WA Regen Ag conference wrap-up

Mitchell from Willarra Gold demonstrates how innovative flood irrigation systems for seedlings has helped him grow passionfruit seedlings for his orchard.

Mulloon’s WA team attended the Regen Ag Conference 2023 in Margaret River, Wadandi Country, last week. The conference was a great mix of workshops, field tours and presentations with wisdom and inspiration shared by regenerative farming pioneers such as Di and Ian Haggerty, Terry McCosker and Gabe Brown, as well as a younger generation of leaders such as Kristy Stewart, Nick Kelly and Jake Ryan. Topics ranged from farmer-led agroforestry to building soils and restoring biodiversity through to creating and sustaining regenerative businesses and supply networks.

Mitchell from Willarra Gold discussed adding value to his passionfruit harvest by turning the lower grade fruit into delicious soft drinks.

We were fortunate to share an exhibition space with the wonderful team from Regen WA, which gave us the opportunity to spread the Landscape Rehydration story with the wide range of interested folks attending this conference. The interest in repairing the water cycle in our agricultural landscape is obvious, with a well-received presentation from fellow Landscape Rehydration practitioner Rod O’Bree, who described the restoration work he has undertaken at Yanget Farm near Geraldton. Rod highlighted the drastic consequences that are being experienced nationwide with increasing periods of drought and the destructive bursts of high-intensity rain and floods causing mayhem in both our regional and urban communities and the solutions Landscape Rehydration provides.

Jake Ryan from Three Ryans Farm discusses soil nutrition for growing vegetables at his families farm near Manjimup.

Visiting local Regen Ag operations during farm tours and workshops was a big highlight of the conference and provided a great opportunity to get into the paddocks and see the varied solutions and approaches farmers are using to farm in a way that helps improve the environment, farming productivity and society. We left feeling very optimistic about the future – WA has plenty of innovative and passionate agricultural producers providing delicious and nutritious food while helping to care for Country!

Clean eggs are one of the important outcomes of raising chickens on pasture at Three Ryans Farm in Manjimup.