BROOKLANDS REGENERATIVE FARMING. Teaching kids food doesn't just come out of a box.

TEACHING KIDS FOOD DOESN’T JUST COME OUT OF A BOX

On the mineral rich Volcanic pastures of Blampied, Central Highlands of Victoria, you will find sustainable & regenerative farmers Jonathan Hurst & Natalie Hardy tending to their rare breed Berkshire Pigs, British White Cattle & Finn Sheep on their property “Brooklands Free Range Farms”.

All their Pigs are born and raised on a rotational pasture system with feed supplementation from waste products of whey, spent brewers grains and fruit and vegetables all sourced locally. The cattle are too all born and raised on the farm and 100% chemical free grass fed beef and currently implementing a water system to assist with cell and back grazing.

“We still have so much to learn and tweak before we can comfortably say we are truly farming regeneratively, but we have started on the right track, and know this is the future of farming for our animals and our soils”.

As part of the National Regenerative Agriculture Day, we will have a group of students visiting from Wesley College, Year 9 Clunes Campus and will celebrate this day as part of their learning’s and awareness on our farm.

Wesley at Clunes has been engaging with local farmers for many years but over the last couple of years have been working in a more meaningful way to ensure students understand what goes into the food that they prepare whilst at Clunes and beyond. It is important that these Year 9 students see good examples of successful farms who are working in a regenerative sustainable manner, making conscious decisions in their farming methods. For the eight weeks they are in Clunes students shop and cook for their houses and so it is important that they have an increased awareness of their choices. Wesley has engaged with a variety of local farms that hold the same or similar farming methods as Brooklands. This program is not just about visiting but also getting their hands dirty and lending a hand.

Every term, we take a group of students for a day, and it’s so exciting to see how these young adults really open their eyes to the difference a holistic regenerative farm can make to the life of an animal produced for meat and the soils of this earth, how we are care takers and not there to poison. So many have no idea about the amount of chemicals used in farming, and how this can be absorbed into the food we eat, and kill the goodness in our soils.

But we too are still learning and are very excited to be part of a newly formed group of future regenerative farmers. Formed by Ross Davey at Glen Greenlock Farm, we will be undertaking a Regenerative Agriculture project with the North Central Catchment Management Authority where the farmers will be assisted to spend 6 months familiarising themselves with regenerative measures and then working on farm planning to undertake a 4 year initiative of regenerative measures tailored for their individual farms.

This is sponsored by the region’s Landcare Network. It will also be a wonderful sounding board for each farmer to share during the regular informal meetings as a discussion group. We are very excited about this group, as it will enable us to iron out some stumbling blocks we are having and a further understanding of regenerative farming practices. The group will most likely be known as “Goldfields Regenerative Farmers” and is a wonderful step in the right direction.

You can follow Brooklands journey or get in touch on Facebook https://www.facebook. com/BrooklandsFreeRangeFarms/ or insta @ brooklandsfreerangefarms