13/10/2026
Same patch of farmland. Three snapshots in time.
1950: a mosaic of paddocks, hedgerows, a pond and woodland, full of life. 1980: bigger fields, fewer edges, half the species gone. 2020: one crop, edge to edge, a handful left.
Nobody set out to clear the life from the landscape. It went quietly, one efficiency at a time.
But the farmers we work with are running that picture in reverse.
Martin Royds went from 5 plant species to 80 at Martin Royds. , and counted 50 bird species in one survey. Di and Ian Haggerty Prospect Pastoral let native perennials back in, and now they come up through the crop on their own. A CSIRO study found trees on just 1.7% of farm area delivered 716 hectares of new threatened species habitat.
And diversity isn’t just nice to look at. It’s free pest control, pollination, shelter for stock, and soil that holds water.
That’s what we teach inside Smartsoil. Pasture Cropping with Colin Seis. Grazing Management with Dr Judi Earl. Cover Cropping with Kevin Elmy. And it’s why we’re building Smartsoil GXL to record what comes back, so farmers can prove it.
Habitat diversity down, species diversity down. It works the other way too. 🌱
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