Projects | Soil Land Food

Soils, regenerative and organic agriculture, grazing, rural land management, biofertilisers, composting, rural cooperatives, extension planning and strategy and regional food systems are just some of the projects we work on! We have worked with dozens of community groups and organisations across Australia. Check out some of our clients and recent projects below.

“The “Planning you farm landscape” course really brings together and explains all the different functioning systems and how interrelated everything is. David and Bruce explain some very complex and innovative systems, but they do this with a very clear process that enables participants to engage, understand and relate the information back to their own circumstances. I could see the spark in everyone’s eyes from start to finish. This was an excellent course.

Ruth Aveyard - Landcare Coordinator - Upper Lachlan Landcare - NSW

Planning your Farm Landscape Course

Muttama Landcare, Small Farms Network ACT, SNELCC Landcare NSW, Hunter LLS NSW

2018-2020

We deliver this innovative course across Australia to landholders who are looking to develop a whole farm plan based on landscape science so they can balance environmental and production needs in their rural landscape.

Digging Deeper Soils Program

Territory NRM Northern Territory

2019

In partnership with the Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator Soil Land Food delivered this key soil extension program to a range of Northern Territory farmers and graziers to help build soil management skills and capacity in the NT.

Regen Cane Farming Forum 2019

Ingham

2019

Soil Land Food was an organising partner in the first ever Regenerative Cane Farming Forum. Held in Ingham this event allowed 100 cane farmers and 30 cane extension professionals to come together and share their experiences around changing their farming systems to a more regenerative approach.

Extension: doing it well Course

WETSIP & HPCSL, Northern Tablelands LLS

2018-2019

We deliver this practical hands on extension course that helps build confidence in extension staff to deliver effective capacity building outcomes in rural communities using modern extension approaches.

Compost for Conservation Cropping

Topsoil Organics CW, NSW

2018

Soil Land Food is providing extension and technical support to this project looking at building awareness of farmers for using compost in Central West NSW farming systems. The project has 10 trial sites with compost being applied over 3 years. Workshops and web based materials are supporting the implementation of this project.

Saving Our Soils in the Burdekin

NQ Dry Tropics, QLD

2018-2019

We developed a range of extension products for this project including a series of soil skills videos, Soil Health Fact Sheets and the Grazing RASH Manual, a field guide to assessing soil health for graziers in northern Australia.

Organic Dairying: Managing the Change

Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia Coop, VIC

2017, 2018, 2019

We delivered a series of workshops across Victoria and Tasmania for dairy farmers looking to change to organic farming. These workshops looked at organic certification as well as farm management issues when making the change to organics

Optimising Nitrogen in Sugarcane

Major Integrated Project (MIP)- Terrain NRM, QLD

2018-2020

Working with the MIP team at Terrain NRM we developed and delivered a series of workshops looking at improving Nitrogen efficiency in the farming systems of the Wet Tropics to help minimise impact from fertiliser leaching on the Barrier Reef from these landscapes.

Mitta Valley Farmers Coop

Mitta Valley Beef Group, NE Victoria

2017

We consulted to the Coop and assisted it through its establishment from a group of farmers with an idea to a successfully operating rural Coop. This involved facilitating Working Group meetings and the Formation meeting, assisting with the development of a Business Plan and ensuring all legal requirements were met.

Grazing for Gliders - Extension Program

Terrain NRM Wet Tropics, QLD

2017-2018

Along with Dr Judi Earl, Soil Land Food co-delivered this 4 month land management and grazing extension program with landholders in the Kennedy Valley in Nth Queensland looking to strike a balance between habitat protection for Mahogany Gliders and grazing landscapes in the Wet Tropics.

Healthy Soils for Healthy Farms - Extension project

LachLand Landcare, NSW

2017

Soil Land Food delivered a series of soil management workshops across the Lachlan Catchment for graziers and cropping farming systems. The workshops included soil testing, benchmarking and soil pits.

Soil Skills for Graziers

NQ Dry Tropics, QLD

2016

Soil Land Food delivered this 4 workshop extension program with landholders in the Collinsville/Charters Towers area of North Queensland.

Soil & Land Management Skills Workshops

NSW, VIC & QLD

2012 - 2020

Soil Land Food delivers over 40 workshops a year across Australia for various clients including Landcare and Farmer Groups, Regional NRM Bodies and agribusinesses. Topics we cover include soils, composting, biofertilisers, soil erosion, land management, organic agriculture and grazing. We also conduct workshops in Extension for extension and project staff.

Soil Health Workshops

Northern Tablelands, North Coast, Hunter, South East and Central Tablelands Local Land Services, NSW

2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020

We have delivered a series of soil health workshops for graziers and farmers in NSW on soil health and soil fertility management in partnership with a number of the state’s Local Land Services.

Digging Deeper Soils Courses

Nth & Central Queensland, Central Tablelands - NSW, Upper Lachlan Landcare - NSW, South East Local Land Services - NSW - Northern Tablelands Local Land Services NSW - Goulburn Murray Landcare Network

2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

In partnership with Regional Landcare Facilitators, Landcare Groups and a number of Regional NRM Bodies (NQ Dry Tropics, Terrain NRM) Soil Land Food delivers this key soil extension program to a range of groups to help build soil management skills and capacity in farmers, graziers, extension staff and land managers.

Regional Soil Skills Competition

South East Local Land Services, NSW

2015

With support from South East Local Land Services NSW and the Wet Tropics Regional Landcare Facilitator we developed a competition-based soil skills extension framework as a resource for Landcare groups and regional networks to engage in soils learning activities in a community context. A regional competition was delivered to landholders in the Upper Lachlan region of NSW.

Thinking Topsoil

Little River Landcare, NSW

2014

Soil Land Food developed a landholder manual for monitoring soil health, the Rapid Assessment of Soil Health (RASH) manual, for the Little River Landcare network in Central NSW. This RASH Manual is available on our Resources page. We then delivered soil skills workshops across the region as part of the “Thinking Topsoil” Soil Extension Project to help increase capacity in soil management and monitoring of soil on farm.

Managing Soil Health

Northern Gulf Resource Management Group, QLD

2014, 2015, 2018

We have also provided technical extension support to the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group for a number of their sustainable agriculture projects assisting horticulture and cane growers to improve soil management. This project has involved soil tests, soil mapping, one on one soil extension and group workshops throughout the Mareeba -Dimbulah district of Queensland.

Soil Carbon Workshops

Central West Local Land Services, NSW

2014

For this project we delivered a number of 1 day soil carbon workshops to landholders in the Central West region of NSW.

Establishing the Link: Soil Health through Land Management in the Central West

Watershed Landcare, Central Tablelands Landcare, Dunedoo-Coolah Landcare & Macquarie 2100, NSW

2012

Soil Land Food, in partnership with the region's Landcare Coordinators, designed and delivered this major soil extension Caring for Country project. It involved over 20 workshops with over 70 landholders attending workshops through a 6 month period. As part of this project the “Digging Deeper Program”, a soils management decision making framework was developed and used to help landholders build skills in soil health and soil fertility management.

Sustainable Agriculture Strategy

Tweed Shire Council, NSW

2011

Soil Land Food was part of a consulting team that developed a comprehensive Sustainable Agriculture Strategy for the Tweed Shire Council. Led by John Mongard Landscape Architects, we provided expertise to this project in rural community assessment, agricultural land classification and food systems assessment.

“The Little River Landcare Group has used David Hardwick to deliver a variety of capacity building programs targeting soil biology over the last 2 years. Dave himself is an amazing resource – he has such an extensive range of experiences and skills that mesh wonderfully in delivering educational programs. Dave’s greatest skill is his ability to share his information in such a practical, easy to understand manner. He combines a range of learning styles in his talk to ensure that those who do not follow scientific lingo are as engaged as the scientist sitting next to them – and they have fun learning. Dave is a great educator, an amazing resource and a champion of healthy, living soils. David will help any organisation exceed their educational targets.”

Pip Job - Little River Landcare NSW