Hear more about selecting and sowing a multispecies crop and managing it, from 6th generation farmer Grant Sims.

Multispecies cropping can be an effective tool to start building your soil health and potentially reap financial benefits too.

Implementing multispecies cropping can; build soil biology, improve nutrient cycling, restore soil structure, build resilience and boost productivity and financial gains.

This Multispeice Cropping Practice Guide covers the benefits of this practice, decisions on what seeds to use, application methods, complementary practices and what to look for to know if your multispecies crops are working. Like all practices, it must be considered in the unique context of each farm.

The guide is part of a series of practice guides that can be used in your regenerative cropping toolset. Find the series here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/cropping-resilience/#resources

0:00 Choosing the right mix of plants
1:27 Planning your crop rotations
4:24 Giving the crop a good start
5:05 Preparing and sowing the seed
7:42 Managing your multispecies crop
8:36 Harvesting, termination and utilisation

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Farmer Grant Sims tells us more about multispecies cropping, how he started and why he's using it.

Multispecies cropping can be an effective tool to start building your soil health and potentially reap financial benefits too.

Implementing multispecies cropping can; build soil biology, improve nutrient cycling, restore soil structure, build resilience and boost productivity and financial gains.

This Multispeice Cropping Practice Guide covers the benefits of this practice, decisions on what seeds to use, application methods, complementary practices and what to look for to know if your multispecies crops are working. Like all practices, it must be considered in the unique context of each farm.

The guide is part of a series of practice guides that can be used in your regenerative cropping toolset. Find the series here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/cropping-resilience/#resources

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Hear more about monitoring your soil after implementing multispeices cropping farmer Grant Sims.

Multispecies cropping can be an effective tool to start building your soil health and potentially reap financial benefits too.

Implementing multispecies cropping can; build soil biology, improve nutrient cycling, restore soil structure, build resilience and boost productivity and financial gains.

This Multispeice Cropping Practice Guide covers the benefits of this practice, decisions on what seeds to use, application methods, complementary practices and what to look for to know if your multispecies crops are working. Like all practices, it must be considered in the unique context of each farm.

The guide is part of a series of practice guides that can be used in your regenerative cropping toolset. Find the series here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/cropping-resilience/#resources

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Using biofertilisers is one way to enhance plant nutrient uptake and bolster soil biology. In this webinar, we cover the basics of how to brew your own biofertilisers, how to apply them, and how to measure for success.

Farmer and Vic No Till board member Callum Lawson shares his experiences in brewing biofertilisers alongside biological agronomist Marco Giorgio Rego from Nutri-Tech Solutions.

0:00 About Soils for Life
0:54 About the Cropping Resilience project
1:34 Housekeeping
2:45 Marco Giorgio - Biofertilisers
32:14 Callum Lawson - Making Biofertilisers On Farm
57:01 Question time! #1 How to deal with fluoride and chloride in water
58:56 #2 How does high soil acidity and aliminium affect biological activity?
1:05:30 #3 Where to find foliar calcium sources?
1:06:54 #4 Recipe for calcium acetate
1:07:50 #5 When are you spraying bio-ferts on your paddocks?
1:09:23 #6 Measuring changes to total soil nutrients
1:11:20 #7 Which multispecies blends are you seeding?
1:13:00 #8 Explain what you're doing to break down fish hydrolysate
1:13:45 #9 When and how often should I do sap testing?
1:15:50 #10 Do you have experience with Johnson-Su composting?
1:17:25 #11 Why aim for 3.5 pH in your bio-fert?
1:22:10 #12 Does foliar residue taint a sap test?
1:24:45 Thank you!

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The ‘Communities of Practice Project (CoPP)’ is led by Mulloon Institute and involves working with land managers around Australia to strategically improve water cycling and manage climate risk.

The project is designed as a collaboration between the Institute and regional partners to foster the growth of local ‘communities of practice’ in five regions around Australia that will continue beyond the project period. Over two years, Mulloon Institute staff will lead a series of activities that build participants’ capacity to plan, design and undertake landscape rehydration projects using low-risk, nature-based solutions for drought resilience.

This project is led by Mulloon Institute in collaboration with regional partners. Mulloon Institute are leaders in landscape rehydration and restoration, working with farmers across Australia to create resilient, productive and profitable farms where agriculture and the environment are working in unison.

This project is supported by the Mulloon Institute, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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South Australian farmer Tom Robinson and Mark Tupman from Productive Ecology discuss all things sap analysis and foliars in this webinar.

Mark and Tom cover why you should consider plant sap analysis, when to do it, understanding your results, and how to address your plant health limitations with foliar nutrient applications.

This webinar is part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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Our Cropping Convos - "Ask me anything" series are an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other grain growers. Farmers can ask their burning questions and discuss their challenges over a range of topics including multispecies, plant nutrition, reducing fungicides, and integrating livestock.

This Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait was on the topic of plant nutrition.

Graeme is the CEO and co-founder of Nutri-Tech Solutions, and an educator specialising in soil, plant, and animal and human health. Graeme's work has had a major impact on farmers, consultants, governments and key decision makers worldwide.

Cropping Convos are part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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Our Cropping Convos - "Ask me anything" series are an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other grain growers. Farmers can ask their burning questions and discuss their challenges over a range of topics including multispecies, plant nutrition, reducing fungicides, and integrating livestock.

This Cropping Convo with Jade Killoran was on the topic of multispecies cover cropping.


Jade Killoran is an independent multispecies cover crop advisor and researcher, working in Victorian grazing systems. Jade founded ‘Healthy Farming Systems’ in 2020 and aims to help farmers trial, adopt, and manage multispecies cover crops on-farm. She has a strong background in paddock scale research and is extremely passionate about multispecies pastures/cover crops. Jade likes nothing better than to be out and about on-farm, helping farmers and evaluating the effects of cover crop adoption on farming systems.

Cropping Convos are part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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Our Cropping Convos - "Ask me anything" series are an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other grain growers. Farmers can ask their burning questions and discuss their challenges over a range of topics including multispecies, plant nutrition, reducing fungicides, and integrating livestock.

This Cropping Convo with Joel Williams was on the topic of reducing fungicide and insecticide use in broadacre cropping.

Joel Williams is an independent plant and soil health educator working on soil management, plant nutrition and integrated approaches of sustainable food production. Joel is interested in designing farming systems that focus on managing soil biology along with crop and soil nutrition to optimise plant immunity and soil function. He has extensive experience working in Australia, the UK, and Canada, where he is currently based.

Cropping Convos are part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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Our Cropping Convos - "Ask me anything" series are an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other grain growers. Farmers can can ask their burning questions and discuss their challenges over a range of topics including multispecies, plant nutrition, reducing fungicides, and integrating livestock.

This Cropping Convo with David Bushell was on the topic of managing complexity in mixed farming systems.

David runs his consulting agronomy business Echidna Ag in Southern NSW. He has thirty years of experience in mixed farming and is currently producing grass fed beef and lamb on his certified organic farm.



Cropping Convos are part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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Our Cropping Convos - "Ask me anything" series are an opportunity to connect with a range of agronomists, agroecologists, and consultants over a casual Zoom call with other grain growers. Farmers can ask their burning questions and discuss their challenges over a range of topics including multispecies, plant nutrition, reducing fungicides, and integrating livestock.

This Cropping Convo with Bec Hamersley was on the topic of making and using Johnson-Su compost at scale.

Bec Hamersley works alongside Di and Ian Haggerty at Prospect Pastoral in WA producing Johnson-Su compost and other biological inputs. She sees first hand the positive impact these inputs have on soil health in their marginal environment. Bec has a background as a primary school educator where she began making connections between childhood development, gut microbiomes and soil health.

Cropping Convos are part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

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Taking the first steps into regenerative agriculture can be intimidating. In this episode of the Soils for Life podcast, Eli Court has a chat with Penny Goodwin from Goodies Farm in Kendenup, WA

Goodies Farm grows an incredible variety of crops, with minimal inputs, and is an integral part of the south west WA food system.

While things can look nice and shiny on the outside, Penny very generously shares the ups and downs of their journey to become better stewards of the land and the soil.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Thank you to Penny Goodwin for sharing their stories and wisdom.⁠

Hosted by Eli Court, produced by Chris Wieffering and Courtney Young and edited by Michelle Watts. Head to soilsforlife.org.au to find out more about our work. And don’t forget to leave a review for this episode!

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More than 90 farmers and others joined our ‘Tracking Soil Health’ webinar today with renowned agroecologist and coach Nicole Masters from Integrity Soils and the Vidacycle team!

Nicole discussed the soils and observations of three cropping farms from across Australia using the Soilmentor app and its regenerative indicators.

Nicole dug into the soils of three Australian grain growers to look at how they can improve their soil health. And discussed three soil health indicators (infiltration, rhizosheath score and rooting depth) using the Soilmentor app to understand how their soils are faring.

We know that tracking soil health is really important for farmers to understand whether their management decisions are moving their farm in the direction they want.

This webinar is part of our Cropping Resilience project where we have funding for Australian grain growers to use the Soilmentor app. Soilmentor is a tool that can help farmers to identify simple yet powerful indicators of soil health and biodiversity, monitor progress over time and make informed decisions.

Nicole Masters has 20+ years experience in regenerative farming systems, practices, coaching and community-building across Australasia, North America, and the United Kingdom. She is the author of For the Love of Soil which equips producers with knowledge, skills, and insights to regenerate ecosystem health and grow farm profits.

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About the project
The Riverina Drought Resilient Soils and Landscapes project aims to support producers in adopting drought resilient practices and enhance their landscape and soil monitoring capabilities. The Riverina Drought Resilient Soils and Landscapes project (the Riverina Project) is led by Riverina Local Land Services. It is supporting 15 producers to adopt one of three well-established management practices that enhance agricultural productivity and profitability during or after droughts while safeguarding natural resources. The producers are guided in their practice implementation with support from Riverina LLS, and will have opportunities to learn through field days and webinars provided by the project partners, and an online discussion group. By combining observations, simple field assessments, soil lab tests, and peer learning, the producers will enhance their ability to monitor changes resulting from their chosen management practice.

Project partners
This project is led by Riverina Local Land Services, in conjunction with Sustainable Farms ANU, and Soils for Life. This project has received funding from the Future Drought Fund.

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