Soils for Life

15/10/2026

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐈𝐋 & 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇 | 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐘

What does changing grazing management look like on the ground, and what results can it deliver?

Join us on 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟔 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 at Thistlebank, near Aramac in Central Queensland, for a practical grazing field day hosted by Soils for Life in collaboration with RCS Australia.

We're delighted to have 𝐁𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐂𝐒 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬, sharing his firsthand experience of changing grazing management on his property, the results he's seen, and how improved grazing and soil health have opened opportunities for a soil carbon project.

Ben will be joined by 𝐑𝐂𝐒 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐌𝐜𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐧, who will share practical grazing principles and how producers can apply them in their own grazing businesses.

🌱 What to expect:
• Real-world insights into changing grazing management
• Practical principles to improve grazing and soil health
• Hands-on paddock sessions covering feed on offer, plant recovery and soil health
• An introduction to the Soils for Life Grazing Practice Guide
• Opportunities to ask questions, share experiences and learn from fellow producers

📅 Monday 26 October 2026
📍 Thistlebank, near Aramac QLD (approximately 70 km north of Barcaldine)

🎟️ Registrations are now open!
Places are limited, so don't leave it until the last minute.

To register, visit the Soils for Life website and search for the Thistlebank Field Day on 26 October.

Alternatively, send us a message and we'll happily provide the booking link.

A great opportunity to get out in the paddock, see grazing principles in action and learn from producers putting them into practice.

12/10/2026

Join us on Monday 26 October for a grazing field day at Thistlebank near Aramac QLD with host farmer Ben Simpson and David McLean, Managing Director of RCS - Resource Consulting Services.

On the day:
• An introduction to our Grazing Practice Guide and how to use it on farm
• Ben's experience changing grazing management at Thistlebank and the results he's seen
• Practical grazing principles from David and how to apply them in your own context
• How improved grazing and soil health opened up the opportunity for a soil carbon project
• Hands-on paddock sessions on estimating feed on offer, plant recovery and soil health
• Time for questions, discussion and learning from other farmers

David comes from a grazing family in western Queensland and has spent nearly two decades in agricultural consulting, education and producer coaching. He works with producers across Australia on grazing management, profitability, landscape health and business resilience, and was one of the advisers on our Grazing Practice Guide.

🗓️ Monday 26 October
📍 Aramac, QLD
🎟️ Tickets available: https://events.humanitix.com/grazing-for-soil-and-landscape-health-field-day-thistlebank

Supported by the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal and Hand Heart Pocket.

Join us for a field day to learn about regenerative grazing management practices.

08/10/2026

"The thing I really got out of it the most was being able to actually show the farmers the life that they've been trying to restore."

🔊 New podcast episode: The World Beneath our Feet, with macrophotographer and soil ecologist Frank Ashwood

👉 Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or at the link in bio.

Frank Ashwood's macrophotography has given farmers a rare look at the tiny creatures living in their soil. In 2023 we took him to six Australian farms being managed for soil health and landscape function, and a number of the photos from that trip now appear in his new book, The World Beneath our Feet: The Hidden Life of Soil and Why It Matters to Us All. A soil ecologist with a PhD in earthworms, Frank was born in Britain and now lives and works in New Zealand.

In this episode, we talk about:
🌍 Why soil is the last great unexplored frontier, home to an estimated 60% of the planet's biodiversity
🍂 The life in each layer of soil, from mites that give up their mouths to hitchhike on millipedes, to the world's first true millipede, found in WA
🪱 How nematodes make up around 80% of living creatures on Earth, with about 60 billion for every person
🔬 Soil organisms behind human breakthroughs, from antibiotics to slime mould algorithms that helped map dark matter
📸 How picking up a camera brought Frank's years of research to life
🕷️ What he found on Australian farms, from a spiny trapdoor spider in a Victorian cropping paddock to terrestrial shrimp at Fat Pig Farm in Tassie.

Frank's Australian book launch is on at Fat Pig Farm in the Huon Valley on Saturday, October 10, with a farm tour, a bite to eat and a Q&A. If you're in Tassie, tickets are at events link in bio.

👉 Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or at the link in bio.

Echo Valley Farms Fat Pig Farm Natural Intelligence Farming Downunder AG Gleneden Farm

04/10/2026

Be part of the 1000 Farms global research initiative! We’re helping to bring the groundbreaking 1000 Farms Initiative to Australia. A global farm research program from the Ecdysis Foundation that’s building a thousands-strong dataset showing the impacts of regenerative agriculture.

We’re recruiting up to 20 farmers across two regions: the Holbrook/Wagga Wagga Riverina region in New South Wales and the Seymour/Violet Town/ Nagambie region in North Central Victoria. We’re looking for grazing and mixed farming enterprises.

It’s free to participate, and you’ll receive an individualised Grower Report with your farm’s data to learn about your land’s health and how it compares with other farmers in the region.

Applications close 16 October.

Head to https://soilsforlife.org.au/the-1000-farms-initiative/ for more information and to express interest.

30/09/2026

Ben and Kim Simpson have observed increased pasture productivity since changing their grazing management from set stocking to cell and rotational grazing. Pasture diversity is also improving, with more legumes appearing and desirable grasses increasing. Ben has observed significantly improved productivity in his cell grazed paddocks compared to set stocked paddocks.

After Ben changed his grazing management in 2022, minimum ground cover increased from around 40% in 2022 to around 60% in 2024 and maximum ground cover also increased. In 2024, they ran double their previous stocking rate compared to 2022, with half their average annual rainfall. While they are only a few years into changing practices, these early results are encouraging.

Come along to the next Soils for Life field day to learn in the paddock with Ben and grazing management educator David McLean. Gain practical insights on grazing management for soil and landscape health, and an understanding of how to apply the principles in your context.

Join us:
🗓️ Monday 26 October
⏱️ 9:30-3:30
📍 Aramac, QLD⁠
🎟️ Tickets available: https://events.humanitix.com/grazing-for-soil-and-landscape-health-field-day-thistlebank

28/09/2026

🔊 New podcast episode: Figuring out regenerative grain in the paddock and beyond, with Courtney Young

👉 Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or at the link https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KK2K0z6V5I8C9THYk8HDO?si=ph8dX2lVTf-mZ5Fvx9svtw

Courtney farms organic grain with her husband Ian in Rutherglen, Victoria. For the past ten years they've also run a flour mill, milling organic grain from Ian's family farm and other growers and selling it to bakers, mostly in Melbourne. Courtney is also the Farmer Learning Manager at Soils for Life.

In this episode, we talk about:
🌾Why Courtney and Ian knew they'd have to farm differently to make it work, when land that sold for around $369 an acre in 1989 is now closer to $4,000, while wheat has only gone from about $200 a tonne to $300-something
🌾Intercropping wheat with clover, plus sap testing, foliars and biostimulants in an organic system where plant health is one of the few tools in the toolbox
🌾Improving grazing in the long pasture phase, and how five years of better grazing has pushed back St John's wort and capeweed on their 100-acre block
🌾Starting out with a kitchen mill at farmers markets, and slowly growing it into the flour business they run today
🌾Testing ideas cheaply and quickly, and failing fast rather than risking the whole business
🌾Our new Cropping Communities program, running in eight regions to help grain growers and mixed farmers turn soil and plant health data into action

👉 Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or at the link https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KK2K0z6V5I8C9THYk8HDO?si=ph8dX2lVTf-mZ5Fvx9svtw

Woodstock Flour

27/09/2026

Wishing you were excited to start the working week? Come and join our team! Applications close this Sunday 4 October.

We are seeking an Operations Manager to join our hard working, multi-disciplinary team.

This is a 12-month maternity leave backfill (0.6 FTE, fully remote from anywhere in Australia). The role oversees the systems, processes and people practices that keep the organisation running smoothly and effectively, and also supports event delivery.

👉 Find out more and apply: https://www.ethicaljobs.com.au/members/soilsforlife/operations-manager-remote-work-from-home?keywords=soils%20for%20life

24/09/2026

Our Spring newsletter will be coming out soon, are you signed up to receive it?

Our quarterly newsletter is the best way to make sure you hear about new resources, farmer stories, and upcoming events.

Sign up now: https://soilsforlife.org.au/the-newsletter/

24/09/2026

What if you could shift from feeling like profitability was a battle, to being in the top 20% of beef farm performance just a couple of years later, through changing how you grazed? That's part of the story farmer Ben Simpson will be sharing as part of this grazing field day on 26 October in Aramac, QLD.

Ben is a featured case study in our recently released Grazing for Soil and Landscape Regeneration Practice Guide, and this is the fourth of our national field days with graziers from the guide.

Alongside RCS - Resource Consulting Services grazing management educator David McLean, Ben will speak about grazing principles, what's worked on the ground. He'll share how changing their practices has increased resilience, profitability and opened up opportunities including a soil carbon project.

The day will include plenty of time for discussion, questions, and time out in the paddock.

Tickets at: https://events.humanitix.com/grazing-for-soil-and-landscape-health-field-day-thistlebank

24/09/2026

Join us and our project partners South Gippsland Landcare Network at the Dairy Resilience Field Day on 7 October.