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Say hello to the new newsletter format from Quorum Sense.

This month features a brand new pastoral case study with Miah & Jenny Smith, podcast with father-daughter duo Shane Birchall and Meghan Schutt, webinar replay with microbiologist Andy Neal, a review of the South Island Agricultural Field Days event, and information about upcoming events!

QS at South Island Agricultural Field Days

Greer, Sue, Jo, Chloë and Sam all spent time crewing the QS site at SIAFD 29th-31st March at Kirwee. This was our first time at a large Field Days event so there was much preparation of new material, including a series of campaign posters called “This is regen”. This featured some of our community to give people a broader sense of the diversity that regen is.

The team reported that it was a successful few days representing QS/regen with new connections made and some old friends reacquainted. The worm count and seed species count competition proved highly popular with all ages!

Much gratitude from the QS team to all those who stopped by and talked all things biological, soil, diversity, and real progress towards farm and farmer good health.

Check out the video we displayed at the site!

Regenerative livestock Journey’s, case study collection- First release.

“How Miah & Jenny Smith built a healthier, resilient and low-stress dairy system” is now available.

In 2018 Miah and Jenny Smith began transitioning their 520 cow dairy farm to regenerative management. Five years on, animal health has dramatically improved, input costs have reduced, profitability has improved and farming has become less stressful and more exciting.

Watch the video and visit the case study page below.

Podcast #28 - The joy in ‘giving it a crack’ with Shane Birchall & Meghan Schutt

Father and daughter duo Shane Birchall and Meghan Schutt, based just south of Rotorua, have changed their whole dairy and beef system. Shane’s ‘tried it all’ throughout his lifetime on the farm, with nudges from Meghan in recent years steering them to focus on creating self-sufficient and low waste operations.

A microbiologist’s perspective with Andy Neal - Webinar Mar '23

Microbiologist Andy Neal from Rothamsted Research in the UK demonstrates, in a straight-forward way, the complex interactions between physical soil structure and microbial metabolism with significant implications for nutrient-use efficiency in soils. And you get to experience being a soil microbe!

Q&As occur throughout this webinar.

Events

Our events page features field days, workshops and conferences with a regen focus or aspect from around the country.

There are two conferences coming up with speakers that some of us would like to hear:

1. The Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group’s conference on 19-20 April in Hamilton features Dr Christine Jones and our own Jono Frew. The second day will include visits to local regen / organic farms.

2. The Biodynamics New Zealand conference on 20-21 May in Feilding features Charlie Arnott, a regen grazier from Australia and the host of The Regenerative Journey podcast launched in 2020.

For more details of these events and others, go to: https://www.quorumsense.org.nz/network-events

Regenerative Livestock Journey case study #2 coming soon…

Get ready for the second in the collection of Regenerative Livestock Journeys, this time featuring Hamish Bielski, who coincidentally was the focus of our first ever case study in 2020. Hamish’s journey is far from complete and his story is of evolution and and light bulb moments…Stay tuned!

Please contact us if you have an event, field day or workshop you would like publicised or if you would like to organise something local with our assistance.

Ngā mihi,

The Quorum Sense Extension Team