Webinars

The Soils for Life webinars and online Q & A sesssion brings you the insights from a range of farmers, agronomists, agroecologists and consultants. 

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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Orchard Convos: Abigail Makim on Biodiversity and Interrow Management

June 4, 2026 2:50 pm

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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Orchard Convos: Dean Metcalf on Biological Controls.

June 4, 2026 9:56 am

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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Orchard Convo: Dr Paul Horne and Rebecca Addison on Life Cycles and Management of Beneficial Insects

May 28, 2026 3:28 pm

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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Orchard Convo: Darren Doherty and Campbell Mercer on Farm Planning for Resilient Orchards.

May 27, 2026 1:49 pm

Our Cropping 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 grain growers. You can ask your burning questions and discuss your challenges on a range of topics including plant nutrition, soil biology, multispecies and more.
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Cropping Convo Jill Clapperton on companion planting

April 24, 2025 12:22 pm

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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Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait on essential micronutrients

March 19, 2025 2:59 pm

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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Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait on Plant Nutrition

September 4, 2024 3:42 pm

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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Cropping Convo with Jade Killoran on Multispecies Cropping

September 4, 2024 3:42 pm

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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Cropping Convo with Joel Williams on Reducing Insecticides and Fungicides

September 4, 2024 3:41 pm

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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Cropping Convo with David Bushell on managing complexity in mixed farming systems

September 4, 2024 3:40 pm

. The South Australia Paddock Labs project Over the last several decades Australian crop growers have been increasingly challenged by rising temperatures and input costs, increasing rainfall variability, and declining soil health. Improving soil health is widely recognised as a key mechanism to address these challenges, not least for improving drought resilience. Healthy, functioning soils store water by acting as a sponge. Innovative Australian croppers have been leading the way to build healthy soils for drought resilience. In this ‘Paddock Labs for Drought Resilience’ project (2021-2022), we supported experimentation with, and adoption of, drought resilient cropping practices in South Australia. This episode: Sap analysis Sap testing is an emerging practice, where farmers are measuring the sap in plants for indicators of current nutrition, such as total sugars, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, ammonium, nitrogen, etc. Two farms implemented a sap analysis program, with four demonstration sites on Eyre Peninsula also having some exploratory analyses conducted. Most of the participants used visual tests to determine the health of the crops and soil. As part of the Paddock Labs project, Soils for Life hosted a webinar on sap testing with Mark Tupman, a horticulturalist from Productive Ecology. Because sap testing is quite technical, expert advice is often recommended. More information This project is supported by Soils for Life, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. To learn more about the South Australia Paddock Labs here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/south-australia-paddock-labs/ Contact us at https://soilsforlife.org.au/ for any further information. 0:00 Introduction & instructions 1:15 Introduction to sap testing 1:58 Mark Tupman explains sap test results 2:15 Nutrient mobility in plants 3:23 Reading: Total sugars 4:34 Reading: pH levels 5:20 Reading: EC - Electrical conductivity 6:04 Question: What EC levels would indicate water stress? 6:42 Reading: Potassium 7:35 Reading: Calcium 8:40 Nutrient description chart 11:36 Soils in South Australia 14:50 Protein absorption and Nitrates (N) 16:25 Ammonium 17:38 Improve conversion to Nitrogen 18:17 Increasing photosynthesis for conversion 18:56 Question: Timeframe of Ammonium conversion 20:13 Calcium and Magnesium issues 24:53 Phosphorus levels and EC 31:18 Not all soil treatments affect plants 32:09 Question: Nitrate discrepancy 34:32 Is Sodium affecting Nitrate conversion? 36:53 Any other questions? 37:18 Question: Does EC affect all other nutrient access? 38:42 Question: Can you use soil biology to balance nutrients? 41:10 Question: Does Manganese and Iron stimulate photosynthesis? 43:07 Question: What is the role of Silica? 45:15 Question: What is the role of Sulphur? 45:52 Question: Does improving soil health increase profits? 47:30 Inputs don't necessarily show up in sap tests 48:09 Increased plant resilience again pests 49:05 Sap analysis efficacy 50:54 Sap levels in relation to soil type and condition 58:34 Benefits of seed coatings 1:00:21 Formulating effective foliar sprays 1:05:15 Thank you and acknowledgements #soilsforlife #paddocklabs #southaustralia #cropgrowers #soilmentorapp #nicolemasters #soilmonitoring
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Soils For Life Webinar - Plant Sap Testing and Analysis

February 22, 2023 3:53 pm

. The South Australia Paddock Labs project Over the last several decades Australian crop growers have been increasingly challenged by rising temperatures and input costs, increasing rainfall variability, and declining soil health. Improving soil health is widely recognised as a key mechanism to address these challenges, not least for improving drought resilience. Healthy, functioning soils store water by acting as a sponge. Innovative Australian croppers have been leading the way to build healthy soils for drought resilience. In this ‘Paddock Labs for Drought Resilience’ project (2021-2022), we supported experimentation with, and adoption of, drought resilient cropping practices in South Australia. This episode: Trials with alternative fertilisers Towards the end of the Paddock Labs process, we hosted a peer learning session, where two focus farmers shared their experiences and lessons with alternative fertilisers. Tom Robinson shares and answers other farmers’ questions about his experiments with summer crops and grazing, seed coatings, sap testing and foliars, and crop nutrition management. He also shares a video of his set up for coating his seeds with Johnson Su fertiliser and then transferring to the truck.David Foster shares the design and results of his replicated trials with deeping ripping, companion planting with alternative fertilisers, such as manures, and what he calls synergy planting. He talks about the benefits of sowing wheat and beans and sweet corn and beans together, including a ‘doubling of root mass’ and nitrogen deficiencies where the beans weren’t included. More information This project is supported by Soils for Life, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. To learn more about the South Australia Paddock Labs here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/south-australia-paddock-labs/ Contact us at https://soilsforlife.org.au/ for any further information. Chapters 0:00 Introduction and instructions 1:03 Introduction to farmer Tom Robinson 1:35 Tom Robinson - Enterprises and practices 4:40 Tom Robinson - Rainfall 5:37 Tom Robonson - Johnson Su compost 7:23 Question: What is the timeline for creating compost tea? 8:16 Question: How do you keep the compost tea cool? 12:06 Question: Do you roller crimp your paddocks? 14:03 Question: What inputs do you use in your paddocks? 15:15 Nitrogen sampling and tracking 18:18 Sap testing 19:32 Introduction to David Foster & David Davenport 20:12 Trial: Beans as a soil amendment for wheat 21:19 Results of trial 23:17 Yield data 25:48 Isolated trails with beans and corn 27:00 Results and findings: Fungal associations 27:46 Replicated trials for 2022 29:58 Results: Better root mass & penetration, more earthworms 34:38 Input costs and commercial fertiliser 36:13 Question: Could you seed two or more crops at the same time at different depths? 39:03 Thanks and acknowledgements #soilsforlife #paddocklabs #southaustralia #cropgrowers #soilmentorapp #nicolemasters #soilmonitoring
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Soils For Life Webinar - Trials with Alternative Fertilisers

February 22, 2023 3:53 pm

. The South Australia Paddock Labs project Over the last several decades Australian crop growers have been increasingly challenged by rising temperatures and input costs, increasing rainfall variability, and declining soil health. Improving soil health is widely recognised as a key mechanism to address these challenges, not least for improving drought resilience. Healthy, functioning soils store water by acting as a sponge. Innovative Australian croppers have been leading the way to build healthy soils for drought resilience. In this ‘Paddock Labs for Drought Resilience’ project (2021-2022), we supported experimentation with, and adoption of, drought resilient cropping practices in South Australia. This episode: Making practical in-field observations In addition to learning drought resilient practices, the South Australia Paddock Lab crop growers want to be able to monitor the impact for themselves. Specifically, the Paddock Lab participants wanted to know how different practices will affect their long-term resilience, profits and improve their bottom line. The participants believed that farmers should pay more attention to their observations and try to understand causes sooner rather than later. Becoming versed in their own landscape observations means crop growers can make a more informed assessment of advice and understand the long-term financial impact of the management decisions.To support farmers in developing their own observations of changes over time – or soil and landscape health observations – the project provided each participant with access to and training on the Soilmentor app. Soilmentor is a phone-based tool that helps farmers easily record and monitor some key indicators or soil health on their farms. This data can be compared with financial data over time. We also ran this webinar with Nicole Masters, an internationally respected agroecologist and one of the developers of the Soilmentor app. The first part of the webinar features a demonstration of Soilmentor. In the second part of the webinar, croppers share photos of how their plants were responding to the practices, and Nicole and the peer group help interpret and provide practical insights. More information This project is supported by Soils for Life, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. To learn more about the South Australia Paddock Labs here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/south-australia-paddock-labs/ Contact us at https://soilsforlife.org.au/ for any further information. 0:00 Introduction and instructions 0:54 Introduction to Soilmentor App 1:23 Nicole Masters 2:17 The Soilmentor App 2:54 Vidacycle - Regen indicators 3:30 Rooting depth 4:15 Soilmentor App demonstration 9:10 Question: How do you take the soil sample? 10:06 Soilmentor App - Syncing 11:01 Soilmentor online 11:28 The Regen dashboard demonstration 15:42 Indicators: Nodulation of legumes 17:54 Indicators: Rhizosheaths 19:56 Indicators: Slake test 21:35 Nicole's feedback on farmer's samples 22:02 Terry Young's observations 23:44 Carbon stocks 24:06 Rooting depth 24:42 Rhizosheaths 25:41 Brix test 26:33 Trace elements 29:22 The role of Calcium 30:52 Nodulation 30:30 Renae's observations 34:52 Slaking test 36:06 Phosphorus 38:21 Regen indicators 39:35 Stunted root systems 39:48 Saprotrophic fungi 41:14 Limestone soils that are Calcium deficient 42:49 Impact of fungicide on soil fungi 43:23 How to approach fungal issues 44:37 Scott Mickan's observations 44:52 Soil hardpan 45:20 Weeds 46:16 Inoculating legumes 47:09 Nodulation 49:14 Addressing the hardpan & compaction 59:37 Addressing aphids with worm extract tea and molasses 1:00:38 Thank you and acknowledgements #soilsforlife #paddocklabs #southaustralia #cropgrowers #soilmentorapp #nicolemasters #soilmonitoring
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Soils for Life Webinar - Nicole Masters and Soil Mentor App

February 22, 2023 3:53 pm

How to do the five easy soil health assessments. David Hardwick from Soil Land Food walks us through how to do the five assessments laid out in the Soil Health Challenge. James Diack and Courtney Young from Soils for Life also give us more information about the challenge. You can: 1. Join the Soil Health Challenge here: https://soilsforlife.org.au/soil-health-challenge/ 2. Join the Facebook group to discuss your results! 3. Share the challenge with farmer's you think would be interested
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Soil Health Challenge - Webinar #1 - How to do the five easy soil health assessments

October 17, 2023 1:31 pm

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. You can find out more about Mark's work here: https://www.productiveecology.com.au/ Hear more from Tom from Robinson Farms here: https://youtu.be/9O_J3Uj12Mw?si=KAh5Z8G0Q9x9JNXe Also check out our Sap and Soil Club! Learn how to collect and interpret soil and sap tests to optimise your crop nutrition and soil health. Through four online workshops held over the growing season, you’ll gain practical insights alongside a community of fellow growers. https://soilsforlife.org.au/plant-sap-and-soil-monitoring-discussion-group/ This webinar is part of our Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
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Webinar: Getting started with sap analysis and foliars with Tom Robinson and Mark Tupman

September 9, 2024 5:21 am

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! This was delivered as part of Soils For Life's Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
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Webinar: Brewing your own biological workforce

October 25, 2024 8:56 pm