While this approach was not getting the results Tim wanted, it wasn’t until he and Camilla had their two kids that they decided to make real change. “We were running into a whole bunch of problems – we seemed to be having more and more insect pressure and a lot of problems we never used to have, because the family’s been here such a long time.”
With the climate so dry, cultivation was too hard on the soil. Tim looked into direct drilling, which they had tried previously, and they were struggling to make it work. “I was researching more on that and realised most of the problems we were running into I was probably creating, so I started researching soil health and once I went down that rabbit hole, I pivoted 180 on my approach to farming,” he says.
Tim did a lot of research online, watching videos, reading books and listening to podcasts while in the tractor. He learned about regenerative agriculture, which uses techniques such as cover cropping and rotational grazing, to enhance soil health and reduce the need for chemicals and fertilisers.
“I just took my worst paddocks and started doing a bit of cover cropping, putting a really diverse mix of annual plants in, and using roots to break up the soil and feed the soil microbes and increase biodiversity,” he says. “It really restarts it when you’re rock-bottom. The paddocks had nutrients but they just weren’t available. The soil was tight and compacted and the water inflitration was poor.”
To help with compacted soil, Tim used a lot of plants like sunflowers, chicory and plantain for deep tap roots, cereals such as oats, rye and corn for mycorrhizal fungi and then legumes like peas and clover to fix nitrogen. He also used annual clovers and brassicas, turnips and kale, as well as buckwheat, which is good for phosphorous release. “There’s no point putting more nutrients on a soil that doesn’t function - you’re just wasting your money. We’ve started focusing on the soil health so that when we do put nutrients on you get a really good response.”
The next biggest change has been grazing, with Tim learning new methods at a holistic grazing course. “We completely changed our grazing, particularly down the bottom on the irrigated paddocks. Even on the hill we try to do short, sharp grazes and let the plants actually recover before coming back in. It’s a balance. Irrigation hides a lot of your sins because you can get away with a lot more. I think people are going to start running into that, particularly those who have only been irrigating for the last 20 years or so.”
Tim says the changes have allowed them to significantly reduce their spending on farm inputs. “We’ve reduced our chemicals to pretty much only herbicide now. We’re not using other insecticides and we’re using more soil-friendly fertilisers like fish fert and fine lime and just getting away from the soluble phosphorous to try and promote better soil health and water infiltration. We got to a stage where we were so hard and dry and bare after 10 years of low rainfall that any rain we did get, we were either losing or it was evaporating very quickly because we ran out of ground cover.”
Documenting their regenerative farming journey has been Camilla, who has been a freelance photographer for 15 years. “I’m from a vague agricultural background but never gave too much thought about what it meant to be a farmer and a custodian of the land until I moved out to this farm and observed how hard Tim and his father worked, and the labour and stress and inputs they were putting into the land to try and make a profit,” she says.
“I just thought that was how it was to be a farmer. When Tim started to do his research into a different way of farming and a different mentality, lightbulbs went off and we both could see a future on this land for our family.” Camilla says they are both environmentalists at heart. “I was really inspired that we could farm this way with natural systems and be part of nature while producing healthy food. This is something we are very passionate about, especially since becoming parents, we want to nourish them in a way that is going to set them up for life.”
Camilla started to ask herself why more people weren’t farming this way and why more people didn’t know about it. “Why is there this underground movement that should be the norm?” she says. “When I started an Instagram page for the farm, the pickup was quite overwhelming and I realised the story was bigger than just us – there are really amazing people out there across New Zealand doing really inspiring things. I wanted to tell their story, too, and spread the word and inspire other farmers to make this change.”
Camilla’s Heal the Earth Project website ended up documenting the regenerative farming journeys of half a dozen other Kiwi farmers who had also made the switch. “I wanted to share positive farming stories and highlight how these farmers are doing their very best every day to produce nutrient rich food, with nature as their ally.”
And as for the results on their own farm? Tim says focusing on soil health and increasing absorption capacity has made for a much more efficient use of the farm’s irrigation system. He says the contrast with neighbouring farms is noticeable whenever it rains. “We can get 10-15mm and the neighbours can have water running across the road. When you have 10-15mm it should be going straight in, not running off.”
Tim says they are growing more grass than ever, with little to no spend on inputs, which he says is a “great result” in the past couple of years considering inflation and the cost of fertiliser. “I think that’s starting to push people to regen farming now. For us, everyone gets so focused on production and yield but doesn’t look at what you’re making at the other end. If you can run a few less stock but you’re not spending a whole heap on fertiliser, and you focus on grazing management, you’ll come out with more money at the other side.”
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