2020 VicNoTill conference speakers

July 5, 2023

VicNoTill is pleased to present yet another fantastic lineup of top quality presenters for the 2023 annual conference “Tran$ition23”. We are all about farmers helping farmers, and ours is one of Australia’s leading farmer conferences. You won’t want to miss this!

Tim Parton

  • Manager of Brewood Park Farm, Staffordshire, east UK
  • Cropping in a biological regenerative system
  • Rainfall average 27-30 inches
  • Summer temp average 23 degrees Celsius
  • Founding member of The Green Collective
  • Arable innovator of the year, 2022 British Farming Awards

Tim describes himself as a biological farmer, applying ‘brewed’ biology instead of synthetic inputs; in much the same way he manages his own health through nutrition and lifestyle.

He says it is up to farmers to produce more nutritious food by appreciating the many fungal interactions with plants. “It’s no coincidence how many more health problems we’re living with today. We are what we eat. While the ‘big pharmas’ control everything with so many billions of dollars involved in treating symptoms of people and plants – they will always try and reject this new way of thinking.”

Tim says knowledge exchange between farmers would be the most powerful way forward for profitable regenerative farming systems. “If we share knowledge we move forward faster. The more I give out the more I get back. I don’t know everything. I always get a question that makes me think.”

Col Bowey

  • Kalgan, WA, farms with wife Kiley and children Parker, Baxter and Haydee
  • Founder of CB Farming Systems
  • Co-manager of Green Range Lamb with Ash Baldwin

With over four decades in agriculture, from the farm he grew up on in SA to working in corporate agriculture to his own farm overlooking the Indian Ocean, Col’s business name CB Farming Systems sums him up perfectly.  “Success in farming always come down to having a good ‘farming system’ in place. When it came to finding a name for my business I didn’t want to get caught up in all the buzz words that are getting around. I’m not into all the labels people put on farming, like regenerative, zero-till, sustainable or biological. What I’m into is helping farmers build farming systems that understand healthy soils are at the heart of farm and ecosystem health, but these systems need to be productive and profitable.”

Col now has his own farming business, Green Range Lamb, which supplies high-nutrition food to the Australian market with plans in the pipeline to export. Green Range Lamb has just been named a finalist in the 2023 delicious Harvey Norman Produce Awards, the country’s most prestigious food industry campaign. “Food is a big business and what I’m building on my own farm is a scaleable, tangible system which corporate agriculture can grab hold of and start exporting the highly-nutritious and healthier food I’m producing.”

Hugh Macague

  • Rochester VIC
  • 2500 hectares mixed cropping, hay, fat lambs
  • Fourth generation on family farm with parents Bruce and Lindsay

Hugh Macague is a young Australian farmer who is continually trying new things, thinking outside the box and who understands that changing one thing will undoubtably lead to wanting to change more. Combine this mindset with a fascination of the old-fashioned way of farming which he has revived through his collection of vintage headers, all in working condition, and you’ve got a farming mind ticking in multiple directions. Hugh says it makes a lot of sense to work with nature through regenerative and biological techniques on top of following no-till practices, and has been fortunate to have his Dad’s support to make changes on their farm.

“Dad was open to the idea, although because he’s studied ag science, he does like to see peer-reviewed scientific reports to prove the system works. He always says you can’t be green if you’re in the red. I know we’re running a business that needs to remain profitable, and we can’t go broke trying to prove a point. The new ideas and changes all sound good and this way of farming does work, but you’ve still got to test it out and see how it can work specifically for you and your farm.”

Allan Parker, OAM

  • Peak Performance Development managing director

Allan introduces himself as an eccentric Micro-Behavioural Neuroscientist, International Negotiator, and Educator. Outside his work life he has been a professional golfer and has run 16 marathons and 11 ultra marathons (including 24 hours twice). He wrote Australia’s first degree in negotiation in 2012 and was the recipient of an Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to business and dispute resolution in 2019.

From the boardrooms of the biggest corporate organisations in the world to the kitchen tables on rural and remote farming properties, Allan Parker’s approach to negotiation is the same. The author of The Negotiator’s Toolkit, the bestseller Switch on Your Brain; and co-author of Beyond Yes – Negotiating and Networking says there is great wisdom in Charlie Arnott’s saying ‘the paddock between our ears is what we’ve got to get sorted out first’.

“Negotiation, whether informal chat on the phone or chat in hallway or something bigger and more serious, we are involved in negotiating the whole time. Everything you think inside your head turns up in your verbal conversation in some form or another.”

Tom Briggs

  • Rutherglen, VIC
  • VicNoTill vice president, board member since 2018

Third generation Rutherglen farmer Tom Briggs was never a big fan of school; especially the reading and research assignments that were required. But since discovering the practice of regenerative agriculture there isn’t enough reading, research reports and information available to consume. Tom knew changing to a disc system wasn’t the only step. Using Dr Google as a starting point, he also needed to factor into and how sheep would function in a disc system in their mixed farming operation. He looked into deep ripping to reduce compaction, applying variable rates of fertiliser and spot spraying to preserve moisture. But he wasn’t satisfied. They were all just treating symptoms, and at a substantial capital cost.

“None of them addressed the problems and I wasn’t convinced with what I was reading during the research. Treating all these symptoms isn’t operating a farm; it’s a farm running us.”

Things changed when he stumbled across a one-hour presentation from a previous VicNoTill conference by renowned US cover cropping researcher Jay Fuhrer on YouTube. “I watched it a number times before I really understood how it all worked together. We’ve had some learnings, and every year presents its own set of challenges. But if we come across a tough scenario or failure we aren’t going to pack up and go home. Our approach is to learn from it and try and improve on the error. This positive mindset means we can discuss openly what we think went wrong and where we can manipulate or improve certain scenarios.”

Matt Tonkin

  • Farm manager, NSW
  • Sober in the Country (SITC) Bush Tribe member

When Australian farmer Matt Tonkin’s life on the land hit rock bottom he realised he needed to make big changes. Instead of a farming system that relied on chemicals and synthetic inputs he chose to start thinking about one that promoted life, took a more natural approach and had the long-term health of the ecosystem at its heart. His decision to explore regenerative farming systems also provided a life-altering jolt on how he was managing his own health and wellbeing.

“Regenerative agriculture kicked me into gear to make changes to myself. We put all this effort into improving the health of our soils, farms and natural environment but a lot of the time we forget about what we are doing to our own health.”

Matt’s goal is to play a role in changing the landscape of Australian agriculture for the better, whether it be someone gaining a different mindset, or getting their business under control and making a profit in a regenerative system. “There is a bridge to cross when you change your farming practices and some farms can take 15 years to convert to a non-chemical system. What I look to do is make positive outcomes and ensure we are using the most efficient inputs.”