Weddin Landcare held the second field day for our Over the Fence project on Friday 25 September 2025 at ‘Tumbleton’, near Wombat. The day was a great success with around 45 farmers from near and far engaging in conversations with other farmers and partner representatives. This diversity of people added to the strength of the questions and conversations on the day and the feedback indicated that everyone got a lot out of it.
Local Landcare Coordinator, Melanie Cooper, worked closely with host Jake Chandler, Michael Gooden from Vic No-till, Stephen Stacey from CarbonLink and Dr. Ernie Harbott from Compost Culture and Soil Sisters to develop the day, with the theme ‘Microbe Friendly Farming’.
Melanie began the day with a bit of background about Weddin Landcare and what we do and offer.
Participants then heard from Dr. Ernie Harbott, who introduced us to the livestock beneath our feet – soil microbes. As an environmental scientist, chemist, master composter and certified soil food web microscopist, Ernie now focuses her attention on soil ecology, with the endgame of getting everyone eating nutrient dense food from healthy soils. Ernie gave an overview some of the critters conditioning our soil then discussed the connection between soil microbes and nutrient, carbon and water cycles as well as the benefits for farm production. Over lunch we looked at a few shy Microbes under the microscope with Ernie’s assistance.
Our host for the day, Jake Chandler gave us some insights into what he and his family are doing on ‘Tumbleton’ to boost soil microbial activity and improve soil, plant, animal and ultimately human health. Jake’s passion for what they are doing was very evident in his animated talk. Before lunch we also heard from Stephen Stacey from CarbonLink who provided some real-life soil carbon project examples and busted some myths about the soil carbon game.
After our delicious lunch of real grass-beef, preservative free sausages from Old Man Creek and salads from Unwind in Grenfell, we visited three paddocks to look at the various practices Jake and his family are adopting including a biofert trial, multi-species pasture, and grazing management with a flerd. Michael Gooden from Vic No-Till then gave us a bonus demonstration of the use of kiwi-tech fencing.
A huge thanks to Jake, Gemma, Bruce and Tracey for hosting us for the day, all our presenters, Vic No-Till for their support in spreading the word about the day, all the attendees who came along and Stuart Walmsley for capturing some imagery of the day.Â
This field day was supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.