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 Orchard Convos: Abigail Makim on Biodiversity and Interrow Management

Orchard Convos: Abigail Makim on Biodiversity and Interrow Management

June 4, 2026 3:50 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 Orchard Convos: Dean Metcalf on Biological Controls.

Orchard Convos: Dean Metcalf on Biological Controls.

June 4, 2026 10:56 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/ Orchard Convo: Dr Paul Horne and Rebecca Addison on Life Cycles and Management of Beneficial Insects

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

May 28, 2026 4:28 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/ Orchard Convo: Darren Doherty and Campbell Mercer on Farm Planning for Resilient Orchards.

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

May 27, 2026 2:49 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. Cropping Convo Jill Clapperton on companion planting

Cropping Convo Jill Clapperton on companion planting

April 24, 2025 1:22 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. Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait on essential micronutrients

Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait on essential micronutrients

March 19, 2025 3:59 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. Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait on Plant Nutrition

Cropping Convo with Graeme Sait on Plant Nutrition

September 4, 2024 4:42 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. Cropping Convo with Jade Killoran on Multispecies Cropping

Cropping Convo with Jade Killoran on Multispecies Cropping

September 4, 2024 4:42 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. Cropping Convo with Joel Williams on Reducing Insecticides and Fungicides

Cropping Convo with Joel Williams on Reducing Insecticides and Fungicides

September 4, 2024 4:41 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. Cropping Convo with David Bushell on managing complexity in mixed farming systems

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

September 4, 2024 4:40 pm

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. This was delivered as part of Soils For Life's Cropping Resilience project, partly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund Webinar: Tracking Soil Health with Nicole Masters and Soilmentor

Webinar: Tracking Soil Health with Nicole Masters and Soilmentor

July 26, 2024 2:54 pm

Participants in the Soil Health Challenge share their results with Soils for Life agroecologist Sarah Fea and David Hardwick from Soil Land Food. Find out more about the Soil Health Challenge at soilsforlife.org.au/soil-health-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 0:00 Introduction and experiences of the Challenge 9:20 Explaining what soil structure is 10:38 The soil infiltration test 12:17 How dry or wet conditions, and ground cover affect infiltration testing 15:52 What is ‘aggregate stability’? 18:15 How to interpret aggregate stability: Slaking and dispersion 21:50 Participants sharing results, Q&A 22:15 Why is aggregate stability worse at depth? 28:10 Why were my results in remnant scrub so ‘bad’ compared to cleared paddocks? 34:45 Why are my infiltration rates faster in the first 6 minutes than the second 6 minutes? 38:04 How can I diagnose compaction v hydrophobic soils from the results? 49:00 How and when can a penetrometer be used to help diagnose compaction? 55:05 Soil organism invertebrate diversity 1:01:43 Wrap up the webinar Soil Health Challenge - Webinar #2 - Sharing and discussing results

Soil Health Challenge - Webinar #2 - Sharing and discussing results

November 16, 2023 3:01 pm

Jake Ryan is part of a family farming business, Three Ryans Farm at Manjimup WA where they grow brassica vegetables, run merino ewes, cattle and grow pasture seeds. Jake makes liquid fertilisers on farm for foliar applications on vegetable crops and pastures and uses soil testing, brix testing and plant sap testing to guide decisions regarding these applications. Monitoring has been used to guide the transition to incorporating mixed species cover crops, holistic grazing, and making their own foliar fertilisers. What we will cover: How Jake got started monitoring What Jake monitors through the year and how he uses this information (soil tests, plant sap analysis, brix testing) The difference between leaf tissue testing and plant sap testing, why sap testing is working well for them. The benefits monitoring provides their business Soils for Life's Soil is launching its Soil, plant and landscape health monitoring guide late September to get farmers started with monitoring practices. Leading up to that launch we’ve invited some speakers to share their experiences and the benefits that are gained through paying attention in a more deliberate way, capturing what you see and letting the land (and the data) tell you what’s working. This webinar is supported by the James N Kirby Foundation Monitoring to build farm profitability and resilience, with Jake Ryan

Monitoring to build farm profitability and resilience, with Jake Ryan

September 30, 2026 10:56 am

Gillian Sanbrook has been monitoring soil and landscape health at Bibbaringa since she purchased the 927ha cattle farming property in 2007. Gillian will discuss how she got started monitoring, and the benefits she has experienced from monitoring, including the changes she has seen in her farm landscape as a result. David Hardwick is an agroecologist with extensive experience in supporting farmers to undertake soil monitoring. Gill and David will share their tips for: Getting started with monitoring soil and landscape health Tracking changes over time Committing to a regular monitoring practice. Soils for Life's Soil is launching its Soil, plant and landscape health monitoring guide late September to get farmers started with monitoring practices. Leading up to that launch we’ve invited some speakers to share their experiences and the benefits that are gained through paying attention in a more deliberate way, capturing what you see and letting the land (and the data) tell you what’s working. Gillian is a featured farmer in the guide, and you will be able to read and watch more about her monitoring practices, observations and the benefits she has observed. This webinar is supported by the James N Kirby Foundation. Getting started with soil monitoring for on farm benefits, with David Hardwick and Gill Sanbrook

Getting started with soil monitoring for on farm benefits, with David Hardwick and Gill Sanbrook

September 29, 2026 5:16 pm

Soil biology monitoring can help us to learn more about the impact our management decisions are having on soil microbes - the life in our soil. Learning how to monitor allows you to track and tell the story of your soil and landscape health and management. It is a skill that helps you spot patterns, track changes and build confidence that your farm decisions are having a real impact on the health of your soil, plants and landscape. The more you notice and track, the more confident you can be in adjusting practices, reducing inputs and sharing the story of your farm with your customers and community. This webinar will equip you to understand more about soil biology and monitoring options, both in the lab and in the field. You will be able to choose the best methods for what you want to know. Guest speaker Dr Jessica Rigg of Impact Agriculture will share her expertise. We will cover: Major soil biology groups Soil biology lab tests: What you can measure, why and what do the results mean, and how they can be used. What people can measure themselves in the field (e.g. observe meso and macro fauna, nodules on legumes, cotton strip or tea bag assays, DIY solvita burst tests- respiration). Soils for Life is launching its Soil, plant and landscape health monitoring guide late September to get farmers started with monitoring practices. Leading up to that launch we’ve invited some speakers to share their experiences and the benefits that are gained through paying attention in a more deliberate way, capturing what you see and letting the land (and the data) tell you what’s working. This webinar was one of three webinars we are delivering in the lead up to the launch of our Practice Guide on Soil, Plant and Landscape Health monitoring and we will email you out a link to this guide when it is released. We also have these resources on measuring and monitoring soil health on our website. Jess has provided us with these links to resources that she referenced in her presentation: https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sum.13111 https://www.fao.org/4/i0007e/i0007e00.htm https://soilsforlife.org.au/monitoring-soil-health/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0038071720304077 Monitoring your soil health, building your confidence - with Dr Jessica Rigg

Monitoring your soil health, building your confidence - with Dr Jessica Rigg

September 15, 2026 2:49 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 Soils For Life Webinar - Plant Sap Testing and Analysis

Soils For Life Webinar - Plant Sap Testing and Analysis

February 22, 2023 4:53 pm