How does a farm extension advisor pass their time with the SQNNSW Innovation Hub?
Gavin Tinning is based at Southern Cross University and works across the north coast region of NSW. He works with farmers, partners like Landcare and researchers from SCU to support farmers managing our diverse soils and landscapes.
We asked Gavin to share some snapshots of his work throughout late 2023 and 2024, to give you a ‘day in the life’ experience.
November 2023
Travelled south to Bungendore to participate in Mulloon Institute’s Professionals Intensive training. A great opportunity to mix with some great educators, landscape managers, Landcare facilitators and farmers from different regions of Australia.
Mulloon are able to value-add so much from their on-ground work, especially the Mulloon Creek project, and in education and training. The experience helped me build a clearer idea of how I can contribute to landscape projects in the northern rivers.
December 2023
World Soils Day is held every year on December 5th.
Thanks to hosts Jeanie and Ed at Fridas Field, and the always entertaining Dr John Grant, we held a field day about how the local soils formed and the challenges of managing them 150 years after rainforest was first cleared from this country? We even ended up in The Land!
January 2024
Thanks to support from North Coast LLS and Border Ranges Richmond Valley Landcare, 35 batches of dung beetles were released across the north coast.; in the Richmond, Clarence, Bellinger, Nambucca and Macleay catchments.
A number of producer workshops were held around Lismore, and in the Bellinger Valley and Dorrigo (thanks Jason from Bellinger Landcare) and the Clarence Valley (thanks Deanna at Clarence Landcare and Julie at LLS).
February 2024
Local food producers are increasingly open open to trialing alternative approaches to the challenges of weed management in crops, such as rain-fed rice in the northern rivers. There is great potential to increase the locally grown quantity of rain-fed rice, however growers remain reliant on expensive herbicides to control the grass competition that reduces crop growth and yields.
Roller crimping of species like Rye Corn or Black Oats might be a suitable alternative, based on success in more temperate climates and for other crops like soybean. Marlivale Farm put their hands up to trial some options to see how well they work in suppressing weed competition for rice crop establishment.
Marlivale’s 2024 rice crop was looking pretty good; Tachiminori, an older variety which is resistant to the impacts of the devastating rice blast disease. And apparently makes a great Sake, which I’m yet to taste.
March 2024
Facilitated a fantastic soils field day at Boat Harbour, with Cam Leckie – Northern Soils Coordinator, and some events for participants in the Regenerative Agriculture Mentoring Program (RAMP), run by Southern Cross Uni, in my case connecting a group of farmers from across the northern rivers.
The great outcome for me in this program is learning from the practical skills and understanding that these farmers have developed through their own trials, like creating biochar for cattle health or producing on-farm bio fertilisers from fish waste.
April 2024
The Regen Ag Macleay Alliance hold regular field days on members’ properties. In April I attended a morning at the property of Vicki Humphries, a participant in the summer dung beetle release. As well as having a look at what species were active at the time, including dung dwellers that predate on buffalo fly larvae, Sue showed us through her simple compost set up that contributes to producing a low-cost foliar feed for her paddocks.
Further north, field observations at dusk, confirmed that a species of winter active dung beetle – Onitis caffer – successfully emerged after an on-farm release the previous year. Other releases in the Tweed and Macleay valleys show promise for the gradual improvement in dung burial during the winter months.
May 2024
I joined 60 students and teachers from SCU’s Regen Ag undergraduate and post graduate courses on a whirlwind tour of 8 farms in 4 days.
Slaters Farm biodynamic rice, Casino, Ashbern strawberries, Stanthorpe, irrigated cotton, grain and forage at Finlay Farms, Texas, dryland cropping at Blackjack Farming Croppa Creek, irrigated cotton and grain at Northwood, Moree, grazing near Bingara, grazing on the Clarence floodplain and Tom’s avocados on the Alstonville Plateau.
It was great to see a diverse range of crops in rotations, diverse farming activity contributing to local communities and economies, and the adoption and development of technology, efficiencies, data management and astute observations that improve the productivity and viability of these businesses and their landscapes.
June 2024
For something a bit different, I recorded some podcasts for Season Three of Ground Cover with some participants from RAMP (the Regen Agriculture Mentoring Program).
Part of my role includes helping to capture images and video from research projects conducted by the soils and agronomy team at SCU. These include a trial of applying phosphorous fertiliser deeper in the soil profile of macadamia orchards, to determine whether this is a more effective application method for an important crop nutrient.
July 2024
Tweed Council put on a regular farm walk and talk, and August’s was held at Green Cauldron Farm near Tyalgum. The day also included a fantastic presentation from Aiden at Sunny Times Honey, who discussed his strategy to prepare for the arrival of Varroa mite and how his business can remain viable.
August 2024
The Australasian Symposium on Soil Borne Diseases included a great field day in their program.
In our high rainfall, subtropical climate, fungal diseases like Phytophora and Fusarium wilt create challenges for growers of sweet potato, avocados and bananas. Interestingly Phytophthora also impacts native vegetation.
I also work with partners like Casino Food Co-op capturing images of their projects, like the installation of contours and leaky weirs across a number of grazing properties, designed to slow and spread the movement of water and fertility across these grazing landscapes.
Countours installed in Doubtful Creek
September 2024
September was a busy month, with a week assisting a SCU PhD student dung beetle sampling from Tweed to Tabulam, supporting Nambucca Landcare coordinator Ainslie Ashton with a regenerative grazing group that she facilitates, some soil sampling and discussions with growers, and a field day for commercial market gardeners at Five Sixty Farms near Lismore with a gracious host and master produce farmer Pepe Fassos. I carry a spade for practical reasons like digging up soils or plant roots but is also great for leaning on.
October 2024
Working in partnership with Rous County Council, we installed a series of works and plantings on a feeder stream to the Wilsons River at Boat Harbour. The site will serve as a demonstration of simple approaches that people can take to improve the resilience and productivity of their landscape and contribute to improving the health of the Richmond River catchment.
December 2024
Our main Hub event at the end of the year was a farmer panel discussion and supper produced from locally grown produce for World Soils Day.
