19 Road Trip

Amanda sits in the back seat of a Holden Statesman, listening and learning, as an entrepreneurial farmer and scientist trade stories on our way to visit a few farms. One is full-on, fence-to-fence conventional cropping operation, and one has developed a regenerative, co-operative agenda; both within a 100 km radius of Geraldton. We are sourcing product for the new Catchment Food business that will buy food at a premium from farmers willing to transition to more nature based farming systems.

Manage the land like you are part of the landscape, not the centre of it. Joel Williams

I spent a day on the road with Tim Wiley and Rod O’Bree doing farm visits. Tim is a former Department of Ag scientist, agronomist, Rangeland ecologist and one of WA’s most connected Agricultural souls. Rod is a food distributor, founder of the fledgling Catchment Foods business, horse lover, experimenter on the land. As a relative newcomer to farming he rejects the label ‘farmer’, but is partnering with Tim to become one of the go-to people for fixing natural water systems in Australia.

We drove out from Geraldton early, me sitting in the back seat, ears flapping. The agenda was loose: raise awareness of the potential brewing in the Catchment Food business and connect the dots with a few old mates.

Catchment Foods is a grass-roots engagement led by local producers interested in creating healthier soils and foods; tackling farm resilience by improving the water holding capacity of the soil and dealing with issues of food security and food miles. The idea has strong support from Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Alannah MacTiernan who has tasked the Midwest Development Commission with the job of turning the Midwest into a food bowl. The idea is that producers who supply the brand get a premium price for products coming from land transitioning to more nature-based farming practices.

Rod is keen to meet farmers where they are – he is keeping the bar at an achievable level and is currently working with Tim, as a representative of Tierra Australia, and NACC and other bodies to secure some of the money that has just hit the grant circuit from the Federal Government. Scott Morrison has made it known that he is looking for new ideas to tackle the disastrous effects of drought and fire on Australian farmland, head on. If Tim, Rod and the wider crew behind them get the funding they want, it could be a game changer for the whole Chapman River Valley Catchment zone.  

Continuity of supply of pasture fed sheep and cattle for Catchment Food was part of the reason for visiting Craig Forsyth down Dongara way, but the conversation went in many directions: including how the season’s low rainfall count had treated Craig’s perennials and how tagasaste and salt bush plantings had worked for him over the years. Apparently, there is a bit of an art to establishing saltbush on sandplain country and years ago Tim and other experimentally inclined scientists had a hand in working out with Craig how it could be achieved – going against a general chorus of ‘it’ll never work’. It worked. Years later, listening in to the conversation it seems what Tim would change with what we now know, is to add more plant diversity to the mix.

CRAIG AND THE ART OF COLLABORATION

At some point the conversation switched to local land politics and the half dozen farmer groups that dot the Midwest. Craig, veteran member of MIG, the Mingenew Irwin Group, wants all the producer groups from Eneabba through to Jurien Bay and northeast to the Yuna group to work in together - sharing ideas and strategies and resources.

Well it works for Craig. From what I could glean of his cattle business he works closely with pastoral stations up north and buyers down south to keep a chain of producers and associated businesses including an abattoir, butchers and retail outlets, happy.

Craig’s cattle

It has to be a flexible arrangement that works in with the vagaries of WA rainfall. Craig takes cattle that need grass-fed grazing and weight gain after being trucked south, or extra care taken with birthing or young animals when the season up north doesn’t work with producers’ needs.

According to Tim, Craig has one of the best eyes for grazing capacity in the land. He’d need it, in the tough sandplain country he operates on. Craig is an innovative type of character – he was an early investor in technology that enables him to observe weight gain/loss in his animals and continues to use sophisticated software that enables him to track grazing rates and pasture condition.

Chances are, if you go for the Pasture fed beef on sale in the major supermarkets, you would have eaten meat that has come from this operation.

WHEN BLOKES DO BUSINESS

Rod, Craig’s back, Tim

Tim and Rod make a good team. Craig’s initial reluctance about supplying the odd beast to the evolving Catchment Food  plan melted in the face of Rod’s ability to offer a solution to Craig’s water buffalo dilemma, he currently has three on his property – this involved a bloke they knew but I didn’t get the back story amid the general hilarity.

As part of Western Independent Foods, Rod and his wife, Bridie command a team of workers and drivers, plenty of cold storage space and a fleet of trucks that crisscross WA from roadhouses in the north to Perth in the south and east as far as Meekatharra. So Rod was able to suggest a possible plan for the water buffaloes that included an abattoir and freight services; Craig was delighted.

It was a great negotiation in that it never looked like a negotiation but passed as a example of mates sitting down and helping each other out. Trust based on long relationships, goodwill, plenty of humour with a nice leavening of chat (men never gossip) were in evidence over a cup of tea and slice of fruitcake.

CONVENTIONAL and CONVENIENT

The next visit was to a big cropping farm, family owned and run, north-east of Geraldton at the top of the Chapman Valley catchment zone. 9000 hectares, no fences, the fabled wall to wall cropping with a simple – I won’t call it a rotation, more an oscillation of wheat, barley and canola. This farmer, a youngish man, runs an impressive business.

Even with a poor season of rain – virtually nothing after a big July downpour – and a harvest down by an estimated 30% as a consequence, he was still keeping his books in the black. And with 9000 hectares of stubble sitting in his paddocks was looking at a nice, long break from farm work.

Rod was interested in sounding this farmer out as a supplier of wheat for flour that could be used by Aussie Pastries, Geraldton’s biggest commercial bakery and on board with Catchment Food. He has goat pies in mind. He has the goats and the pie-maker, now he is looking for the locally grown flour to complete the product.

We toured this farm, marvelled at the excellent bore pumping sweet water from just below the surface not far from the house - but no stock to water. His land, despite being largely clear of shrubs and trees has small areas of salt but they don’t seem to be spreading. 

PASTURE CROPPING

The farmer showed us an area that is a bit of a headache in that it remains wet enough to bog machinery during sowing and harvest time. Tim suggested planting a type of summer active perennial legume that can be grown under the annual crops – this pasture cropping idea being a small step towards getting more plant diversity into the system that will help make the soil more resilient. A winter growing crop planted over a summer growing legume would mean green leaf and live roots year round. 

According to Tim, wearing his perennial grass scientist hat, this is the perfect recipe to feed a soil biology ecosystem, with the inevitable outcome of more fertile soils and massive carbon sequestration. 

Tim tested the pasture cropping system at Greenough (just south of Geraldton) during the 2006/07 drought and found if you use the right type of perennial pasture there was no loss of grain yield from the crop growing on top of them.

The farmer was a bit worried by pretty vigorous stands of the weed fleabane taking hold in the wet zone. Weeds love a vacuum, but having a perennial pasture year round will keep the weeds out.

THE RETURN OF THE SWAMP

Tim also suggested that the farmer could encourage areas of land not being cropped at the bottom of the valleys to return to its natural wetland. This farm is clearly ripe to be returned to the chain-of-ponds scenario outlined by ace hydrologist Peter Andrews that would have characterised the landscape pre-colonial interventions. 

These ‘chain of ponds’ would not only provide valuable natural habitat, but are also excellent filters so that any water running off the farm would not carry farm chemicals or fertilisers which could enter the Chapman River or the Bay in Geraldton.

FROM IDEAS TO IDEOLOGY 

This farmer asks questions. He is curious about nature-based farming practices that are starting to gain traction in the wheatbelt. But listening in to the conversation I noted how quickly the words ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ are starting to become a bit threadbare to those not already on board. Already the loose collection of practises that define Regen Ag are taking on the smell of ideology, rather than being heard as principles that can be adapted to particular paddocks and growing systems according to the issues and goals of the producer.

We all assured the man that he doesn’t have to have livestock to become a regenerative farmer – which led to a discussion about using other farmers sheep or cattle to crash graze one’s own pastures as required - and virtual fencing, a game-changing idea that has yet to find its feet in the Ag world.

NATURE ALWAYS WINS

Looking at this farmer’s operation there is a sense that he has plateaued with the system he has perfected. At the moment he is presiding over a very well-mannered parcel of land. Boredom has to be a factor. What else can the man do at this point except tweak around the edges of his system?  How to move forward in a way that will reward his questing spirit, love of farming and need for a healthy income?

THE FINANCIAL PRESSURE

In the car driving out, I question Tim and Rod on what kind of costs a farming system like this would involve. They batted it around a bit and reckoned that based on rough figures of around $200 -$250 per hectare, the outlay must be close to $2 million dollars a season.

I was staggered – this is a scary amount of money to outlay in any business, let alone one as risky as farming.

I can only speculate what it must be like for a broadacre farmer to handle that kind of financial pressure year after year. This farmer is doing it well. He is a calm thoughtful man, still with all his hair, but there was a questioning air about him, a diffidence, he is clearly curious about Tim and Rod’s ideas. The great news is, he has enough resources and time to try something different if he decides to take the leap.

IN WHICH I SPECULATE…

My thoughts as I look over this vast, virtually treeless plain? FEAR! Nature will get you. Nature always wins. …

I think back to Stuart McAlpine, broadacre farmer from Buntine, near Dandaragan, and a key player in Wide Open Agriculture, a company that is instituting new and regenerative business models in the wheatbelt.

Some time ago I recorded a podcast called Measuring the Immeasurable where I paraphrased something Stuart said that still lives with me: The intelligence in the natural system and genetic diversity will eventually collapse any chemical regime – no matter what you throw up against problems, if you are operating against the laws of nature you are going to get smashed.

Do things like that little patch of fleabane hover at the edges of this farmer’s consciousness? Do farmers wake up in a sweat from dreams where monocultures of rye grass, wild radish or Afghan thistle have replaced their annual cash crops?

THE SOCIAL LICENCE TO FARM

During our road trip the idea of a social licence came up. Craig Forsyth joked about going into his local Post Office and demanding the form that would enable him to pay for and receive a Social Licence to Farm.

There is a real bite behind these words. Farmers, especially meat producers are acutely alive to criticism and what is trending in the big cities.  

Craig, for example, undergoes exhaustive audits to be able to wear the Grass Fed Beef label . This is not just about getting a better economic return – he suffers the extra bureaucratic layer because he cares enormously about ensuring his land and all that dwell on it, have a healthy life.

CATTLE TRADE AND MORALITY

There are many forces the farmers faces, not least of which is the Meat-is-murder mob. Leaving them for a moment, popular forces opposing Live Trade are also never far from the picture. There have been confronting stories surfacing – most recently about the death of breeding cows sent to Indonesia to be distributed to poor farmers as a way for them to earn more income. It seems drought in Indonesia and lack of oversight has resulted in a good idea turning very sour.

Behind this story is the fact that the tropics aren’t well suited to breeding cows and Indonesian people are suffering from not getting enough good protein.  The live export trade is based on sending up young Australian cattle that are grown out on cheap feed that is the by-product of intensive farming there. 

One of the largest feedlots in Indonesia is attached to the world’s biggest pineapple processing plants.  Pineapples are peeled so they can go into the can. The waste peeling aren’t suitable for human consumption but are great feed for cattle.  So our young cattle are value adding a waste product to produce low cost protein for Indonesia’s poorest people. These feedlots are all run by Australian stockmen ensuring high standards of animal welfare.

OPINION TIME

Western Australian farmers are no different from anyone else. They cannot abide cruelty to animals – and they have a lot more skin in this game both economically and morally than most.   (To those interested in more of this angle, listen to The Vegan Factor a podcast that examines live trade and the ecological, moral and spiritual issues around eating anything.)

Grazing animals are a crucial part of complex natural ecosystems – but it is hard to argue natural cycles, increased fertility, the love farmers have for their animals, in the face of boatloads of dehydrated sheep and regular Indonesian cattle horror stories. I get it.

NOW FOR SOME FACTS

Tim kicked in some interesting statistics: figures from the UN show that globally the agricultural sector contributes 11% of all human induced greenhouse gasses, with half of that coming from livestock. For Australia these figures are slightly higher at 14% as agriculture makes up a bigger proportion of the economy than most nations.

ITS NOT THE COW BUT THE HOW

The good news is that methane emission from sheep and cattle can be lowered, and that Meat & Livestock Australia has recently committed to making the Australian red meat industry carbon-neutral by 2030. 

Part of the reduction in methane will come from adding supplements to the diet like seaweeds and some native shrubs.  Research has shown that certain native species like Eremophila can reduce methane production in the ruminant by up to 90%.  Greening Australia is now planting a native fodder shrub mix containing these species.  Well grazed perennial pastures can also store large amount of Carbon in the soil.

Research in the Midwest has shown that fodder shrubs and perennial grasses can sequester 4 to 5 times as much carbon in the soil compared to the equivalent amount of direct emission from the cattle grazing them.  

How much greenhouse gas was emitted to produce your steak depends on the farming system it was produced under. Its not the cow, but the how.

Catchment Food aims to market local meat that has a net zero, or even negative, carbon foot print.  That’s still some way off but in the not too distance future this regenerative meat will be in your local butchers and restaurants.

COMPLEXITY

Farmers cannot survive with only the local market as an option - the export problems, especially Live Export are legion and not going away – but we do not want to throw our farmers under the bus as a way of ‘fixing’ (air quotes) these problems.

Instead, let’s segue into a real discussion about food. We need to grow our own meat – from my understanding food security and ecological health makes this a necessity. But there are problems with maintaining abattoirs and supply chains across our huge distances.….in short, it is the climate change dilemma, the whole messy business of balancing economic reality and our comfortable lifestyle within the context of healthy global ecological systems – I mean the whole of life from living microorganisms in the soil, to insects, to frogs, to birds, to coral reefs, to all plants and trees – not just humans, cows and sheep… Wicked problems, require more wicked podcasts.

MORE FINGER POINTING

And it is not just meat producers copping the disapproving glare – there is a lot of talk under the general rubric of climate change about destruction of our natural capital, the soil, the water and the ecosystems that sustain us.

City folk, concerned about climate change and poor food quality are pointing the finger and demanding that farmers and the governing agricultural bodies step up their stewardship of the land, caring for ecosystems while producing superior quality food and fibres.

Easier said than done.

FROM EXTRACTION TO NURTURE

Changing our farming systems from Agricultural practice as extractive industry to Agricultural practice as investment in nourishing living ecosystems needs deep cultural adaptation across all sectors. Farmers are the ones on the front line in what is a very charged and emotional debate - they are the heroes of this story and they need your support.

It doesn’t matter what you choose to eat, believe me, you are part of the problem. The trick is to be open-minded and non-blamey enough to be part of the solution.

Thanks to Tim, who injected some good science and applied knowledge into this narrative.

AR 12 Dec 2019