Holistic farming call: 'it's the how not the cow'

The two-day Soil Stewardship Summit held on a property near Yass included how producers can improve the health of their soil.

Queensland cattle farmer Helen Lewis who also heads up the Australian Holistic Management Co-operative told the gathering the policy framework around economic, social and corporate governance for producers could be improved.

Ms Lewis told AAP holistic farming wasn't given the recognition it deserved.

"It is the how not the cow, that determines whether or not the way in which an animal is produced is either improving landscape function or taking away from the environment."

"The nuances aren't being factored into policy," she said.

The cattle producer wants the assessment tools for agriculture to better consider the ecological improvements made by holistic producers.

"Regenerative agriculture, is about the whole. It's about the water cycle, the mineral cycle, the energy flow, and the diversity," Ms Lewis said.

"The outcome of regenerative agriculture is to actually grow that whole and that's not being factored in to the assessment tools and policy."

"We've got thousands of farmers around Australia doing amazing work in regenerative agriculture and regenerating their landscapes and that is simply not being taken into account."

The conference was also told on Wednesday that more work was needed connecting consumers with products that offered environmental and nutritional value.

Matthew Haggerty, who helps to run his family's regenerative farming operation in the West Australian wheatbelt, said connecting with consumers was one of his key focuses.

"It's something that I've been putting alot of thought into," he told AAP.

"Do you first go to the producer such as butchers and bakers and educate them... or do you target the consumer first so they demand it that they want natural intelligence products."

The summit was told research was underway into what consumers were willing to pay for produce that comes from healthy soil.

Some producers had adapted to regenerative agriculture practices after hitting a tipping poin.

Sarah Whinney from Chatsworth House Pastoral in VIctoria said she was keen to explore regenerative agriculture opportunities because she wanted to "do things better".

Tasmanian farmer Sam Trethewey built a regenerative supply chain after having a penny-drop moment prompting him "to get out of mother nature's way and let the farm do its thing".

Mr Trethewey said the benefits had been huge.

"My main worker couldn't believe the size of the crop we had grown last year for our winter fodder crop without Roundup and without synthetic inputs," he said.

This AAP article was made possible with the support of Soils for Life.

Australian Associated Press