York was the place to be last week with tickets selling out for the State’s premier soil health conference, Talkin’ Soil Health where 200 delegates converged at the Town Hall to hear about ‘building resilience from the subsoil up.’
Thirteen presentations covered a wide range of tools and management approaches to building soil health. There were discussions on harnessing the underground workforce - microbiology got a good look-in, as did macro invertebrates such as earth worms, dung beetles, ants and termites. Soil Biota and its role in nutrient cycling, water infiltration and carbon storage also played centre stage.
There were presentations on using virtual fencing to drive rotational grazing systems and strategies for planning to mitigate feed gaps and erosion through the planting of perennials, cover crops and more. We heard from farmers driving climate change action and net zero production systems and looked at opportunities within carbon markets to potentially offset emissions and diversify on farm income.
This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program
Initiatives emerging from the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub were presented, including the ‘WaterSmart Farms’ project that aims to find unconventional water supplies for climate resilient agriculture.
The highlight for many were the Soil Health Champion Videos that were played at intervals throughout the day. The video’s transported the audience deep into the Kimberley, out to Lake King and down to Needilup onto some amazing properties run by even more amazing people. All seven NRM regions put forward a Champion this year and hearing their stories was awe inspiring.
A comment made in one of the post event surveys echoed a recurring theme - “Hearing the farmer’s stories and seeing the scientists’ dedication to finding answers was the two aspects of the conference I got the most benefits from.” Find out more on our Soil Health Champions here.
It’s been suggested that the 2022 Talkin’ Soil Health conference was the best that’s ever been held, and certainly it was the biggest. Funding through the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal (FRRR) played a big part in delivering a quality event, as did the State NRM’s support of the Soil Health Champions Awards.
We may predict a sense of change is on the way with the sell-out event suggesting that the interest in soil health, resilience and resistance is growing as climate and markets are changing.
This event is supported by funding from the Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal (FRRR). The Soil Health Champion Awards are supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program.
This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.