soils to grow more nutrient-rich foods. Based in Southern Tasmania, Matthew lives and works on Fat Pig Farm, a mixed holding where he tends a garden, makes cider, fattens the namesake pigs and tries to entice milk from two full cream dairy cows for his onsite restaurant. Matthew’s personal farming journey has been the focus of six series of Gourmet Farmer on SBS, and he’s presented two documentaries, For The Love of Meat, and What’s The Catch. Matthew is the author of 15 books on food, including the authoritative ethical meat manifesto On Eating Meat. He’s an advocate for open, fair, accountable food and farming systems, and has pushed for honest labelling so we can all enjoy sustainable seafood. His book SOIL is a hymn to the remarkable, and underappreciated bit of Earth that gifts us life. It’s a swashbuckling tale of soil that arms us all with the knowledge and respect to care about its health, the perfect complement to his latest completely revised cookbook The Real Food Companion. His most recent book, MILK, came out in July 2024 and unpacks the truth and lies behind the original superfood.

    53 min

  3. OCT 11

    JOEL WILLIAMS - Food for thought and the latest science on building soil carbon in an Australian context

    Joel Williams spent several days with VicNoTill at the 2024 Food for Thought conference in Wagga Wagga NSW. Tune into his insightful conversation with Riverina broadacre cropping farmer Dan Fox about the latest science and the on-ground change that is happening thanks to farmers like those in the VicNoTill network. With links to VicNoTill going back almost a decade, Joel was rapt to be at the conference and having important conversations linking food as medicine with practical strategies for farmers to build carbon in soils. Joel loves working with farmers because they're practical and good at working out the 'how'. It is his passion to continually explore 'why' it's so important to build carbon in soils and grow more nutrient-rich foods. Dan also shares some of the successes he and his family are having in their cropping system as their focus shifts more towards quality rather than quantity of yield by taking simple steps with nutrition, different forms of nitrogen and looking at energy efficiency in plants and how different soils impact plant health. VicNoTill is dedicated to helping farmers achieve better results at harvest time, while encouraging greater adoption of sustainable and profitable food production systems through reduced-tillage and regenerative farming systems that produce nutrient-rich food. Farmers helping farmers!

    1h 9m

  4. AUG 31

    JIM ALEXANDER - Taking the foot off the throat of soil biology

    VicNoTill board member Michael Gooden visits Jim Alexander on the Cootamundra farm where he lives with his wife Em and two young daughters to talk about his switch from commercial scale broadacre agronomy on the Liverpool Plains to permaculture to regenerative agriculture. Jim has made a major shift in the way he approaches life, as a result of his own farming experiences and through what he discovered during a Nuffield Scholarship which took him across Australia and to Asia, Europe, Israel, the US, the UK and New Zealand. Being among like-minded people for the past several years as a VicNoTill member has also been an eye-opener for Jim in how leading broadacre farmers are managing to make significant changes to the way they farm, while remaining profitable. He says the farmers helping farmers approach highlights how important it is that people don’t follow an ideology at their own expense. VicNoTill members can read more about Jim's experiences and insights in the latest issue of the member magazine ⁠From The Ground Up.⁠

    53 min

  5. AUG 20

    ALLAN PARKER OAM - Resetting your brain to reset your farming future

    This is a conversation for farmers not to be missed! Allan Parker OAM was a crowd favourite at VicNoTill's conference Transition23 and captured the attention of the whole room within 10 seconds of starting his presentation. VicNoTill board member Michael Gooden catches up with Allan in Wagga Wagga during his 2024 Regional Brain Reset Tour to talk about succession planning, improving negotiation between family members when making farm decisions, transitioning to a more regenerative farming system without compromising the profitability of the business and a whole lot more. Allan introduces himself as an eccentric Micro-Behavioural Neuroscientist, International Negotiator, and Educator. Outside his work life he has been a professional golfer and has run 16 marathons and 11 ultra marathons (including 24 hours twice). He wrote Australia’s first degree in negotiation in 2012 and was the recipient of an Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to business and dispute resolution in 2019. From the boardrooms of the biggest corporate organisations in the world to the kitchen tables on rural and remote farming properties, Allan Parker’s approach to negotiation is the same. The author of The Negotiator’s Toolkit, the bestseller Switch on Your Brain; and co-author of Beyond Yes – Negotiating and Networking says there is great wisdom in Charlie Arnott’s saying ‘the paddock between our ears is what we’ve got to get sorted out first’. “Negotiation, whether informal chat on the phone or chat in hallway or something bigger and more serious, we are involved in negotiating the whole time. Everything you think inside your head turns up in your verbal conversation in some form or another," Allan says.

    53 min

  6. JUL 28

    CALLUM LAWSON - The power of opening your eyes and asking questions

    When Victorian cattle farmer Callum Lawson went to a holistic grazing course, it turned the way he approached farming on its head. He came home from the first day feeling baffled about the way he was farming. What they were presenting about regenerative and holistic grazing concepts felt like common sense. This started him on a path of discovery, and the more research he did the more fascinated he became. Callum started growing multi-species crops in 2017 and flipped his farming system around to solve problems rather than treat symptoms. When he started farming more regeneratively he loved watching things grow and seeing the real difference in how healthy the crops and animals became. Callum says it’s easy to get caught up in regenerative agriculture, which can be both good and bad. He says it’s important farmers remain profitable otherwise they won’t be there to do it again next year. Feeling good is important but if it’s not making money, there’s not much point doing it. Callum joined the VicNoTill board in 2023. After a tour around the property Callum manages at Avenal in Victoria's Highlands region, Michael Gooden sat down to chat with him about how his farming system has evolved.

    46 min

  7. MAR 11

    JAKE CHANDLER - Farming for the environment can be profitable

    Young farmer Jake Chandler has always had a deep connection with all things agricultural, and has experienced the landscape from many perspectives. The son of an Ag teacher, he worked as a jackaroo in the Northern Territory before studying environmental science at university then moved into a corporate career in the mining industry. After falling in love with and marrying Gemma Wilkinson from Young, he left the mining industry to return to the Wilkinson's family farm. Adjusting to the farming lifestyle after intense corporate life was a challenge so he worked in retail ag where he developed a strong local network before getting his hands dirty on the farm. Jake works with Gemma's parents to run their mixed enterprise farm of sheep, cattle and cropping. After completing a Grazing for Profit course, he was inspired to break his paradigm and show that farming environmentally can be profitable as well. Jake is passionate about making changes that maximise environmental value, keeps their business profitable and puts family first. VicNoTill board member Michael Gooden stands in for podcast host Dan Fox to find out more from this young Australian farmer, who will leave you feeling energised about the future of agriculture.

    54 min

  8. JAN 14

    TRAN$ITION23 SERIES: MATT TONKIN - The road to regeneration

    The road to regeneration with NSW farm manager and Sober in the Country Bush Tribe Member Matt Tonkin looks at how important it is for farmers to be profitable, not only in the financial sense but also from personal and landscape perspectives. When Matt's life on the land hit rock bottom he realised he needed to make big changes. Instead of a farming system that relied on chemicals and synthetic inputs he chose to start thinking about one that promoted life, took a more natural approach and had the long-term health of the ecosystem at its heart. His decision to explore regenerative farming systems also provided a life-altering jolt on how he was managing his own health and wellbeing. Farmers Helping Farmers guest host Michael Gooden walked around the paddocks of the farm Matt manages in the NSW Riverina district before catching up for this deeply personal conversation. They cover a lot of different topics, including how easy it is for farmers to get so wrapped up their financial health that they lose their own health along the way. Matt was a special guest speaker at VicNoTill's 2023 annual conference, Tran$ition23. If this episode raises any concerns for you, please reach out to your mates, family or: Sober in the Country: https://www.soberinthecountry.org/ Lifeline: phone 13 11 14 Beyond Blue: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

    53 min
See All (19)

About

Farmers Helping Farmers: soil health, soil function and grassroots agriculture Celebrating the people at the grassroots of agriculture who are doing things differently. Hosted by fifth generation Australian farmer and VicNoTill president Dan Fox, ‘Farmers Helping Farmers’ asks the tough questions and, most importantly, give the honest answers. Subscribe, leave a review and listen now. You can also become a VicNoTill member or sponsor. Web: www.vicnotill.com.au Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VicNoTillFarmers Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicnotill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/

Information

  • Creator
    VicNoTill
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2024
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © VicNoTill
  • Show Website
    Farmers Helping Farmers

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