Please note: Day 1 and the testing portion of this program have passed, registrations for Day 2 are still worthwhile and very welcome!

Looking to further deepen your understanding of how soils work?

Keen to learn different ways to regenerate and manage your soil’s health for better yield, productivity and climate resilience?

Get hands on and learn from both your peers and nationally sought-after trainers, David and Kristy from Soil Land Food, in this hands-on, on-farm course and testing program. Usually $400 per person, it’s free for 80 growers across 4 locations thanks to Food Connect Foundation's work to support farmers and create a regenerative food system, and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program Smart Farms Small Grants.

Whether you’re in veggies or dairy, just dipping your toes into regenerative practices or have been at it for a long while, you’ll take something away.

Over two workshops (with 6 weeks in between, so you’ve got time to test, apply and come back with more questions for round two) you’ll learn to test and analyse your soil, and formulate action plans based on ecological, regenerative principles and specific to your soil type and challenges.

“Very few people have such a comprehensive understanding of soils but can deliver a course in a platform that is easy to understand. I would recommend it to anyone.” Vic

Based on the Digging Deeper Soils program, one of Australia's most successful soils courses for farmers, this bootcamp is designed to help you quickly build maximum skills and confidence. It takes a modern ecological view on soils as a self organising system and how to manage them using a holistic approach.

You’ll walk away knowing how to:

manage soils as a system
assess soils both in the field and with soil tests (and how to read those tests)
confidently make effective soil health decisions for improvements and resilience

Course Content

Day 1 - 21st July at LOOP Growers, Highvale [past]

The 4 Steps to Soil Success
A day in the life of a soil. Get to know how a soil system works!
Understanding Soil Types: one size doesn’t fit all
Soil Texture: sand, silt and clay!
Soil Colloids: understanding the soil's CEC
Soil Health: what is it and why is it important
Taking a soil sample for the lab

Day 2 - 8th September at Neighbourhood Farm, Sherwood

The 3 Steps to managing Soil Health
The Soil Health Checklist: assessing soil health in the paddock and with a soil test
Managing Soil Organic Matter: the heart of a healthy soil
Managing Soil Biology: the community of life in a topsoil
Managing Soil Structure and Water: optimising your soil’s air and water
Managing key soil chemistry: salinity and pH
Managing the Soil Colloid: balancing the cations
Monitoring Soil Health

Through the 2 days you’ll also cover:

The Principles of Regenerative Soil Management
Steps to Soil Success: the broad steps to improving soil health in your enterprise
A Soil Action Plan: setting a direction for your own soils

Lunch and refreshments included both days.

Your trainers

David Hardwick

David is a professional agroecologist. For over 20 years, he’s been doing soil and regenerative agriculture extension, training and consulting all over Australia and in Asia. After completing a Dairy Traineeship he completed a degree in Ecological Agriculture at the University of Sydney with focus on regenerative and organic farming systems, land management and rural change. David has worked in the conventional, organic and regenerative sectors and across grazing, horticulture, dairying and cropping systems from the Wet Tropics to Tasmania.

Kristy Youman
Kristy has over 10 years of experience in the environmental science and agricultural field working in a wide variety of roles across Australia for government, non-profit and private organisations. She has previously worked in extension and research with a range of agencies, community groups and landholders. Prior to that she travelled and worked around Australia on pastoral properties, and runs a mixed farming property with her partner at Guyra.

Other locations

Can’t make these workshops? We’re also holding the bootcamp in the following locations: