Kia ora Subscriber First Name,

While the much of the world reflects on the importance of soil today, here at QS HQ we celebrate its life-giving awesomeness every day.

Judging by the number of farmers and growers at field days last month, it seems our fascination with life underfoot is becoming infectious!

Therefore, it feels appropriate to kick off this month’s newsletter with a strong soil quote taken straight off the back of Nick Gill (literally)…

Round-up of events

More than 500 farmers and soil enthusiasts attended regen focused field days around the country last month. It was great to see familiar and new faces connecting and reconnecting, digging holes, sharing ideas for experiments out in the field.

Nicole Masters’ Soil Resilience Tour

The QS team was proud to support Nicole Masters’ visit to New Zealand last month, running two sell-out workshops organised by Waikato regen food and farming group, The Soil Sisters.

There was a huge variety of farmers, growers, consultants, fertiliser companies, large horticulture companies, and viticulturists curious about the world of soil biology and farming for thriving, healthy, biodiverse landscapes.

Thanks to Neville, Louise and Gina Williams at Our Land of Milk and Honey (Waikato), and Bridget & Forbes Elworthy, David Bielski at Craigmore Station (Timaru) for hosting the workshops - 160 people in total!

It’s been great hearing all your stories since returning home, digging holes and setting up transects to monitor changes in your soil. Keep posting your observations in the QS online community!

Digging into Rainfall Infiltration workshops in Omihi, North Canterbury and Pleasant Point, South Canterbury.

These were a couple of smaller sized workshops focused on educating farmers about rainfall infiltration and retention on pastoral soils and the factors that influence these, as well as up-skilling them in effective yet simple soil and pasture monitoring. Both workshops have been a great success with everyone walking away with more knowledge and confidence than when they walked in!

These events are a collaboration between the ‘Catch the Rain’ Project (Quorum Sense led, and Beef + Lamb New Zealand funded) and the Quorum Sense FERN project (funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Land Use Extension Fund).

Sam Lang, our Catch the Rain Project Lead, hosted a webinar with co-founder of Soilmentor, Abby Rose last week. They covered the purpose and intent behind Soilmentor, how the Catch the Rain project is using specific measures to build a picture of health and change over time, as well as a practical ‘how-to’ tips for the app and desktop version. This webinar is for anyone with an interest in efficient ways to monitor farm ecosystem health. Those who attended Nicole Masters’ workshops may find it useful too.

What do we mean by ‘Good Farming’?

In our latest episode, Jono chats with Peter Edwards of Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, and Daniel Eb of Open Farms, about the “Farming for Good” research project.

Farming for Good is an initiative which explores our sense of connection with farming in Aotearoa New Zealand, and asks urban and farming New Zealanders their perceptions of 21 different farming practices – with some surprising results. Dive in!

There’s still a few field days happening this month, if you find some space to breathe and get off farm. We’ve listed a couple below and check out the Quorum Sense events page for any new listings. Let us know if you have an event coming up so we can share it with the wider community.

13 December: VSA Field Day, Northland

8 December: Digging into Rainfall Infiltration, Wairarapa

Ngā mihi,

The Quorum Sense Extension Team