Inspiring. Engaging. Thought-provoking. These were just some of the words used to describe our REstore. REshape. REnew. conference held at Muresk Institute on 31 March. More than 70 people joined Terry McCosker, a series of Wheatbelt farmers and The Mulloon Institute for a day that explored soil, business and farmer health.
It was a quick pivot to host a multi-media, large scale event after making the difficult decision to postpone the biennial Talkin’ Soil Health conference. However, the willingness of key presenters and six Wheatbelt farmers meant that a day of learning and knowledge sharing could still occur.
REfreshed Perspectives With Terry McCosker OAM
Tapping into Terry McCosker’s vast knowledge, the morning’s session focused on ways that farmers could get off the treadmill of high fertilizer and chemical costs. The practical aspects were backed by video stories from six successful broadacre farmers, which will be shared across our social media platforms.
Healthy soils, social license and profit over yield were the key takeaways for many attendees with many also saying that the ‘slow and steady' approach to transitional change was heartening.
REhydrated Landscapes With The Mulloon Institute
In the afternoon, The Mulloon Institute facilitated an extremely interactive session learning the tools and techniques to build landscape rehydration capacity. After going through the practicalities of landscape hydration, the group embarked on a field walk to see the practice in action. Muresk Institute are currently partnering with The Mulloon Institute on a research project to reduce waterlogging and increase soil hydration.
An interesting point for many attendees was that landscape hydration was the cornerstone to establish and maintaining soil health.
As mentioned by one attendee, “Rehydration is key to repairing the land and can be actioned across diverse landscapes and property types. It is also a collective or social process, requiring input from multiple individuals, property owners and agencies to progress the change needed. This may be intensive but is not difficult. The biggest challenge is a mindset change, recognising the natural systems at work.”
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to Terry McCosker, The Mulloon Institute, our participating farmers and everyone that attended for making this such a successful event.
This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.