Come and join us for a full day of information about Regenerative Agriculture and associated topics. With Inspiring speakers as listed below concluding with a panel discussion.

Speakers include:

Role of dung beetles in farm ecosystems with Karen Thomas from Melbourne Water, Landcare

Regenerative Agriculture on a budget and improving your soil with Stuart Ryder from Little Feet Farm

Biochar applications in farming with Andrew Wells from Earth Systems

Plus a Q&A panel followed by a networking opportunity to find out about future opportunities to learn.

Light lunch and refreshments provided.

About our speakers:

Karen (B. Ecological Agriculture and Dip Conservation Land Management)

Karen has been working in sustainable agriculture for over 25 years; firstly, in integrated pest and weed management, IPM research and Ag extension and rural recovery projects with Agriculture Victoria and in recent years as the Regional Agriculture and Landcare Facilitator with Melbourne Water. She will discuss the role of dung beetles in farm ecosystems, how to monitor for dung beetles. It is important to know which dung beetles are on your farm before buying dung beetles to release. She is supporting a dung beetle exchange network to link Landcare groups and farmers with others to share dung beetles and increase the spread of beetles across the region.

Stuart: (B. Regenerative Agriculture, organic farmer over 20 years)

This talk will identify the common sense first steps to take on your regenerative framing journey and hopefully help you avoid taking costly detours. It will start by helping you to think about your unique context then move into understanding your site and soils, touch on soil testing and how to utilise this information, and then discuss some regenerative farming strategies, including rotational grazing, soil amendments and soil biology. It will help you to build confidence and understand where to start on your regenerative journey.

Stu has been involved in organic agriculture and permaculture for over 20 years, running his own market garden, Little Feet Farm, community supported agriculture (CSA) scheme and farmers market stall for 15 of those. His interests and skills range from farm design through soil health to human health, ecological thinking to whole of food system/economic transformation.

Andrew: (Earth Systems)

This talk will discuss biochar and how to use and apply it in various situations from small gardens to farming applications. Learn about how biochar can be a beneficial soil amendment and store carbon long term in the soil.

For further information contact eartheducation@ecoss.org.au