Farmers helping Farmers

In 2011, President Barack Obama presented Jonathan Lundgren with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for his work as an entomologist and researcher. This is a pretty high honour, in fact it’s the highest. Jonathan came to Australia as a special guest of VicNoTill in 2016. He visited farms in our network and spoke at our annual conference about something we hadn’t heard much about in Australia at that time. Regenerative agriculture.What many of our farmers may not have realised in 2016 was that this highly-decorated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic researcher was having a pretty rough time. What he was discovering through his research didn’t line up with what the government who employed him wanted to hear. Back in 2016 Jonathan warned that the agricultural industry was using so many pesticides because it had created a pest problem. The solution he presented was to diversify farming, and to only 'resort to' using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, not use them as a first option.Lundgren has been running his own regenerative farming system to prove farmers can produce high yields, big profits and enough food by rotating crops to suppress pest populations naturally. Ten years on and Jonathan work in the science field is gathering momentum and traction. Earlier this year, he was invited back to the White House to meet with President Trump to talk about regenerative agriculture, and in October his foundation Ecdysis, released the first Research Paper from the 1000 Farms project. The key finding? The bigger your farm, the sicker you are.The 1000 Farms project has just landed in Australia, and Farmers helping Farmers president Michael Gooden’s farm is one of around 16 being researched.In this episode Michael has a long list of questions but before he can begin, Jonathan turns the tables and starts interviewing him.He is seeking answers from Australian farmers like Michael who manage regenerative systems because they are the ones defining what ‘regenerative’ is;.Farmers helping farmers knows how to bring people together and be a tool for changes. Science is still catching up.Read a full copy of the 1000 Farms Report Regenerative agriculture: connecting soil carbon storage, biodiversity, and profit HERE.

This Farmers helping Farmers episode is coming to you from a regenerative rice farm in Southern Tuscany, Italy. Picture yourself there by listening out for the town bells, the birds and a tractor going past.Angus 'Gus' Ingram is travelling through Italy with his family, exploring all the things the country is renowned for - food, food, food. Not just any food, high quality, nutritious, regeneratively-grown food. In this episode Angus visits the farm of Ariane Lotti from Tenuta San Carlo. Ariane was recognised in 2024 as one of Europe's Top 50 farmers, an initiative started by Foodprint Nordic to recognise farmers who are working in harmony with nature, regenerating the land, restoring biodiversity, and building resilient ecosystems. Ariane Lotti spent summers on the farm with her family as a child, and since 2014 has been leading Tenuta San Carlo with a vision for certified organic agriculture with a regenerative approach. Under her leadership, the farm has become certified organic, expanded its crop diversity, restored natural ecosystems through reforestation, and launched a line of farm-branded products. A Yale graduate and former U.S. agriculture policy expert, she also has roles within Italian and European farming organisations.Ariane provides a valuable insight into the economic considerations of changing from a conventionally managed farming system to a regenerative one. This episode also highlights the incredible innovations that can happen when you look for opportunities within your farm business and follow through on your vision to grow healthier food. Ariane is honest, practical and thoughtful, giving a realistic view of the challenges along the way, and the things she would do differently. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we do. It once again highlights the power of 'farmers helping farmers', no matter where you are in the world.

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 FARMERSIn 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!