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Australian farmer Andrew Smith champions soil health

Major concerns about the use of chemicals in agriculture and associated soil depletion are what prompted Australian farmer Andrew Smith to try more natural and cost-effective ways to treat soil and crops on his farm.

The mixed cropping and livestock farmer has been using non-chemical treatments on a 1600 acre / 640 hectare farm in South Australia for the past four years.

Andrew has found that while crop and pasture yields have not yet increased, there have been visible improvements in soil health — particularly soil structure, soil biology and water holding capacity.

He attributes this to an increase in soil carbon reserves and the treatments encouraging more biological life in the soil/plant ecosystem.

The alternative soil and crop treatments are also proving affordable for Andrew's farming business. He is positive the approach will pay dividends in sustainability over the medium to longer term.

"There should be a billion microbes in a teaspoon of dirt. You really have to look after these," he says.

For a full interview with Andrew, including a detailed description of the treatments he uses, please click here.

Note: Andrew's farm is about an hour out of Adelaide, between Langhorne Creek and Murray Bridge, with cereal cropping and sheep grazing. His comments throughout the interview are applicable to the sandy country such as Murray Mallee — or other parts of the world with similar soil types.