Beyond Soil Sustainability

About the Author

Emily Mosely grew up in the Western Division of New South Wales, where her family operates a dynamic regenerative grazing business south of Cobar. With a deep passion for regenerative agriculture, she champions its role in supporting families, businesses, and rural communities. As a Grazing Solutions Advisor with MaiaGrazing and Atlas Carbon, Emily empowers graziers to make informed decisions and improve profitability through strategic grazing management. She and her partner, Lachlan, live on a property near Condobolin, where they enjoy the rural life, alongside their two dogs.

“Are you satisfied with your soils?”

It is a simple yet powerful question that was posed to each of us. It makes me wonder, how many of us have paused to truly consider the capabilities of the living metropolis beneath our feet. And, if we can take a moment to feel the thrum of the energy in the soil, to smell the rich organic matter and to appreciate just how intelligent those microbial networks are, what impact could it have on our decision making?

What an incredible opportunity it was to attend the Upper Mooki Landcare’s “Beyond Soil Sustainability” event in Quirindi last week. The local theatre was packed, the stage was set, and the anticipation was rippling through the crowd. Having the chance to hear and learn from three groundbreaking leaders in the space of regenerative agriculture was hugely exciting. Gabe Brown, Colin Seis & Walter Jehne, all seated up on stage, and there I was fangirling in the audience – I mean how cool to have these three all in the one place for an entire day!

Gabe Brown kicked things off. Speaking to his experience ranching in North Dakota, Gabe took us on the journey of his learnings. He really highlighted how crucial it is to understand our individual contexts – how this creates awareness around our decisions and drives what we want the outcomes to be. Getting down to the roots (pardon the pun) of our values gives us purpose and steers how we want our farming operations to work. Gabe said it best, “your farm is a reflection of you” – if we are thriving, focused, thoughtful & deliberate in our decision making, our farms are going to be much better for it.  

Taking the time to flesh out what our contexts are will set us up for success in our grazing and farming management.

Gabe went on to say that the best way to generate new capital in our business is by harvesting solar energy; whenever we do not have a living plant capturing sunlight and converting it to growth, we are missing out on profit potential. To maximise our solar harvest Gabe said there were two key strategies we can use; increase & optimise stocking density and use multi-species cover crops.  

The key learning I took away from Gabe’s wealth of knowledge was that plants are far more collaborative than competitive. In his own operation, Gabe applies no inputs at all – he now has a fully functioning biological system that makes all the necessary nutrients available to plants. There has been a tendency to think that we remove a certain amount of nutrients or minerals from soils and these then need to be topped up with fertiliser applications to replace what we’ve taken out. Rather, by drawing on Gabe’s way of thinking, we can begin to understand that our soil is a thriving, living system that has developed over millennia to be self-sustaining and dynamic. How much more resilient could our operations be if we start to create a habitat for these soils & microorganisms to thrive?

Gabe set the stage and Colin Seis stepped up to draw us even further in. Colin spoke on his background farming and grazing near Gulgong on his multi-generational property, ‘Winona.’ Colin, along with Daryl Cuff, pioneered the practice of pasture cropping in Australia.

Colin really emphasised the need to shift from monocultures to polycultures in our farming and grazing systems. By using a diverse mix of plants – various families, species, sizes, shapes, roots – we can restore our soil health and profits. I really connected with Colin’s explanation that “our farms should function as ecosystems’; again, this highlights how important it is to view our landscapes as living and self-sufficient organisms.  

He went on to also say that multi-species crops are a fantastic way to ‘kickstart’ the transition from monocultures towards diverse, perennial pastures. These multi-species mixes act as biological stimulants, releasing different exudates at different depths and attracting unique microbes to invigorate the soil function. When I think about how we may implement this in our own operation it was really encouraging to hear Colin say that the most important thing is to use a high number of diverse species, and we can do this with what we have available to us and what is affordable at the time.  

Can we support each other in our farming communities to do this? Could you seed-share with your neighbours and friends to create your own mixes to sow and kickstart your soil system?

Finally, Walter Jehne, the internationally recognised soil microbiologist, gave us a peek into his encyclopaedic brain. Did you know that there are 25,000km of fungal hyphae in a square metre of healthy, functioning soil? Walter measured it himself (imagine that!).  

Walter highlighted the importance of carbon in our soils. When we increase carbon levels in soil it creates pores which allows space for root penetration, fungi, microbes and water capture. Essentially, bulk density will decrease as carbon increases. Creating a system that allows for greater carbon capture means we can grow more biomass.  

Cattle and sheep, or as Walter called them, “nature’s mobile biomass recyclers” are like compost bins on legs and are the best way to cycle these nutrients stored in pastures and further feed microorganisms. Walter has an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge but one of the most impactful things I felt he said was, “go home and walk barefoot in your paddocks, feel the soil on your own skin.” He challenged us to go and really be in our soils, do they feel hard and compact under our feet or soft and spongy? What does that mean for our landscapes when rain comes? Are we setting our ecosystems up for success?

There is so much potential for our farming operations to be more resilient and more productive. A large part of that puzzle is in creating a habitat for our soil biology to thrive. In doing that we have the opportunity to grow more grass and feed more livestock. Ensuring we have clear contexts around our goals and values helps us make clear decisions about how we manage our above and below ground livestock. A tool like MaiaGrazing can play a valuable role in supporting our decision making and providing a framework for data-backed, confident outcomes with our grazing management.  

There was a little something for everyone and every operation at this event. For me, it was so encouraging to see over 250 people packed into a theatre to hear and learn about soils and ecosystems.  

It makes me feel incredibly optimistic about the future of agriculture and further pushes me down the path of regenerative practices. If I could ask you to do one thing it would be to take a shovel out into your paddocks and dig and play and feel the soil against your own skin and take a moment to appreciate the power of the world beneath our feet.  

If you could create an environment for microbiology to flourish, what impact could this have on your operation, landscape and life?

Keen to connect with Emily and learn more about MaiaGrazing?

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