Bee Friendly Farming for Livestock

The Wheen Bee Foundation’s Bee Friendly Farming program is hosting a FREE webinar during Australian Pollinator Week. 

Join Lea Hannah (Bee Friendly Farming), Dr. Kevin Foster (Senior Research Scientist - Livestock Pastures) and Sandra Jefford (Wilandra Farms) for a webinar to:

• Learn how high-quality, multi-species pastures can benefit soil health, livestock production as well as supporting pollinators with year-round floral resources.
• Understand how bee-friendly pastures can benefit and aid pollination services, bee health and nutrition.
• Learn about Bee Friendly Farming principles and practices.

Speaker 1: Dr. Kevin Foster (Senior Research Scientist - Livestock Pastures)

Kevin is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, with over 40 years of experience in scientific research and expertise in the agri-food industry, sustainable production systems, and southern Australian farming. His research has focused on developing improved annual and perennial pasture legume species and conducting extension work to help drive producer impact and practice change. Kevin's interests lie in plant and stress physiology and understanding compounds that negatively affect animal feed intake and reproduction. He is skilled in conventional plant breeding and spent 11 years selecting legumes with medicinal properties for the pharmaceutical industry. Kevin is also passionate about how locally adapted legumes can contribute to a more sustainable and profitable livestock systems and also integrating more legume species into agricultural and apiary landscapes.

Here are links to a recent paper and Farm Weekly article of Kevin's.

Speaker 2: Sandra Jefford (Wilandra Farms)

Along with my husband, Wilco Droppert, we own Wilandra Farms, an organic dairy farm near Sale in Gippsland. We moved here in 2011, and for the first few years were busy building a house, new dairy, and installing irrigation infrastructure. We always wanted to plant trees, but didn’t get started until 2018, and over the years we’ve learned how to do it better and on a bigger scale.  We milk about 380 cows year round, which graze our multi species, flowering pastures. Along with our shelter belts and riparian zones, we are creating more habitat for wildlife – not just honey bees. As we get more life on the farm, the happier we are.  I’ll be talking about the way we farm, some of the wildlife we see here, and some of the next steps we want to take.

Bring your questions!