Farming practices for healthy soils and biodiversity
11 August 2025
Kate Mirams and Peter Neaves combined their farming and science backgrounds when it came time to adopt a new way to farm.
Both Kate and Peter were sponsored by the dairy industry to complete Masters in Agricultural Science and got to see hundreds of dairy businesses before starting their own farm at Newry in Victoria’s Gippsland region.
Driven by a desire to make a difference for the future and to create nutrient-rich food, their backgrounds gave them a perfect launching pad as they changed their farming practices to enhance soil health and increase the biodiversity of plants and soil life.
In March 2025, Kate and Peter shared their story with delegates at Dairy Australia’s inaugural Grounds for Growth biodiversity conference in Warrnambool.
“As we started to realise the importance of changing the way we farm, we took a scientific approach,” Kate told the conference.
After laser grading paddocks in a dry summer in 2018–19 “pulverised” their soils, Kate and Peter decided to move from feeding plants to feeding biology.
In partnership with GippsDairy, West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority and Maffra and District Landcare Network, they set up a trial with three bays dedicated to conventional farming methods and three to regenerative systems featuring multispecies crops.
The conventional bays had only perennial ryegrass, with added urea, super, and potash. The preferred pasture mix for the regenerative bays is cocksfoot, perennial ryegrass, red clover, white clover, lucerne, chicory and plantain. Prairie grass and paspalum also made a valued contribution. Minerals, fungi and fungi-friendly nutrients were applied.
Kate told the conference that the regenerative and conventional bays produced similar feed quantity, but the regenerative plots consistently produced better quality feed.
As the trials confirmed the success of their new regenerative systems, Kate and Peter have been driven by the data to extend the practices across the farm.
“The regen bays are consistently higher in brix, which is a measure of sugar content, and consistently lower in nitrates, which is important for animal health because they are not using so much energy to get that nitrate out of their system,” Kate said.
The regenerative bays also led to greater infiltration of water and root depth – 60cm compared to 20cm in the conventional bays.
“Irrigation water soaks in fully on the regen bays but sits on the surface on the conventional bays,” Peter said.
“When the soil surface is waterlogged on the conventional bays, pasture growth stops, and the microbes live in anaerobic conditions and perhaps die. Whereas on the regen bays where it has soaked into the soil, there’s still air in the soil and plant growth won’t stop and microbes continue to thrive.”
Kate and Peter have a 106-hectare irrigated farm plus a 55ha run-off block with 320 spring calving cows producing 525 kg/MS on 65 per cent homegrown feed. They are focusing on maximising homegrown feed and the trials have shown this is the right direction.
“One of the fabulous things about hosting this trial on our farm was that we had the data showing us how much feed is grown, the quality, how much water is being used, the depth of the water, and what is happening to the soil nutrient status,” Kate said.
They warn however that the change can be precarious.
“As we moved into it, we noticed other farms reducing nitrogen and then have a panic attack because they’re not growing the feed they need and what they’re used to growing with high urea,” Kate said.
“You can’t wake up one day and say you’re going regen – there are a number of steps to get right to gradually move yourself from a high nitrogen input system to a system that is low in nitrogen but has heaps of other minerals going in.
“It’s important to know you’re going to have a transition period. For us, it has been about five years and we’re still not totally away from using urea and nitrogen.”
Over the past six years, Kate and Peter have increased cow numbers while substantially reducing nitrogen inputs and retaining their homegrown feed quantity.
Their pasture consumption per kilogram of nitrogen applied stands between 400 and 450 kilos. This is substantially higher than the industry average of less than 50 kilos.
Milk solids have increased through the journey, as has the farm’s return on asset.
Peter said changing the fertiliser regime away from feeding plants to feeding microbes to create a better environment for the microbes to feed the plants was a “fundamental shift in mindset”.
Access Grounds for Growth resources, including case studies, podcast episodes and session recordings: Grounds for Growth Resources.
Driven by a desire to make a difference for the future and to create nutrient-rich food, their backgrounds gave them a perfect launching pad as they changed their farming practices to enhance soil health and increase the biodiversity of plants and soil life.
In March 2025, Kate and Peter shared their story with delegates at Dairy Australia’s inaugural Grounds for Growth biodiversity conference in Warrnambool.
“As we started to realise the importance of changing the way we farm, we took a scientific approach,” Kate told the conference.
After laser grading paddocks in a dry summer in 2018–19 “pulverised” their soils, Kate and Peter decided to move from feeding plants to feeding biology.
In partnership with GippsDairy, West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority and Maffra and District Landcare Network, they set up a trial with three bays dedicated to conventional farming methods and three to regenerative systems featuring multispecies crops.
The conventional bays had only perennial ryegrass, with added urea, super, and potash. The preferred pasture mix for the regenerative bays is cocksfoot, perennial ryegrass, red clover, white clover, lucerne, chicory and plantain. Prairie grass and paspalum also made a valued contribution. Minerals, fungi and fungi-friendly nutrients were applied.
Kate told the conference that the regenerative and conventional bays produced similar feed quantity, but the regenerative plots consistently produced better quality feed.
As the trials confirmed the success of their new regenerative systems, Kate and Peter have been driven by the data to extend the practices across the farm.
“The regen bays are consistently higher in brix, which is a measure of sugar content, and consistently lower in nitrates, which is important for animal health because they are not using so much energy to get that nitrate out of their system,” Kate said.
The regenerative bays also led to greater infiltration of water and root depth – 60cm compared to 20cm in the conventional bays.
“Irrigation water soaks in fully on the regen bays but sits on the surface on the conventional bays,” Peter said.
“When the soil surface is waterlogged on the conventional bays, pasture growth stops, and the microbes live in anaerobic conditions and perhaps die. Whereas on the regen bays where it has soaked into the soil, there’s still air in the soil and plant growth won’t stop and microbes continue to thrive.”
Kate and Peter have a 106-hectare irrigated farm plus a 55ha run-off block with 320 spring calving cows producing 525 kg/MS on 65 per cent homegrown feed. They are focusing on maximising homegrown feed and the trials have shown this is the right direction.
“One of the fabulous things about hosting this trial on our farm was that we had the data showing us how much feed is grown, the quality, how much water is being used, the depth of the water, and what is happening to the soil nutrient status,” Kate said.
They warn however that the change can be precarious.
“As we moved into it, we noticed other farms reducing nitrogen and then have a panic attack because they’re not growing the feed they need and what they’re used to growing with high urea,” Kate said.
“You can’t wake up one day and say you’re going regen – there are a number of steps to get right to gradually move yourself from a high nitrogen input system to a system that is low in nitrogen but has heaps of other minerals going in.
“It’s important to know you’re going to have a transition period. For us, it has been about five years and we’re still not totally away from using urea and nitrogen.”
Over the past six years, Kate and Peter have increased cow numbers while substantially reducing nitrogen inputs and retaining their homegrown feed quantity.
Their pasture consumption per kilogram of nitrogen applied stands between 400 and 450 kilos. This is substantially higher than the industry average of less than 50 kilos.
Milk solids have increased through the journey, as has the farm’s return on asset.
Peter said changing the fertiliser regime away from feeding plants to feeding microbes to create a better environment for the microbes to feed the plants was a “fundamental shift in mindset”.
Access Grounds for Growth resources, including case studies, podcast episodes and session recordings: Grounds for Growth Resources.