Grant Williams is a dairy farmer at Hallora in West Gippsland, Victoria, where he and his wife Leesa run Willora Farms - an almost 600-cow operation across 430 hectares. He has been a generous and engaged contributor to the dairy community for many years, and previously served on the Board and as Chair of GippsDairy.

Despite having been an early adopter of robotic milking, Grant describes himself as cautious about making changes on the farm. Over the past decade, however, he has made a change that many dairy farmers wouldn’t dream of, transitioning the whole farm to multispecies pastures, and in the last four years, cutting out all synthetic fertilisers.

In this episode, Grant describes how he ‘fell into’ multispecies pastures, how his early trials didn’t work out the way he hoped, and how he eventually became confident that he could profitably roll out multispecies across the whole farm.

Links and resources:
Soikee machine - soilkee.com.au
Soils for Life’s dairy resources and activities - soilsforlife.org.au/dairy-resilience-project

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

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Hear from the Soils for Life team and board on our plans for the next few years, as well as an engaging panel discussion with a panel of farmers, on opportunities and barriers to change across agriculture.

https://soilsforlife.org.au/

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Our Orchard Convos - 'Ask me anything' series is an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other growers.

Find out more about the Orchard Resilience Project at https://soilsforlife.org.au/orchard-resilience-project/

Find the rest of the series on the Orchard Convos Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtSkcaU6gtpB8WUKTNp58T0SZexuMZAly&si=DJKUtIbww-209S8a

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Our Orchard Convos - 'Ask me anything' series is an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other growers.

Find out more about the Orchard Resilience Project at https://soilsforlife.org.au/orchard-resilience-project/

Find the rest of the series on the Orchard Convos Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtSkcaU6gtpB8WUKTNp58T0SZexuMZAly&si=yoELf41lVGOUOhZX

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Dr Paul Horne is an award winning entomologist and founder of integrated pest management consultancy IPM Technologies. He began his career at the Victorian Department of Agriculture in the mid-1980s, his work has been published across scientific journals and industry platforms, and he has written several books on insects and pest management.

Paul’s work focuses on supporting adoption of IPM strategies to manage invertebrate pests in a wide range of crops including cut-flowers, berries, vegetables, tree and vine crops, nurseries, broad-acre crops and pastures.
As our new initiative to support fruit and nut growers kicks off, I wanted to talk with Paul about the state of play with integrated pest management, and what he has found works well to support adoption of IPM in perennial horticulture.

If you’re involved in perennial horticulture, check out our new ⁠Orchard Resilience Project⁠. With funding from the Australian Government’s Climate-smart Agriculture Program, we’re working over the next three years with perennial horticulture growers across Australia to strengthen soil health and landscape function in tree and vine crops.
This episode was recorded live from the ⁠Grounded festival⁠ in Victoria. Enjoy!

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

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Our Orchard Convos - 'Ask me anything' series is an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other growers.

Find the bookings page for the rest of the series at https://soilsforlife.org.au/orchard-convos-series-2026/

Find out more about the Orchard Resilience Project at https://soilsforlife.org.au/orchard-resilience-project/

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Our Orchard Convos - 'Ask me anything' series is an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other growers.

Find the rest of the series at https://soilsforlife.org.au/orchard-convos-series-2026/

Find out more about the Orchard Resilience Project at https://soilsforlife.org.au/orchard-resilience-project/

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Graeme Hand is a holistic land management and grazing educator based near Bairnsdale, Victoria, where he has farmed for more than 35 years. He came to the land via an unlikely route, a decade as an industrial chemist, before applying that scientific background to regenerative agriculture. A Certified Holistic Management educator and Board member of Regenerative Agriculture Network Tasmania, Graeme has been supporting farmers in adopting regenerative grazing techniques since 1996, and has spent the better part of three decades helping farming businesses rebuild topsoil, restore pasture, improve the water cycle and strengthen their resilience to a changing climate.

At the heart of Graeme's work is a conviction that lasting change on the land starts with the decisions made each day in the paddock, with ‘safe to fail’ trials at the heart of his approach. As Graeme explains in this episode, trials are the key strategy that enables farmers to manage the complexity of biological approaches to grazing. It was a pleasure to record this episode with Graeme, live from the Grounded festival in Victoria, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

** Keep an eye out for our new grazing practice guide, which will be launched on the 20th of May at a special field day and launch event in Mundarlo NSW. Details and registrations via soilsforlife.org.au/events/ **

Links and resources:
Hand for the Land: Heaps of resources and advice from Graeme Hand’s holistic land management and training consultancy: https://www.handfortheland.com/
Monitoring ecological indicators of rangeland functional integrity and their relation to biodiversity at local to regional scales: Study mentioned in this episode, authored by David Tongway and others: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227711055_Monitoring_ecological_indicators_of_rangeland_functional_integrity_and_their_relation_to_biodiversity_at_local_to_regional_scales

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at [email protected].

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This video is part of our regenerative grazing practice guide. Find out more at https://soilsforlife.org.au/practice-guide-grazing-soil-landscape-regeneration/

Regenerative grazing approaches aim to meet livestock needs through practices that build soil health, improve landscape function and support personal and business goals.

How this is done varies depending on the circumstances of each farm and enterprise and goals of each land manager, but in all cases, livestock are seen and used as a tool for soil and landscape regeneration. This generally involves running fewer and larger sized herds and moving animals through paddocks in a way that provides beneficial animal impact and nutrient cycling, while also allowing time between grazes for plants to recover their energy. This enables the development of deep and dense grassland root systems that enhance pasture production, soil structure, biology, water infiltration and health.

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