Soils For Life

Emily House began her career as a geologist before an unlikely path led her into ruminant nutrition. After moving to New Zealand, she started working with two vets who wanted to shift from treating livestock disease reactively to preventing it, which meant looking closely at pasture as the major component of the diet. 
Emily brings a background in earth science to her work interpreting pasture and soil analysis for animal health and performance. She was part of the team that developed the DietDecoder™, an online tool that assesses the mineral profile of pasture and flags risks to animal health before they show up as clinical problems.
In this episode, she explains why testing the mineral content of pasture goes further than the more familiar measures of dry matter, crude protein and energy that many farmers already use. She talks through real examples, from calcium and milk fever at calving, to copper deficiencies caused by excess sulphur and molybdenum in the soil, and how these mineral gaps can affect everything from hoof health to wool quality. We also discuss the range of responses available once a problem is identified, from targeted supplementation through to adjusting fertiliser regimes and building more mineral-dense pasture through species diversity, along with some striking parallels between what we're learning about animal nutrition and human health.
In this episode
Emily's path from government geologist to ruminant nutrition consultant
Why pasture mineral testing reveals more than standard dry matter and protein analysis
How mineral deficiencies and excesses show up in animal health, from milk fever to coat and wool quality
The DietDecoder™ tool, and how it's used seasonally around key events like calving and mating
Addressing mineral imbalances through supplementation, fertiliser decisions and pasture diversity
Parallels between livestock nutrition and the gaps in our understanding of human nutrition
Links and resources
DietDecoder™ – dietdecoder.nz, including the quote from Dr Pat Poletti referenced in this episode in the FAQ

Register to join our upcoing Dairy Convo where Emily will talk about Pasture Nutrition. Mon 13th July, 12pm AEST, details at the link: https://events.humanitix.com/dairy-convos-ask-me-anything-series

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, get in touch on social media or at info@soilsforlife.org.au

Brian Wehlburg is one of Australia’s most highly regarded Holistic Management educators and a board member of Holistic Management International and the Australian Holistic Management Cooperative. He has delivered training and consulting to businesses, land managers, families, environmental groups and pastoralists all over Australia, as well as in New Zealand, USA and Zimbabwe. He is also a farmer himself, having experience growing crops in Southern Africa, working  as a pasture and cattle manager in South West Queensland and managing a mixed-species property in New South Wales.
This is one of the longer conversations we’ve featured on the podcast, but it easily could have been twice this length given the depth of Brian ’s well of knowledge and experience. We talk about his perspective on regenerative grazing, about the key insights of Holistic Management, the deeply held paradigms that often prevent people from seeing these insights, the practical steps that he has seen work to help people get started, and the positive life changes that can result when people succeed.
This episode is one of a series of interviews we’re doing with graziers and educators involved in the development of our recently released guide to grazing for soil and landscape regeneration.
Details and registrations for our upcoming grazing field day on 15 July 2026 with Dr Judi Earl at the Curtis family farm in Milmerran Queensland - soilsforlife.org.au/grazing-for-soil-health-field-day-curtis.
Links and resources:
Brian’s consultancy Inside Outside Management - insideoutsidemgt.com.au 
Soils for Life’s Guide to Grazing for Soil and Landscape Regeneration - soilsforlife.org.au/practice-guide-grazing-soil-landscape-regeneration 
More about Holistic Management from the Savory Institute - savory.global
Andre Voisin - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Voisin 
Jan Smuts, Holism and Evolution - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism_and_Evolution 
If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at info@soilsforlife.org.au.

Grant Williams is a dairy farmer at Hallora in West Gippsland, Victoria, where he and his wife Leesa run Willora Farms - an almost 600-cow operation across 430 hectares. He has been a generous and engaged contributor to the dairy community for many years, and previously served on the Board and as Chair of GippsDairy.
Despite having been an early adopter of robotic milking, Grant describes himself as cautious about making changes on the farm. Over the past decade, however, he has made a change that many dairy farmers wouldn’t dream of, transitioning the whole farm to multispecies pastures, and in the last four years, cutting out all synthetic fertilisers.
In this episode, Grant describes how he ‘fell into’ multispecies pastures, how his early trials didn’t work out the way he hoped, and how he eventually became confident that he could profitably roll out multispecies across the whole farm.
Links and resources:
Soikee machine - soilkee.com.au 

Soils for Life’s dairy resources and activities - soilsforlife.org.au/dairy-resilience-project

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at info@soilsforlife.org.au.

Dr Paul Horne is an award winning entomologist and founder of integrated pest management consultancy IPM Technologies. He began his career at the Victorian Department of Agriculture in the mid-1980s, his work has been published across scientific journals and industry platforms, and he has written several books on insects and pest management.
Paul’s work focuses on supporting adoption of IPM strategies to manage invertebrate pests in a wide range of crops including cut-flowers, berries, vegetables, tree and vine crops, nurseries, broad-acre crops and pastures.
As our new initiative to support fruit and nut growers kicks off, I wanted to talk with Paul about the state of play with integrated pest management, and what he has found works well to support adoption of IPM in perennial horticulture.
If you’re involved in perennial horticulture, check out our new Orchard Resilience Project. With funding from the Australian Government’s Climate-smart Agriculture Program, we’re working over the next three years with perennial horticulture growers across Australia to strengthen soil health and landscape function in tree and vine crops.
This episode was recorded live from the Grounded festival in Victoria. Enjoy!
Links and resources:
IPM technologies

Soils for Life Orchard Resilience Project

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at info@soilsforlife.org.au.

Graeme Hand is a holistic land management and grazing educator based near Bairnsdale, Victoria, where he has farmed for more than 35 years. He came to the land via an unlikely route, a decade as an industrial chemist, before applying that scientific background to regenerative agriculture. A Certified Holistic Management educator and Board member of Regenerative Agriculture Network Tasmania, Graeme has been supporting farmers in adopting regenerative grazing techniques since 1996, and has spent the better part of three decades helping farming businesses rebuild topsoil, restore pasture, improve the water cycle and strengthen their resilience to a changing climate.
At the heart of Graeme's work is a conviction that lasting change on the land starts with the decisions made each day in the paddock, with ‘safe to fail’ trials at the heart of his approach. As Graeme explains in this episode, trials are the key strategy that enables farmers to manage the complexity of biological approaches to grazing. It was a pleasure to record this episode with Graeme, live from the Grounded festival in Victoria, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.
** Keep an eye out for our new grazing practice guide, which will be launched on the 20th of May at a special field day and launch event in Mundarlo NSW. Details and registrations via soilsforlife.org.au/events/ **
Links and resources:
Hand for the Land: Heaps of resources and advice from Graeme Hand’s holistic land management and training consultancy

Monitoring ecological indicators of rangeland functional integrity and their relation to biodiversity at local to regional scales: Study mentioned in this episode, authored by David Tongway and others

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episodes or guests, we'd love to hear from you - reach out on social media or at info@soilsforlife.org.au.