Building Resilience From the Soil Up (Kaipara workshop)

What is the relationship between soil health, farm productivity and climate resilience? And how can farmers manage for all three at the same time?

Join Future Ready Farms for a fun, practical and action-oriented workshop designed to help you build soil health, productivity and a more robust and resilient farm. 

The workshop runs 9am to 3pm with catering provided.

• Thurs 12 Nov - Paparoa Valley, Kaipara District

If that does not work for you, a second workshop is taking place in Waitoki, Rodney Ward on Wednes 11 Nov: click here to go to booking page

The workshops are part of Quorum Sense's Future Ready Farms project which has been running in Rodney Ward since early 2025. From July 2026, the project has now expanded into Kaipara District.

The project uses a practical, farmer-led model for supporting the adoption of regenerative farming practices with a focus on climate resilience through water infiltration and retention across the region.

Workshop objectives:

• Understand the foundations of soil health, farm productivity and climate resilience, and how they are connected

• Develop skills and knowledge for assessing soil health and identifying limiting factors

• Develop options for simple, practical farm management changes to trial this summer

Workshop Facilitators

The workshops will be led by Sam Lang, co-founder of Groundshift with the Future Ready Farms team from Quorum Sense.

Sam has spent over a decade farming in east coast environments prone to droughts and heavy rainfall events. He helped establish and lead the Quorum Sense farmer network, led the ‘Catch the Rain’ project helping farmers develop on-farm trials to improve rainfall infiltration and soil health, and is a graduate of Nicole Masters CREATE agroecological training programme.

Sam now works as an advisor, coach and educator with Groundshift helping farmers develop healthier, more robust and profitable farm systems, underpinned by improving soil health and ecological function. 

Quorum Sense is national farmer-led network supporting farmers and growers on regenerative pathways to more resilient futures. Founded in 2019, it encourages connectivity and information sharing between farmers through digital (website, community forum) and physical means (field days, workshops, conferences): www.quorumsense.org.nz

9am - arrival, registration coffee

9:15 - introductions

9:30 - foundations of soil health, water and climate resilience

10:45 - break

``11am - field activity

12:30pm - lunch

1pm - farm trial design

2:30pm - next steps

3pm - finish

Catering (lunch, tea-coffee) is provided.