We are re-releasing our very first Farmers Helping Farmers podcast episode with former VicNoTill president and sixth generation Lockington farmer Grant Sims. This conversationwith Dan Fox was recorded way back in 2022 is our most highly listened to episode of all time.

Grant joined the VicNoTill board in 2015 and was president until 2020. Landline Australia featured Grant and the benefits of regenerative farming system on its May 10, 2026 episode. It is exciting to see regenerative agriculture finally get the airplay it deserves. It might have taken a world war and a global fueland fertiliser crisis to get this attention, but the reality is that VicNoTill farmers like Grant have been successfully farming regeneratively in large-scale broadacre cropping and livestock systems for over 10 years.

Grant has long been at the forefront of innovation and was president of VicNoTill when our farmer-based, grassroots organisation started testing and trialling regenerative tools. Grant credits VicNoTill as taking his passion and vision for better soils, better livestock and better, more profitable and sustainable farming systems to the next level.

“Farmers helping farmers is a powerful way to lead change, and I don’t know any other organisation out there who does this as well as VicNoTill does,” he says.

Grant’s excitement and passion for a new approach to how farmers feed the world is contagious, as you will discover in this episode of Farmers Helping Farmers - soil health, soil function and grassroots agriculture.

Grant is also the founder of DownUnder AG. You can find out more about Grant on the ⁠VicNoTill website ⁠– he’s a wealth of knowledge and is generously sharing that knowledge around the world.

Farmers Helping Farmers, The Podcast is dropping into your ears with a paddock chat between VicNoTill president Michael Gooden and board member James Manning around how they're managing budgets, future plans and other farm activities during the current fuel and fertiliser shortage.

James manages 'Northwood Park' at Seymour for one of three farms in a 10,000 acre thoroughbred stud owned by Sheik Mohammed of Dubai. James, his wife Lisa and their two young children also run a small regenerative beef block near Eurora.

When it comes to breeding race horses, James' focus is on improving the nutritional value of pastures to give the horses the best possible opportunity to be the best athlete in the stable. He's not saying it will make them run any faster, but if they can improve their overall health, fertility and longevity, that's a good thing.

We've also included an off-topic paddock chat between Michael and James to give you an insight into the grass roots conversations that are happening every single day in the VicNoTill network.

Farmers Helping Farmers since 2002. All welcome.

April 2026: Life is full of challenges, especially in farming, and the global situation can be a heavy weight. It feels like the perfect time to re-release this encore conversation with UK farmer Tim Parton. If you want to be inspired, Tim is your man. We’re wanting to remind everyone that Farmers are Heroes, nobody else can do what we do.

Since this episode was recorded in 2023, Tim has faced even more personal challenges due to a serious farming accident. We caught up with him when we attended Groundswell in the UK last year, and look forward to another podcast chat with him soon - watch this space!

...

UK arable farmer of the year and Green Farm Collective founding member Tim Parton spent a week in Australia as part of VicNoTill's annual conference TRAN$ITION23. As well as inspiring over 100 farmers in the conference room, Tim hung out in soil pits and dug into soils with a shovel to gain a deeper understanding of regenerative farming systems in the Australian context. Dan Fox sat down in the podcast studio with Tim to discover what new ideas his visit had sparked. VicNoTill was also keen to find out how Tim is changing the narrative about farmers being the heroes when it comes to sequestering carbon and feeding the world.

In 2017, a Sydney TedX crowd went wild when farmer turned agronomist Guy Webb stood on stage to pitch his idea for using fungus to capture carbon in the atmosphere and plant it back into the ground to combat the lack of carbon in Australian soils.

The applause was thunderous and what followed has been almost a decade of intensive research into developing a technology that provides a return on investment to farmers through their efforts to be ‘Carbon Capturing Superheroes’.

Guy sat down in a canola field with Angus Ingram at the VicNoTill conference field day in spring 2025 to talk about how his lifelong mission to ensure the agricultural industry remains sustainable and profitable for the long-term future.

Large scale broadacre cropping is his focus, providing a massive opportunity for change – and to hear how this humble and very passionate innovator has gotten to where he is today will both surprise and delight.

• We would like to share with listeners in advance that the sound quality in this episode varies due to some technical difficulties. VicNoTill is a farmer-based, grassroots organisation of Farmers Helping Farmers, and although we are proud to be at the forefront of change and systems thinking, we are honest and open about the challenges along the way – mastering the art of podcasting equipment is one!

VicNoTill is proud to re-release what was our second episode of Farmers Helping Farmers The Podcast for those who may have missed it!

Dan Fox sat down with Graeme Sait during VicNoTill's 2022 annual conference Carbon Power to record what continues to be one of our most popular episodes On Why Nutrition Rules.

Graeme knows so much about growing nutritious food and we’ve only crammed in a tiny portion of what he knows into this conversation! Three years on, and everything Graeme shares in this podcast remains as relevant and true as ever.

VicNoTill is also sharing a whole range of other resources we have with Graeme Sait on our website as we're sure listening to this will spark your interest in wanting to know more!

VicNoTill president Michael Gooden describes stepping intothe paddocks of broadacre cropping farmer Brendan 'Patto' Pattison at Marrar NSW, as like stepping 10-15 years into the future and seeing what broadacre cropping systems have the potential to become.

Michael sits in the tractor, ute and walks through Patto's paddocks for this Farmers Helping Farmers episode that brings real farm life to your ears, learning more about cropping and soil health in just over an hour than what he could in a decade.

"Whenever I visit Patto on farm, am blown away bywhat he’s doing and how far he’s taken it,” Michael says. “He is a quiet achiever and a true innovator. He is deeply knowledgeable about systems farming and where he wants to take his. In his own quiet way he has contributed a lot, not only to VicNoTill, but to Australian agriculture as a whole.”

Brendan has a long history with innovation, being the first in their district in the NSW Riverina to use a disc seeder in 2007 as a way to gain more groundcover.

He started minimum till 10 years prior to this, and gradually phased out sheep to go 100% cropping. He took a 'whole of system' approach to introducing the disc and has maintained that focus ever since.

It has taken time for their system to click into placeand he says it has been a ‘pretty slow’ journey for the dual benefit of improving soil quality without compromising profitability.

After joining the board, Patto made big steps forward in his system by dropping synthetics out and putting more focus on biology. He says being involved with VicNoTill continually inspires him to further tweak his system and trial new things.

• Patto was a VicNoTill board member from 2018-2024. An indepth look at his farming system features in Issue 74 of VicNoTill's member magazine From the Ground Up. His presentation at the VicNoTill Carbon Power conference is available to watch on VicNoTill's You Tube channel.

Back in 2023, third generation Victorian farmer Tom Briggs candidly shared the things that went right, and wrong, when he returned home to his family farm with a head full of new ideas of how to shift into a more regenerative farming system. Since that time a large number of farmers have contacted VicNoTill to say how much they appreciated and learnt from this episode.

Tom joined the VicNoTill board in 2018 and filled the role of Vic President for several years. Tom made a difficult decision this year to step down from the board to dedicate more time to his growing family. We are releasing this conversation as an Encore episode to honour and thank Tom for his contribution to Australian agriculture during his time on the board.

Tom also features in the summer harvest edition of VicNoTill's member magazine From The Ground Up, distributed to members in December 2025.

In this podcast episode, Angus Ingram catches up with Don Piper. Don is a mixed farmer from Violet Town in Victoria who is typical of farmers who want to create a more resilient system that builds up their soils for future success, in that he believed he was the exception and could change everything all at once. He learnt pretty quickly he needed to build his 'on ramp and off ramp' that we covered with John Kempf in a recent Farmers Helping Farmers episode.

But not to be deterred, Don sees the things that went wrong as being just as important as the things that went right. He is early into his changes but is clear in his direction, recognising that his below-ground health is the key to getting his system right.

Don is also a new member of the VicNoTill board and our farmers helping farmers group is rapt to welcome someone with Don’s curiosity and enthusiasm for wanting to understand how he can maximise the productivity and profitability of his farming system.

• Farmers Helping Farmers podcast episodes are recorded in various locations including in the paddock, on the homestead verandah, in the tractor and machinery shed. From time to time we experience technical issues, and apologise in advance for a few sound glitches during this episode including some very noisy white cockatoos.

In this ENCORE episode you'll get an insight into what you can expect at the VicNoTill annual conference on September 2 and 3 at Moama, NSW when you meet our dinner guest speaker Will Bignell.

VicNoTill board members met Will last year at the Grounded Festival in Tasmania, and couldn't wait to get him over to the mainland to share his story. Limited tickets to the conference are still available. Visit VicNoTill's website to purchase. VicNoTill members get discounted tickets, so if you're not a member, you can join here first.

...

Agricultural investment manager and VicNoTill board member Angus Ingram steps in as guest host for this fast-paced, action-packed interview with Tasmanian farmer and ag scientist Will Bignell. Angus pulled Will aside after hearing him speak at the Matthew Evans Grounded Festival in southern Tasmania in December 2024.

Will is a 7th generation farmer and father of three boys from Bothwell in Tasmania and it's remarkable what he's managed to cram into his life so far. The Bignell family farm is well known for pioneering and innovating a number of new and emerging Australian industries. Will has a fascinating back story and runs a highly diverse operation in an extremely challenging environment.

Will runs a 2300Ha farm with his parents and produce wool, poppies, lamb, venison and a number of boutique specialty root vegetables. He is highly regarded for his skills at breaking down complex problems and bringing together people and resources to create simple, effective and economical solutions.

We really appreciated Will's openness and his transparency about all the various challenges, successes and failures that he's had so far in life, and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

NSW broadacre cropping farmer Dan Fox has a fascination for understanding the intricacies of how plants and soils function, and his conversation with Omnia research and development manager Andrew Doecke takes him into some deep rabbit holes on nutrition, chemistry and science.

Dan is in his element in this sponsor episode in piecing together how bio-stimulants fit into broadacre cropping systems.

This indepth discussion covers humates, inoculants, fertilisers, balancing nutrients and some of the misconceptions around biological stimulants.

Andrew outlines how Omnia are part of Fertiliser Australia's code of practice for labelling, to ensure farmers who purchase their products know exactly what's in them, and gives an invaluable insight into how farmers can be more targetted with their applications.

• Omnia's core philosophy is sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on optimising the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. Based in Morwell, Victoria, they manufacture organic based soil conditioners and fertilisers that maximise and sustain soil productivity. Due to access to unique quality of raw materials in Australia and innovative product development, Omnia has grown into the largest Australian manufacturer of natural humate-based products. They collaborate with Monash University and other Australianresearch institutions to develop new products and tools locally for use in Australia and worldwide.
• For more information visit Omnia's website.