Regenerative agriculture on our Australian farm: what we're learning from the land

In 1999, the Danthonia Bruderhof community began, on a mixed farming property in northern New South Wales, Australia. Like most farms in the region, Danthonia suffered from years of over-grazing and the resultant poor ground cover, erosion, and degraded soil biology. In the years since, we have been on a journey, learning from the land - and from pioneers of regenerative agriculture methods in Australia and beyond. Today, despite the challenges of climate change, our landscape has healed dramatically, and continues to regain vitality as we work with nature to restore natural landscape functions, hold water, and promote soil health through biodiversity and intensive grazing management.
In this video, Danthonia Bruderhof's farm manager, Johannes Meier, shares insights from our regenerative agriculture journey and offers a faith perspective for the Bruderhof's stewardship of our land and approach to farming.
This video is a edited from a presentation prepared for the Mennonite World Conference Assembly 2022, held in Indonesia.
About us: We're the parents of three sons and live at Danthonia Bruderhof, a Christian community in northern New South Wales, Australia, and enjoy discussing our faith, family, food (Norann's an awesome cook!), and the day-to-day adventures of life in "the bush".
Follow Norann on Twitter at / norannv
More about the Bruderhof community where we live: www.bruderhof.com/en/where-we...
Norann is a regular contributor to the Bruderhof website's "Voices" blog: www.bruderhof.com/en/voices-b...
Norann & Chris are both contributing authors for the Bruderhof's publishing house, Plough, and its magazine, Plough Quarterly. www.plough.com/en/authors/v/n...
#regenerativefarming #regenerativeagriculture

[@ziaarastu7519]

Thank you for restoring part of the land!!

[@DuoDownUnder]

Our privilege, for sure.

[@christopherhammond4490]

A wonderful effort. God bless you, brother

[@vivalaleta]

It is YOU doing the work and reaping the benefit. If it takes a god to instill the want to care for the earth then whatever it takes. You are among the farmers who are bettering the land in place of denuding it. Thank you.

[@DuoDownUnder]

Caring for God's amazing creation is our privilege. Thank you for your encouragement.

[@gillianhatters6613]

This was really interesting. Yes we can all do our part. We decided to stop cutting the grass in our beautiful back garden this year as we’d learnt that this would allow the bees to do their job. This was initially quite hard as we were used to having a manicured garden but within weeks we had a meadow of wild flowers and hundreds of bees! Our neighbours have found it quite difficult and we’ve had many questions such as “what’s going on with your garden?” and “Has your lawn mower broke? Do you want to borrow ours?” …. So we’ve also had the opportunity to spread the word. When when I get back home to England I’ll take a photo and send it to you.

[@DuoDownUnder]

Thanks so much for this insight, Gillian. Yes, not hard to imagine your neighbours taking a bit to adjust - but what a beautiful thing to have in your garden: wild flowers abuzz with bees. No doubt if you do mow the edges, it looks very 'intentional' too. Safe travels!

[@medaltv6766]

Watching from Ghana 🇬🇭

[@DuoDownUnder]

Hi there!

[@steve2064]

I love it mate, great to see the awesome improvements you’ve made as stewards of His land. Thanks for sharing brothers. Enjoy the wet while it’s here 👍🏻

[@DuoDownUnder]

Thanks, Steve. Yes, we've been fortunate with the rain - plenty, but not too much (as in some other places where it just won't stop).

[@johannesking3550]

Beautiful video! Thankyou for sharing your wisdom Johannes! Its impressive what you've done with the land to say the least! You've proved that it works!

[@DuoDownUnder]

You'll have to come back to check out the progress. 😊 Thanks for your encouragement.

[@vivianpowell1732]

I always appreciate the opportunity to learn something new, and this was one of those times. Thank you for explaining about swales and how they have helped your lands hold onto water. The improvement seen in this video is astonishing.

[@DuoDownUnder]

So glad to be able to share what we're learning. As Johannes says, there's still so much we don't understand, but it does feel like we're on the right path - and the results in the landscape speak for themselves. One of the best ways to help the land retain water is to encourage diverse plant life, building soil carbon, nature's 'sponge'. Looking forward to sharing more videos like this as we manage.

[@timgordon6789]

I so want to visit the Danthonia Bruderhof community but my life has been so crazy busy that I don’t think I will be able to till the end of the year or early next year! May the peace of God which passes all understanding be upon you!

[@DuoDownUnder]

Hey Tim - that's great. We get it that life is busy! Fortunately we keep an open door at Danthonia Bruderhof year-round, so when time permits, give us a ring and it'll be great to welcome you. 🙏

[@cindyhollings2079]

Good on you, keep up the great work!

[@DuoDownUnder]

Thanks!

[@geoffreykirton2578]

It was great to visit last Monday, missed you but I hope you got my message through your youngest son. The place looks fantastic. I drove over 3,000 km last week through rural NSW and Danthonia had the most grass even with the high cattle stocking rate. Looking forward to catching up next visit. Geoff

[@DuoDownUnder]

Hey Geoff - sorry we missed you, but so glad your visit worked out. Stay well, and we'll look forward to catching up next time. Blessings, brother.

[@teresaoconnell4790]

My boyfriend has planted apples ,figs, plums, and blueberries in our backyard . He is really putting down roots! LOL

[@andrewdewitt7234]

I love the idea of working hand in hand with God in His creation. It brings you closer...

[@DuoDownUnder]

Absolutely.

[@cityhomestead4490]

2300 acres I thougth how much is that? That is 930 hectares. That is massive. I'm so glad you stopped conventional farming. But do you still farm and in what way? only Cows?

[@DuoDownUnder]

Hi - thanks for your questions. Yes, it's a large property (though not necessarily by local standards). At the moment, we don't do any cropping, except forage crops for our beef herd. Cell grazing allows us to use the cattle as a 'tool' for landscape management. We also have gardens and orchards for food production for our community's benefit.

[@vivianpowell1732]

KZbin has done its thing and recommended other videos about permaculture on my Homepage. One in particular I found very interesting was about planting Moringa trees (Moringa oleifera) to capture and hold water. The farmer used an unusual double-moat method to plant the Moringa trees to enhance their water capturing/holding properties. Here's the link to that video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fInJfIymf8iSqK8

[@DuoDownUnder]

Very cool - and that farm in the video is certainly 'on the edge of nowhere.' Desert climates are so challenging for farmers. You may enjoy exploring the work of Tony Rinaudo, aka 'The Forestmaker' whose efforts to reforest parts of Saharan Africa are literally visible from space. 200 million trees and counting! I have just read his autobiography, The Forest Underground, and while it's a pricey hardback, really recommend it. Here's a video of Tony talking about his book and his work: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5SmZol5ipx2oK8