The ‘no-brainer’ farming technique helping to shore up our food security

When Blythe Calnan and her partner bought their farm they had a clear picture of how they wanted to manage it.

Their “holistic” approach was focused on fixing past damage and setting the farm up to be sustainable for generations to come.

“We’ve really gone down the regenerative farming line which is a real focus on the health of the soil,” Blythe told ABC iview’s Muster Dogs: Collies and Kelpies.

“If we can produce and maintain and support healthy soils that produce healthy plants, which produces healthy animals, which then [means] healthy people and healthy communities.

She said once people understood the benefits, making the switch was a “no-brainer”.

Blythe described a healthy soil, which can sequester carbon and store water as a “big living sponge that actually supports us all”.

“Soil for so long has just been seen as dirt that’s an inert substance which grows what we need, and we harvest that without a second thought about the impact it’s having,” she said.

Earlier this year, a report from a new global think tank warned that globally, soil degradation is increasing and threatening food security and biodiversity.

In 2023, Australian farmers grew a record $90 billion worth of food and fibre. 

Australia is considered to have a high level of food security but severe weather events driven by climate change and other biosecurity concerns are posing an increasing threat, according to farming groups.  

“The health of our farming systems and the health of our landscape really supports the health of our whole planet,” Blythe told the ABC.

“If we have healthy farms and healthy soils, then we have a water cycle that is working.”

How does regenerative farming work?

Associate Professor Hanabeth Luke is a sustainable agricultural specialist at Murdoch University and has spent years researching agriculture practices in Australia.

She describes regenerative agriculture as a way of farming that looks to ensure the ongoing profitability and resilience of farms, by working more with natural systems and the environment.

“One of the key messages is: What works here might not work there,” associate professor Luke said.

“It’s not trying to say ‘these five things together are going to be the silver bullet that’s going to save your farm and the world’.”

Associate professor Luke said the number of farmers who said they were implementing regenerative practices varied across the country, with broader uptake in areas that were farming livestock.

What that looks like differs from farm to farm and depends on the soil type, rainfall and where it is.

On Blythe’s farm, they rotate their stock through their paddocks to give the land a chance to recover, and farm chickens which, as well as providing diversity of stock, helps provide fertiliser for the soil.

But as associate professor Luke pointed out, there were lots of other ways farmers were experimenting with how they can work with their land.

“People are putting in things like insectaries, I’ve seen farmers do that now,” she said.

“[I hear] ‘I’m putting this in on my farm, and suddenly I’m getting all these beneficial insects that are coming in. I’ve got less pest issues because I’ve got better balance in the ecosystem.’

“That’s not a scientific study, that’s just a happy farmer.”

She said the important role researchers played was being half a step in front of farmers to help build knowledge around what’s working, and what’s not.

Resilience key to food security

Associate professor Luke said regenerative farming played two key roles in supporting food security — one, by allowing farmers to reclaim local supply chains and be less vulnerable to the fluctuations of bigger markets.

The second was how it could make the land more resilient to extreme weather and protect farmers against the changing climate.

“What my research is showing is that farmers who are undertaking regenerative farming practices are likely to also be very concerned about climate change,” she said.

“That might be down to the type of practices that they’re doing, such as keeping their soil covered … to minimise erosion in times of drought, whilst maintaining moisture in the soil for as long as possible.

“But it’s also around diversification of the enterprises on their farm.”

The idea of building resilience rings true for Blythe, but she said the change of thinking required could be daunting for others.

“[Regenerative agriculture] is a no-brainer once you get your head around the fact that we can make a difference,” she said.

“I often say there is so much hope in [the] regenerative agriculture space … because we can make a big difference really quickly by just changing a few small things on all scales of farms.”

“[Resistance to regenerative farming] is actually fairly simple. Humans are not great at change, particularly when we’re under pressure.

“Our current farming systems, you know, everyone is under a lot of pressure — be it climatic, be it financial, be it from a resilient people perspective.

“We all get stuck in paradigms so breaking that paradigm when people are under pressure is even harder.”

Seeing the land respond

In Queensland, fellow Muster Dogs participant Renee Spencer’s family have adopted similar techniques to Blythe — rotating their stock through defined lots on their 8,000-hectare property to give the land a chance to recover.

“We’ve got creeks and little gullies now that have grass on them and growing up I never saw grass there,” she said.

Renee’s family put their stock into one big mob and then put them on smaller paddocks, moving them regularly.

“We’re trying to imitate natural grazing factor, like what you would see in the wild,” she said.

“Within our operation, what we do would not be possible without dogs.”

“We have pretty reasonable-sized mobs, 1,400 at the moment, and then 800 on another block and so one or two people moving those cattle every day or every week, dogs are a massive part of it.”

But more than that, Renee said using dogs was key to helping the stock’s mindset while they were being moved.

“It’s amazing what influence a compassionate, well-trained dog can have on a mob.”

Stream the new series of Muster Dogs: Collies and Kelpies free on ABC iview.