In late 2024, Weddin Landcare received funding for their project titled (in short) ‘Over the Fence’. The project will run over two years in 2025 and 2026.

The project extends on the concept that great ideas and practice change often result from the conversations that occur between farmers ‘over the fence’ and when farmers get the opportunity to look beyond their farm gate. The project will utilise Weddin Landcare’s extensive network to connect farmers with leading or early adopting farmers and experts to gain the practical advice and guidance they need to adopt climate-smart agricultural production systems.

Field Days

Six field days will be held to demonstrate the viability of various best practice methods in a local context. Experts will be engaged for these events to help facilitate conversation and provide technical knowledge and advice. In April 2025, over 40 farmers attended our first field day as part of this project on ‘Strip and Disc Cropping Systems‘. We held our second field day ‘Microbe Friendly Farming‘ in September 2025. It was another great success with around 45 farmers from near and far attending.

In 2026 so far we have held three more events, a Farm Business Strategies workshop with Agrista, a Landscape Rehydration field day with Mulloon Institute and our Talking Dirty Soil Health workshop with Dr Aurelie Quade. These were very successful days.  One more field day is in the pipeline – check out the details for our Livestock Tech Day coming up on Thursday 11th June.

Training Subsidy

A training subsidy was offered to local farmers to undertake professional training. Several farmers took up this opportunity and are currently completing their training. Training funding was also put towards a Low Stress Stockhandling day, which will be held on 15-16th July 2026. 

Bus Trips

During August 2025, we took a small but keen group of farmers to the Riverina region to visit 7 progressive farms. Participants indicated they got a lot out of the two-day bus trip. A second bus trip is being planned for 2026 to central/northern NSW. These bus trips will encourage farmers to think more broadly and expose them to other, proven ideas that could be adapted locally.

Visual Stories

Six visual stories featuring local farmers, properties and projects will be created to cater for the increasing number of farmers who gain their information online. The visual stories will give insight into the methods, motivations, challenges and triumphs of some of our local farmers in the Weddin district and will be produced by Grenfell boy, Stuart Walmsley – one of Australia’s most multi-faceted content producers who has a passion for sustainable agriculture and stories from rural and remote areas. Work on the visual stories has commenced, with Stu working with our chosen local farmers to create some beautiful films.

These films will be released from May to November 2026 and will be posted here and on our YouTube Channel, @weddinlandcare. Our first film is now out. Click on the name of the film to view it.

Graham and Lynne Watt, Greenethorpe

Graham and Lynne’s story is one of deep love and connection with the land on which they work and live.

Join in on this project by coming along to one of our upcoming events! 

Livestock Tech Field Day

Thursday 11th June

At this field day we’ll hear from industry reps and adopting farmers about the latest in technology for livestock to improve management, productivity and profitability. Find out more here.

Low Stress Stockhandling School

Wednesday 15th – Thursday 16th July

This two-day school will change the way you interact with livestock, for the benefit of the animals, the people and your productivity. Find out more here

Keep an eye on our facebook page for updates on this project or sign up to our e-newsletter to get notifications direct to your inbox.

For any enquiries about this project, please get in touch with Melanie on 0493 416 442 or weddinlandcare@outlook.com

This project, is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.