So many of us have adopted the belief that success can only come from struggle, sacrifice, exhaustion, long hours and hard work. What if there could be another way? What if this could be easier?

When we are operating from a belief that there is not enough we get caught on a treadmill of constantly seeking and consuming more. More land. More money. More time. More yield. More livestock. More work to do. More fertiliser. More inputs. More consumption. More knowledge. More education. More books. More courses. More experts to tells us what to do. A never ending desire for more, no matter what it is you are consuming becomes more-on farming.

These reflections on how we can best help those impacted by natural disasters have been inspired by our own personal experience of being impacted by natural disaster in the form of fire in February 2019.

there are plenty of reasons to take a long term view and put in place strategies that will successfully reduce your reliance on nitrogen fertilisers that will also create a more resilient, regenerative and profitable farming system

There is a simple process for powerfully reinventing yourself and freeing yourself of outdated beliefs that no longer serve you to move from surviving to thriving.

To effectively change from conventional agriculture to a more regenerative style of farming requires us to reinvent how we think about ourselves, and our connection to the land we have stewardship over.

There are many paths we can take to reach an outcome or destination, not only one right way.

There are large variations in the types of approach coaches use and the outcomes you can expect. This article explains what coaching can offer your business and how to find the right coach for you. We will also explore what coaching means to us and what you can expect if you choose to work with us.

Believing we don’t know enough keeps us procrastinating, stuck in a loop of searching for and consuming endless information. It also leads us towards guru worshipping others we see as experts who we believe know more than we do and who have all the answers. When we focus outside of ourselves for answers the many options available can lead to paralysis by analysis or we can end up following someone else’s path instead of forging our own.

Integration of the feminine is the next step for agriculture and a role I see being fulfilled by the regenerative agriculture movement with many women and men being drawn to a regenerative path. This next step is about agriculture valuing, respecting and using both masculine and feminine energy in an integrated way.

Concerns about farm profitability can be a barrier for those contemplating the transition to a more resilient, regenerative farming system. This is understandable as there are plenty of challenges to navigate in agriculture beyond our control as land managers without creating more ourselves. Grow your confidence for taking the next steps by addressing these key components of a profitable transition to a regenerative system.

But we do not want those nasty weeds, they have become the enemy. We want something that is more desirable to our neighbours and our peers, and maybe more palatable to our livestock. However, if the weeds we are experiencing are low in the order of successional plants then we need to listen to what they are telling us about the state of the health of our soil. We cannot merely insert seeds of plants that are designed to grow in a soil of Ferrari style performance when our soil is actually functioning at the speed of a Model T Ford, and expect amazing performance.

We clearly acknowledge the role that the amount and timing of rainfall plays in the profitability of our business as farmers. We always know how much rain has fallen into our rain gauge. Yet how many of us know how effectively we make use of the rain that falls on our landscape?

Lack of good airflow and gas diffusion is likely to be your number one limit to health, wealth and production.

Is your soil alive? Or barely breathing

Cover crops can be a powerful tool to regenerate soils, reboot water cycles and introduce diversity, however they are not always the answer for every situation. It is more than likely that your perfect cover crop does not exist with every season. It is wise to consider a crops benefits, the potential problems and whether cover cropping fits with your goals. Good intentions and taking action in planting multi-species cover crops does not necessarily guarantee a beneficial or regenerative outcome. In less than ideal circumstances, and with poor management, the practice can lead to degrading soil health rather than the sought after improvements.

I frequently hear stories of bio-stimulants being applied with a conventional fertiliser mentality, with trials done in strips to see if there is a visible difference after applying them. Before you write off the bio-stimulant application as not working when a visible fertiliser type response is not obvious, remind yourself to focus on the purpose of the product you are applying.

The rain has finally come! And the grass (and most likely weeds aplenty) start to grow. The air is suddenly full of hope that the struggles of the past months, or perhaps years of either no, or minimal rainfall are going to become nothing more than a bad memory.

But are the struggles really over? Or perhaps just beginning?

Declining soil and ecosystem health are at the core of the reason so many farming families are leaving the land. The ease of blaming the declining profitability of farming on external factors over which we have no control such as droughts, markets, rising costs of inputs, governments etc has made this easy to disguise. By continually addressing the symptoms rather than the cause of these issues, the impact of unintended consequences of agricultural practices have continued to compound. Declining soil carbon reserves, soil compaction, algal blooms in water bodies, biodiversity decline, broken water cycles, high suicide rates in farmers and declining farm profits across the world are just a few of these consequences. Our agricultural ecosystems are presently crumbling under these pressures.

The value in planting trees is often not easy for producers to grasp. It is common to see massive amounts of money and effort expended in tree planting programmes that often fail to either establish or persist. So what could change this?

First we need to realise that the environment in which we are planting the trees is frequently an alien environment for the health and wellbeing of them!

Life is change, growth is optional. We can choose to see the challenges life presents us as a disaster, or as an opportunity to learn and grow. Acceptance of what is allows you regroup and move forward more effectively than being stuck in resistance to what is. Fire destroyed 15 years of infrastructure development and the results of our landscape remediation. It also left us with a blank canvas to be transformed again based on 15 years more experience. Nature is resilient, and so are we.