Soils For Life
Episodes
Tracking milk quality, profit and soil health: A five year regenerative trial.
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when a commercial dairy farm runs regenerative and conventional systems side-by-side, and measures the results?In this episode, Clare Buc...
Rapid response: Managing the nitrogen fertiliser crisis, with Joel Williams
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's fertiliser crisis has been building for weeks as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. Around 60 per cent of Australia's ur...
Studying regenerative agriculture at scale: The human experience behind the hard data, with Dr Jonathan Lundgren
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Jonathan Lundgren runs 1,000 Farms, the largest and most comprehensive study of regenerative agriculture anywhere in the world. Despite the name, t...
Nature’s army: Using functional biodiversity for biocontrol in orchards, with Dr Mary Retallack
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Mary Retallack is an agricultural scientist, third-generation viticulturist and agroecologist who has spent more than three decades advancing envir...
Milk, the original superfood, with Matthew Evans
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Evans is a chef, farmer, author, food advocate and founder of Australia's Grounded Festival (coming up in April - tickets available at gro...
A sneak peek at 'Soil - Rewilding the Underground'
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we’re bringing you something a little different. I’ve recently been involved in a new podcast series called 'Soil: Rewilding the Underg...
Navigating soil science, with Dr Susan Orgill
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Susan Orgill is Chief Scientist at Impact Ag Australia and a leading soil scientist with more than 20 years’ experience. She specialises in soil ...
Earning the right to reduce pesticides: Building plant resilience with Brad Campbell
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Western Australian farmer Brad Campbell has spent years refining his mixed cropping system to build healthier, more resilient plants and reduce relian...
SHORT: From problem paddocks to healthy soils, multispecies with Grant Sims
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of the Soils for Life podcast is part of our series of mini-episodes with farmers profiled in our series of cropping practice guides.In t...
Encore: Weeds are telling us something, are we listening?
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We recently attended Grounded in WA, and heard ecologist Dr David Watson's fascinating talk on the important role that mistletoe can play in farm ...
SHORT: Moving to a low risk, low input system one step at a time, with Steven Ford
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of the Soils for Life podcast is part of our series of mini-episodes with farmers profiled in our series of cropping practice guides.In t...
“We are walking ecosystems”: Our symbiotic relationships with microbes, with Jake Robinson
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jake Robinson is a microbial ecologist and researcher whose career spans parasitology, symbiosis, and the study of invisible communities of life that ...
SHORT: Getting foliars right, with Tom Robinson
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is part of a series of short conversations with the farmers profiled in our cropping practice guides. For Tom Robinson, foliar sprays ar...
Navigating uncertainty: Practical paths to resilient farming systems, with Nicole Masters
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nicole Masters is an agroecologist, educator and author with decades of experience working alongside farmers and land managers across Australia, New Z...
SHORT: Feeding cane by building biology - Michael Waring on soil health and nitrogen cycling in the tropics
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first in a series of short episodes we’ll be releasing over the coming months featuring farmers profiled in our series of regenerative c...
Letting the microbial superstars do the work, simple steps to build soil biology, with Dr Mary Cole
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Mary Cole has spent more than 40 years working with the microbial life that underpins healthy soil. In this episode, she shares what she's lear...
The farming communities restoring natural water cycles — one catchment at a time
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australia has often been described as a land of droughts and flooding rains. But what we don’t often hear is that, for millennia, the land had a rem...
Farmers helping farmers, with VicNoTill President Mick Gooden
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mick Gooden runs Old Man Creek Bull Farm near Wagga Wagga in NSW and is President of farmer group Vic No Till.In this episode, Eli and Mick chat about...
The ‘mad bastard’ growing veggies for Sydney’s top restaurants, with Phil Lavers
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Phil Lavers is passionate about good food. He runs Moonacres, a 140 acre fruit and vegetable farm in the NSW Southern Highlands, and sells his award-w...
Making decisions in the dry, with Martin Royds
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With record dry conditions across eastern Australia and many of you facing difficult decisions, we wanted to have a chat with Braidwood farmer Martin ...
Diversity is king: How four dairy farmers are building profitability and resilience with multispecies pastures
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can dairy systems support soil health, productivity and profitability at the same time?In this episode we meet four dairy farmers who are exploring th...
Farming for what matters, putting profit and human wellbeing before yield, with Gabe Brown
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we talk with Gabe Brown, a farmer and educator from North Dakota. Gabe and his family run Brown's Ranch, a 6, 000 acre operation t...
Restoring the water cycle on the Monaro, with Charlie Maslin
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the years we’ve heard from many farmers about creeks and rivers that are severely eroded, and landscapes that have lost their ability to absorb...
Planting with purpose, with Jill Clapperton
29 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jill Clapperton is a farmer and applied rhizosphere ecologist. She grows crops with integrated livestock in Kansas in the U.S. and advises farmers the...
Behind the scenes of Goodies Farm, with Penny Goodwin
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taking the first steps into regenerative agriculture can be intimidating. In this episode of the Soils for Life podcast, Eli Court has a chat with P...
Regenerative trailblazers share their stories from the Soil Stewardship Summit
23 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered about regenerative agriculture and the impacts it can have on farmers? Join us as we learn about real life experiences shared by seasone...
Rain ready rangelands: Staggering potential on a vast scale
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The United Nations General Assembly recently voted 2026 as the International Year of the Rangelands and Pastoralists. An incredible 81 percent of Aust...
Small steps for big change in cropping, with Joel Williams
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we talk with Joel Williams about how growers can start weaning off costly chemical inputs, rules of thumb for seed treatments and fo...
You are what you eat… and the soil it’s grown in: Is soil the key to better human health?
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all heard the saying “You are what you eat”. But, as we'll hear in this episode, it really should go “You are what you eat, and the ...
Mick Green and Rachel Ward on the power of getting started
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re a long-time listener to this podcast, you’ll be used to our in-depth episodes co-hosted by Grow Love Project’s Susie Kable and Soils f...
From monoculture to multispecies cropping: Making diversity work
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Building cropping resilience through diversity In this episode we hear from croppers who are growing multispecies crops as a way of building soil hea...
Weeds are telling us something - are we listening?
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The industrialisation of agriculture has created large paddocks of monoculture crops and increased the chemical burden on farmers and their environmen...
Farmer led research – embracing complexity
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Agricultural scientific research is really good at honing in on specific issues in the sector to investigate targeted solutions. But nature doesn’t ...
Next Generation Farming Matters
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Australian agriculture currently has a labour shortage of over 100,000 people. It’s not an easy gig for someone to start from scratch on a farm and ...
Working Together And Navigating Environmental Markets
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 8 families farmer group formed more than a decade ago after a holistic management course. Since then, the group has evolved and experienced transi...
The Missing Middle: Farming Trees for Conservation and Profit
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Farmer, forester or conservationist. It might seem like you need to choose one but more and more landholders are challenging this. With the right mana...
Compost ain't compost
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are millions of hectares of degraded soils in Australia's agricultural landscapes. But there are a billion reasons why compost offers a solution...
The Great Soil Carbon Catalyst?
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How could the emerging market for soil carbon support farmers to regenerate soils? Soil carbon offers so many benefits both above and below the soil s...
Soils For Life Trailer
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is Soils For Life. A podcast about connecting farmers, researchers and policy makers, to shed light on agricultural best practice and explore cur...