Farmers helping Farmers

Guest host Joel Williams talks to Michael Gooden and Dan Fox about the evolution of this grassroots farming group over the past 24 years, and the announcement of its new name - Farmers helping Farmers. NEW NAME | SAME PRINCIPLES | SAME SUPPORT| SAME FARMERS HELPING FARMERS In 2002 a group of innovative broadacre cropping farmers formed the Victorian No Till Farmers Association as an independent, practical, grassroots group of ‘farmers helping farmers’. Fast forward through 24 years of droughts, floods, fires, hail, frost and amazing seasons and a lot has changed in Australian agriculture. The group has also changed – membership has extended beyond state borders, the core focus has gone well beyond no-till farming systems, and the knowledge and experience that comes out of member paddocks is teaching everyone something new every day. One thing that has never changed though is the reason for being. Farmers helping Farmers. "We welcome all farmers, no matter what system they are in, to join us as we launch Farmers helping Farmers Australia. Together we will continue to strive to regenerate agriculture for future generations. From the ground down, and the ground up." Go to our new website to find out more and get involved.

In this episode, Michael Gooden catches up with board member Carol Fitzpatrick and her husband Brian to delve deeper into their on-farm brewing set-up which is providing nutrition to their family's combined 6000-hectares of broadacre crops in one of Australia's harshest farming environments - the Mallee. Carol attended her first VicNoTill conference in 2022, just one year into being full-time on the farm. Although she felt like a fish out of water at first, VicNoTill has taken her knowledge to the next level. She joined the board in 2024 and has never looked back. “You've got to talk to farmers for that knowledge if you don’t know yourself. You need to speak to other farmers to find out when to apply, when it's worked and when it hasn’t. “The theory is all great and it's good to keep that in the back of your mind, but the practical implementation is just as difficult sometimes. Listening to other farmers tell you how they do it and how they've spent their money and time is more valuable in the long run.” If you enjoy listening to this podcast episode with Carol and Brian, they will be at the Farmers Helping Farmers Conference in Yarrawonga on September 2-3, 2026. They would be more than happy to answer your questions and share their knowledge. Farmers helping Farmers is what we are all about.

" I didn't get to Dad's until 12:30am Friday. I’ll never forget coming over the hill I’ve been coming over my whole life to home and seeing the area glowing. The whole horizon wasred. It was like an apocalypse." VicNoTill board member Callum Lawson and his partner, large-animal veterinarian Lyndall Barwick, were on the frontline of the Longwood bushfire in Victoria that started on January 7, 2026. This fire burnt over 140,000 hectares. Callum manages ‘Allanvale’ at Avenel and his family farm is at Highlands, about 45 minutes southeast. Callum and Lyndall did everything they could to create firebreaks and protect livestock at ‘Allanvale’ in catastrophic conditions before making an emergency dash to Highlands to help save the family farm. Seven months on, Michael Gooden catches up with Callum about the steps he's taken to restore and repair burnt soils, and rebuild his regenerative grazing system using tools such as natural sequence farming, virtual fencing, applying foliars, stimulating his underground biology and just sitting back patiently letting his landscape rest and recover as his soils rebuild themselves. A huge thank you to Callum for his generosity in sharing his story and for the time he's put into sharing his knowledge and experience to help others. Farmers helping farmers is what it's all about.

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.

“If you have a decline in yield as a result of a transition to regenerative ag, it is not a result of regenerative ag, it is the result of poor agronomic management. Accepting a yield loss is a choice. Don’t say it’s a result of regenerative ag because it’s not, and I will die on this hill.” It is a strong start to this Farmers Helping Farmers special episode with John Kempf – a true visionary in regenerative agriculture. VicNoTill board member Angus Ingram catches up with John as he launches his new agronomic AI tool, Field Lark. It is an honour and a privilege that John chose our podcast as the first public recording about this tool. VicNoTill members have already started testing and using Field Lark and believe this has the potential to be very powerful in assisting with information interpretation and decision making. It is a lightning-fast fact checker and a valuable sounding board. However, to our minds, AI will never replace a farmer's experience or their intuition – that ability to detect when something isn't quite right. In this episode we also cover: Building an ‘on ramp’ for biological nutrition, whilst also building an ‘off ramp’ for chemistry- focused nutrition. The easy-to-achieve return on investments that nutritional and biological seed treatments offer, and the superior nutrient uptake efficiency that foliar applications provide. Non-linear agronomy - when you begin combining all these smaller variations to your inputs, you can see a compounding effect in the outcome. He calls it the ‘one plus one equals three’ scenario. A specific example relating to Australian conditions and how we can ensure that our crops and pastures have enough in the tank as we plant into cooling soils. VicNoTill has long admired John’s vision and ambition, and he provides some great, relatable analogies for Australian farmers in this episode. Enjoy! Test Field Lark here.

Applications are open for the Integrity Soils CREATE program with Nicole Masters which is being run in Australia for the first time. The on-farm intensive for CREATE Australia will be on the Victorian regenerative farm of VicNoTill board member Callum Lawson in September 2025. In this re-released podcast episode from 2024, Callum shares how his farming journey has evolved since discovering holistic and regenerative agriculture. ... When Victorian cattle farmer Callum Lawson went to a holistic grazing course, it turned the way he approached farming on its head. He came home from the first day feeling baffled about the way he was farming. What they were presenting about regenerative and holistic grazing concepts felt like common sense. This started him on a path of discovery, and the more research he did the more fascinated he became. Callum started growing multi-species crops in 2017 and flipped his farming system around to solve problems rather than treat symptoms. When he started farming more regeneratively he loved watching things grow and seeing the real difference in how healthy the crops and animals became. Callum says it’s easy to get caught up in regenerative agriculture, which can be both good and bad. He says it’s important farmers remain profitable otherwise they won’t be there to do it again next year. Feeling good is important but if it’s not making money, there’s not much point doing it. Callum joined the VicNoTill board in 2023. After a tour around the property Callum manages at Avenal in Victoria’s Highlands region, Michael Gooden sat down to chat with him about how his farming system has evolved. This podcast episode is supported by the Goulburn Broken CMA and the Australian Government through funding from the Natural Heritage Trust under the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program. To apply for CREATE please go to the Integrity Soils website.

Nicole, a global agro-ecologist, educator and systems thinker, has been working with VicNoTill to share knowledge about regenerative ag for more than a decade. In this episode, current president Michael Gooden talks to Nicole about how regenerative ag is a system, not an input and how people's awareness has exploded about the critical role healthy soils play in our lives. For Nicole, regenerative ag is an approach which enhances natural cycles, repairs ‘disturbance’ events, minimises harmful inputs and focuses on building resilience, microbial life and organic matter. She loves that it’s not a scripted list of what you can’t do. "As a farmer-led approach, a regenerative system encourages local innovation. Transitioning broadacre crops towards low-input, increased efficiency systems offers one of the largest opportunities for farmers, land, communities and profits." VicNoTill is thrilled to host the Integrity Soils CREATE Down Under program, which is coming to Australia for the first time, on our board member Callum Lawson's regeneratively-managed farm in Victoria. CREATE is a 34-week intensive agroecological coaching program that is creating the next generation of soil health educators. Applications open on 1 May, 2025. The program starts with an eight-day intensive in September after the VicNoTill annual conference. Places are limited. Apply at https://integritysoils.com/pages/leadership-development

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.

When farmers speak about diversity being one of the hallmarks of a resilient farming system, Stacey Curcio asks them to consider the diversity within their diets and the way they move to keep their body’s cells and microbes thriving. Stacey is a Naturopath at Cultivating Wellness with a Masters of Human Nutrition and was guest speaker at VicNoTill's Food for Thought conference in 2024. She links human health and soil health, regenerative practices and systems thinking. In this Farmers Helping Farmers The Podcast episode with Michael Gooden, Stacey delves into more detail about the way people respond to the environment, the food they eat and the emotions they experience. Palates reflect the intricate relationship between the land, the plants, and the animals we consume. This connection reminds us that healthy, diverse ecosystems are essential not only for sustaining the Earth but for nurturing human health, as the foods we eat carry the imprint of the land and its vitality. Nutrition starts in the soil, not in the packet or on the plate. "We are what we eat eats."

Fifth generation broadacre farmer and agronomist Keiran Knight grew up on an irrigation, cotton, sheep, cattle and cereal farm between Walgett and Narrabri in NSW. She married her next door neighbour John and they still farm the land their previous generations settled in 1891. While working as an agronomist and with a young family, Keiran became increasingly concerned about the amount of fertiliser conventional agriculture was asking farmers to use, both from an economic and environmental perspective. She and John started using bio-stimulants and she made a career change to become an agronomist for Best Farming Systems Australia. Keiran says farmers are getting agronomy advice they believe is evidence-based and scientifically based, but not enough people are talking about the damage synthetic inputs do to their most precious resource, soil. Keiran is well attuned to growing up in a rural area, and the culture of farming where it’s difficult to step outside the lines. She encourages more farmers to ask more questions about the products they’re using and what those products are doing to their soils as well as the quality of the food and fibre they are producing. Keiran was a guest speaker at VicNoTill's Food for Thought conference and says more questions also need to come from consumers around the nutritional integrity of their food such as who grew it, how did they grow it and what is their soil management plan.

In the FARMERS HELPING FARMERS PODCAST Episode 21, Dan Fox sits down with WA farmer Rob Hetherington who is seeing a lifetime of soil study come to fruition on the Lake King farm he runs with his wife Judi and son Daniel, Kate and family. This is a fascinating and indepth discussion with an experienced farmer and Wheatbelt NRM Soil Health Champion who was a guest speaker at VicNoTill's 2024 Food for Thought Conference. Rob discovered a long time ago that calcium was the limiting factor to his soil health on the cropping farm that has been in his family since 1946. Rob and Judi took over the management of ‘Walma’, named after Rob’s parents Wally and Mary, in 1983. They grow multi-species for a dairy as part of an ongoing arrangement, as well as winter grains and opportunistic summer crops. Using his scientifically-geared knowledge he identified calcium, along with some phosphate, as being the first step to bringing their whole system together. Calcium has stimulated their root, stem and foliage growth, helped build stem strength in crops and made them more resistant to attack by disease or insects and helped raise Brix levels which helps them withstand frost. Rob's most important lesson of all is understanding that knowledge is power. "In the regenerative space there’s a lot of talk out there that you’ve got to look after the soil biology, so put a crop in with minimal fertiliser or no fertiliser. This might work on some areas and you might get away with it one year. In the long term though, it’s a downward spiral. I know that because I’ve experienced it myself. It’s a matter of knowing the chemistry and the biology, finding that knowledge and moving forward from there. At the end of the day, farming is all about mineral energy and controlling conductivity and knowing what to apply and where to apply it to get those reactions happening.”