Ground Cover

In this podcast episode Pippa chats with Rowan Berecry from Good Rich Fruit Company. Rowan explains how the management team of the commercial orchard is rethinking conventional farming through biological practices that improve soil health, reduce synthetic inputs and costs, improved disease control, and lower emissions along the way. Rowan shares the practical changes making a difference on the gr...

In this podcast episode, Pippa chats with farmer, Nick Sissoev Hugh and Dean Shipp, CEO of Hy-Boost Technology. Nick notes the savings he is seeing using farm machinery after Hy-Boost system technology was retrofitted to farm vehicles, with reduced emissions, improved fuel efficiency and consumption. Dean is quick to note that the technology isn’t the answer to stopping emissions, but it goes a lo...

In this podcast episode Pippa chats with Hugh Mackinnon from Mountford Berries in Longford Tasmania and Professor PJ Cullen, Chief Scientific Officer from PlasmaLeap Technologies in Sydney. Read the case study Hugh and PJ's conversation highlights how the production of green nitrogen fertiliser could support horticulture’s decarbonisation journey while giving farmers greater confidence in the supp...

In this podcast episode Pippa chats with John Winter from Glen Innes, NSW. Read the full case study . John is a chemical engineer and farmer who explains how biochar could become a powerful tool for on-farm decarbonisation, locking carbon into soils while improving their function and resilience. The conversation unpacks the exciting potential for biochar to reduce agricultural emissions, diversify...

In this podcast episode Pippa chats with Maggie Jarrett from See Saw Wines in Orange NSW. Read the case study on the Farming Together website. Maggie shares how See Saw Wines is turning a long-standing commitment to organics and soil health into a practical pathway for decarbonisation. You’ll hear how everyday decisions - from solar and lightweight glass to integrating sheep in the vineyard - are...

Welcome to the Farming Together podcast. This season, Pippa Jones is chatting with farmers who are putting science-backed information into practice - testing ways to reduce emissions and strengthening their farm businesses. Across six episodes, you’ll hear from farmers who are trying out research-informed tools, ideas and technologies. We delve into what sparked each journey, what’s been challengi...

In this podcast episode, Gavin heads out to Jim Coren’s place in Tucki Tucki near Lismore, NSW. Apparently Tucki Tucki means place of many koalas. The local Bundjalung word for koala is Burbi, a totemic animal prior to European settlement, and a concerted effort is now being made locally to conserve the koala population. Jim and his wife Andy settled here a few years ago just as the worst flood in...

Gavin chats with Barbara Linley at her Tullymorgan property in the beautiful Bundjalung and Yaegl country of North Coast New South Wales. In a past life, Barbara was a producer of super fine merino wool in Western Victoria. She shares some of her experiences as a sheep and wool producer, early adopter and passionate Landcare farmer and then a change in circumstances – she is now a custodian of a f...

In this episode, Gavin heads out to Possum Creek, Northern New South Wales, to have a chat with Penny Hall. Penny was a member of a RAMP cohort a couple years back. She and her husband Bob Lodge are medical specialists who moved from Melbourne to 100 acres on the Northern Rivers. Penny shares how, together with their farm manager Dave, they brought the holistic small acre farming philosophies of J...

Shannon and Julie Humphris run Blue Marble Farm on Gumbaynggirr Dangadi Country near Macksville on the New South Wales North Coast. Blue Marble Farm is a great example of self-sufficient living. Gavin Tinning had a bit of a walk around the farm with Shannon before the record button was pressed and was really impressed by the incorporation of livestock into a small property. On Blue Marble Far...

Today I'm heading down to Nashua, between Lismore and Bangalow on the NSW North Coast, to have a chat to Jeanie. Jeanie Wylie and Edward Rawlings set up a restaurant called Frida’s Field. If you're driving between Lismore and Bangalow and you look across to the east, around the Nashua turn-off, you'll see, on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, a bunch of cars parked and, no doubt, groups of people enjo...

In Series Three of Ground Cover, we hear the stories of farmers who participated in the Regenerative Agricultural Mentoring Program.  RAMP, as it is generally known, was developed at Southern Cross University and assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust. Gavin Tinning met with a diverse cohort of innovative and inspiring farmers to bring you their insights an...

In today's episode, we will hear from regenerative agriculture pioneer Lorraine Gordon. Lorraine is the founder and current Chair of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance. Her vision is to improve the holistic health and well-being of Australian landscapes, farmers and communities through research, education and practice. We will hear Lorraine talk about: Her own cattle farm at Ebor, her journey i...

Today on Ground Cover we will hear from Dr Lukas Van Zwieten, a Principal Soil Research Scientist from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. Lukas is also an adjunct Professor with Southern Cross University, and he's a farmer. And as you will hear in this recording, he has been described as the 'Grand Master of Soil' by renowned environmental filmmaker Damon Gameau. In this episode...

Today on Ground Cover, we're joined by Dr Jay Anderson, a plant pathologist with more than 20 years of industry experience. She's also a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University, and her research to date has focused on integrated disease management using techniques such as plant breeding, plant selection for resistance, and optimised plant nutrition. J...

In today's episode of Ground Cover, we're joined by Dr Jackie Williams, an adjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University who has more than 30 years of applied research in natural resource management. Her areas of expertise include sustainable agriculture governance systems, natural resource policy, and food security. With a lot of discussion and interest in the Nature Repair Bill and Na...

Today on Ground Cover, I'm joined by Don Coyne, the CEO of the Australia and New Zealand Biochar Industry Group. Don has been working to raise the profile of biochar for years now, and he works hard to bring together industry, scientists, and key stakeholders to realise the potential of biochar for Australia's net zero future. In this episode, we'll hear about: A Southern Cross University research...

Professor Kirsten Benkendorff is the Director of Southern Cross University’s National Marine Science Centre and the Deputy Director of the Marine Ecology Research Centre. Her research looks at the impacts of ocean climate change and environmental contaminants on the immune health and nutritional quality of seafood species. She is also investigating the use of marine molluscs for human medicine. Pr...

Can university research really help us improve climate resilience and soil health on farms? What knowledge can experts share with us? And what can we learn from research projects that don't quite work out the way we planned? In this second season of Ground Cover, Rebecca Lollback from Southern Cross University, will explore these topics and more with her knowledgable and experienced guests, includ...

Today, on Ground Cover, Kerry is joined by Lorraine Gordon, a beef cattle trader from Ebor who is also Director of Strategic Projects at Southern Cross University, founder of the National Regenerative Agriculture Alliance based out of Southern Cross University and currently working on her PHD in Regen Ag. In this conversation we explore what drives in this incredible woman to take on so many chall...

Stay tuned... this series of Ground Cover is not quite over yet. We'll be taking a short break for a couple of weeks, then we'll be back with a big announcement that you won't want to miss. In the meantime, join the conversation on social media via our facebook page , and you can join our email list by emailing raa@scu.edu.au

Kerry talks with Helen and Mike McCosker about the important of regenerating not only soil, but also communities. The McCosker family run Angus on a 3000 acre mixed farming enterprise at Wallangra, north of Inverell. Helen is a CPA with senior management experience working in the large corporate space. A passion for the arts and music. Mike is a fourth generation farmer with extensive experience i...

Today on Ground Cover, our host Kerry Cochrane, explores the five landscape functions and how they play out on Tim Wright's property. Tim is a livestock producer, and holistic management farmer, from Armidale on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. The Wrights are a pioneering family of the New England, Tim bucked the traditional farming approach of his ancestors to go where many were not brave enough...

Today, Kerry chats with Colin Seis; a mixed farmer from the Gulgong area of New South Wales. Col has come from a traditional cropping and grazing family and experienced an ecological crash back in the 1970s. This set them up to be quite vulnerable to the bushfires that came afterwards. In those fires, Col lost everything and was badly burned. He had rebuild everything from the ground up. And he st...

On Ground Cover today, Kerry is joined by Michael Taylor, a sixth generation wool producer from Kentucky, on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. Michael's family were one of the original settlers of the New England region. His parents, John and Vicky Taylor, discovered the real causes of the New England die back problem. The family tradition of experimentation and continuous learning is certainly inst...