In this episode, Dan talks with Stuart Andrews from Forage Farms. They discuss Regenerative Farming practises; in particular Natural Sequence Farming, his upbringing with infamous father Peter Andrews (“P.A”), along with the state of farming in Australia today and how we as consumers can support ethical farming. It is a deep conversation that will remain an important topic for years to come.

Stuart Andrews is a farmer who has dedicated over 30 years of his life to understanding, practicing and teaching land rehabilitation techniques. Stuart was raised at the 1500 acre “Tarwyn Park” in Bylong, the celebrated home of Natural Sequence Farming, pioneered by Stuart’s father Peter Andrews. Natural Sequence Farming (NSF) is now internationally recognised as a significant innovation in sustainable agriculture and land care, and the story of Tarwyn Park has featured on the ABC program Australian Story on four occasions, three of these being a double episode. Tarwyn Park is predominantly floodplain country and was subject to regular flooding. Stuart spent 17 years managing the property, running horses, cattle and sheep and making hay.

Stuart has been involved in public education for most of his adult life. He has staged numerous successful field days at Tarwyn Park and been a guest at several field days in Victoria arranged by Healthy Ag. In 2012, Stuart Andrews co-founded Tarwyn Park Training, the principal education wing for NSF. As director of TPT, he has conducted multiple workshops on NSF with landowners in Queensland (with a focus on saving the Great Barrier Reef), New South Wales, Victoria and ACT, including with the Mulloon Institute.

The current project at “Riverside”, Stuart’s property in Kybong (just south of Gympie, QLD) marries Natural Sequence Farming methods with other tried and tested models of regenerative agriculture. Stuart is treating pigs and poultry as primary colonisers of infertile land and moving them across the property in a manner that emulates the intensive rotational grazing or ‘mob grazing’ methods associated with Joel Salatin of Polyface farm in the US. To use the language of NSF, rather than degrade land, these animals will aggrade land, serving as ‘nutrient donors’ that help to build soil fertility. Both animals graze upon a variety of existing plant species, and their disturbance of the soil stimulates the germination of seed, microbial activity and soil aeration. Land is left for long periods of recovery between short periods of grazing disturbance, creating the conditions for thriving and biodiverse pasture that can ultimately support stock. Further, by building soil nutrition and resilience, the land will be less susceptible to erosion or compaction, ensuring that less sediment enters the Mary River. Rotational grazing infrastructure is installed at a good distance from the river.

This trial is intended to establish a model of land rehabilitation that can be scaled up from very small blocks to large acreages, while also allowing the farmer to derive an income from the land. It presents a terrific opportunity to train less experienced farmers in economically viable land rehabilitation. It is also a model of farming that can be conducted cooperatively between the owners of several neighbouring properties. In sum, the trial builds upon Stuart’s extensive knowledge of environmentally beneficial farming practices, reflects his commitment to sharing knowledge with others, and is guided by models of sustainable/regenerative agriculture that have been highly successful elsewhere in the world.

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