The Regeneration of Pasture Cropping: An Integrated Approach To Grain And Pasture Production

08/11/22 • 33 min

On today’s episode of Beyond the Green Line, Shonelle Gleeson-Willey talks with the inventor of pasture cropping: Colin Seis.
Colin oversees 3,500 Merino sheep on his property in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, where he also grows cereal crops and natives grasses. He and his son, Nick, breed Kelpie dogs on the land as well.
Collin has received a Conservation Farmer of the Year Award, Australian Carbon Farmer of the Year, NSW Regional Achievement and Community Award, and was recently called one of the top 6 most influential farmers in the world by the Melbourne Weekly Times.
His 2,000 acre plot is called Winona, and it has a widespread reputation for holding up amazingly during drought. Its predominant soils include coarse and fine sands derived from granite, which are not considered highly fertile, but he shares with us how pasture cropping is a way of working alongside nature instead of against it, resulting in a more robust and resilient farm.
Colin describes pasture cropping as the way that crops were originally cultivated in ancient times: not by killing every other plant in the area, but by sewing crops in with native grasses and other plants, so that competing roots can improve a crop’s vitality, water retention and wind protection.
Colin developed the approach of pasture cropping along with a neighbor farmer after a devastating bush fire in 1979. Today, the land can now officially be called restored grassland, and Colin can be found teaching his regenerative methods to farmers around the world through his online “Smart Soil” classes.
Collin’s sheep are also managed holistically, using a method he describes as time-controlled grazing.
He educates us that gross margin (profit) is greater in a pasture cropping, because multiple products are being harvested. The crops are about the same yield, just slightly more variable. But native grass seed is harvested in addition, increasing profits.
Fertilizer is still used on Winona, but has been reduced over time as sheep grazing increasingly becomes a type of natural mulching and fertilizing.
Collin recounts that in the early years, he was ostracized by the industry for attempting to sell combined crops, and had to have self-belief and confidence to continue. He notes that his first supporters were ecologists, because they had understanding of diverse systems.
He discloses that one of the biggest advantages of pasture cropping is the stimulation and germination of dormant seed - even seed that has been sitting for decades. This can be a significant factor in restoring grasslands.
Soil carbon levels have increased over time at Colin’s farm, and current measurements are detecting increased carbon as far down as a meter. Colin shares that this is due to plant diversification, and bigger perennial plants with deeper roots.
We know you’ll be encouraged to hear from one of the legends in regenerative agriculture on this episode.
Check out Colin’s family land:
www.Winona.net.au
And take a look at his classes:
www.SmartSoilEdu.com

Previous Episode

The Early Stages and Pitfalls of Running An Environmental Consultancy

Today on Beyond the Green Line, Shonelle Gleeson-Willey talks with James Hammond, founder and CEO of 4Pillars Environmental Consulting.
James manages a 14-person team that provides a wide range of services in environmental management and compliance, contaminated waste solutions, and impact assessment.
James has a scientific and professional background, and a love for strategic environmental management. Shonelle asks about his journey to becoming an environmental consultant, and what his advice would be to young professionals that may want to enter into the field of consulting.
Getting his business off the ground included starting in a garage office, relying on grassroots word of mouth leads, and plenty of hard work. James made a decision to avoid being a sub-contractor under another companies, because he saw the advantage of only offering services directly to clients.
James describes the importance of building a support team and knowing your limits as a business owner, as well as patience and level-headed decision-making during the grind of building a business from scratch.
He implemented software and systems that would work even after the company grew, and always attempted to envision the end from the beginning. Whether a business owner’s end goal is passive income, getting acquired, or building a family legacy company, these differing end goals will effect strategic choices in the beginning stages.
James named his company 4Pillars because it operates under the presupposition that there are four pillars to sustainable development: environment, society, economy, and intergenerational equity. The pillars must be considered altogether in order to operate in ways that are responsible for tomorrow.
Shonelle and James discuss how some of 4Pillar’s current impact assessment projects are gathering their data and developing strategies for their clients. James shares that within cities, air, noise and water are usually the three focuses, whereas in more remote areas there are different priorities.
They reference the ongoing issue of asbestos contamination in soil, and the hope that policy consistency across different agencies and levels of government will move this important work in the right direction.
He talks about the times his assessments have resulted in avoidance recommendations, and how to present those types of recommendations effectively.
Volunteer work is often a part of the most effective environmental scientists and consultants, and James shares about his enthusiastic involvement with the Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand.
Today’s conversation also touches on the topic of green accounting and how it’s effecting the environmental consulting field.
This helpful interview with James Hammond is sure to be a source of inspiration for a lot of listeners, especially those who are starting out in the environmental consulting space.

Next Episode

A Change Maker: Creating A Paradigm Shift For Gender Equality In The Workplace

Today on Beyond the Green Line, Shonelle Gleeson-Willey talks with Kurt Laboyrie, an area manager at the Soil Conservation Service. Kurt is also a past member of the International Erosion Control Association Board, and recently received a Change Makers achievement from the organization Future Women.
Kurt has always lived on the coast and spent time in nature, where he developed an understanding of how sediment and water moved. He earned his masters’ degree in Coastal Planning and Management, then began his career in erosion control in sand dunes.
He worked on dune stabilization and natural area management, fire trail and asset protection, zone construction and maintenance, creek line remediation projects, contaminated land rehabilitation, and design and construction of drainage structures. He also held advisory roles as a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control.
Kurt now manages numerous civil and environmental construction works, serving local landholders, state, federal and corporate clients. Maintaining his focus on coastal environmental management, Kurt has kept a passion for environmental legacy, always striving to contribute to lasting change.
The Soil Conservation Service is a government contractor and also deals in the public space. Kurt shares his insights on how to build good teams for highly varied jobs, and how those diverse teams enable the company to fix problems for clients and take on challenges and risks that not everyone would be willing to.
Kurt and Shonelle also chat about Kurt’s desire to see gender parity and equal pay in the construction industry. Many top companies have a measure of equality at the highest levels, while the construction industry is behind in this and has been traditionally very male-dominated. Kurt shares what a single individual in the system can do to encourage more diversity and equity in their work culture.
Kurt recounts a contaminated land rehab project that his team recently completed, which comprised of both terrestrial and aquatic rehabilitation. Older boat paint containing lead and other harmful metals was effecting a populated area’s oysters, fish and potentially humans, and it was Kurt’s job to come up with a way to get all the harmful material out of the harbor and send it to a registered site.
He talks about the importance of the staging equipment they used, how they implemented two sediment curtains into the process, why they used a dredge, and how they pumped contaminated water into dewatering bags, sealed to limit human exposure.
We’ll hear Kurt speak on the unique challenges of working in the coastal environment, and share how he’d love to see better alignment on Best Practice across states and legislations in order to see LGA’s working together for the most efficient solutions.
Learn more about Soil Conservation Service: www.scs.nsw.gov.au/
YouTube https://www.bing.com/search?q=soil+conservation+service+youtube&qs=n&form=QBRE&msbsrank=6_6__0&sp=-1&pq=soil+conservation+service+cs+youtube&sc=636&sk=&cvid=9EE4426D9FCD43B48E8BF22659F0DE1F&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/NSWSCS/
LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/soil-conservation-service?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebing%2Ecom%2F&originalSubdomain=au
More about the Gender Parity Take aways:
Understand Yourself- so you can help. Do you have unconscious Bias, do this test?
Select a Test (harvard.edu) Choose the Gender-Career IAT.
Understand the problem- https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html
The Lift- What is the gender pay gap?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+lift+gender+youtube&&view=detail&mid=143F5413B212A71023E7143F5413B212A71023E7&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dthe%2Blift%2Bgender%2Byoutube%26qpvt%3Dthe%2Bli