Redbank Farm is run by an award-winning father and son team who are doing things a little differently. Their property at Sisters Creek in north-western Tasmania is managed with precision agriculture and sustainability front of mind.
Their efforts have meant the farm is now a sanctuary for threatened species, magnificent native animals and birds of prey. Their National Landcare Awards celebrate the family's commitment to innovation in this space. To learn how they've done it Andrew Nichols and his son Michael share some insights into their passion for nature.
After running the property for more than 25 years, Andrew draws a lot of satisfaction from seeing how the business has grown.
"We saw it grow from humble beginnings, to quite a reasonably large enterprise with 16 employees."
It's easy to see why with cropping, eggs, beef, poppies and forestry all in production. What's different about Redbank is that a third of the land has been preserved as natural bush, wetlands and vegetation areas. It's a practice that has earned them two National Landcare Awards.
"I've always had a love of nature," says Andrew. "My grandfather taught me all the birds in the British fields as a child. And so, when I came here, I was amazed at the wealth of the wildlife and the fact that there is still some remnant, actual natural vegetation."
From an early stage, we've been fencing bits of remnant bush. It's not actually affecting production.
The pair argue that certain areas of their farm are hard to access, so working them leads to excess weeds and it's harder to fine tune the soil health for production.
"If it's too steep to drive a tractor on, it's too steep to manage," explains Michael.
"It made sense to fence it off and let nature do its thing."
The accolades the father and son duo have received have been in response to that attention to working with the natural landscape. That also means grid sample soil testing leading to less fertiliser application. Importantly, they also have a yield map which proves they have managed to increase yields under this management style.
Andrew admits, having areas of bush and thick vegetation does lead to some pest issues. They manage wallabies and brush-tail possums with fences and culling.
"No one wants to talk about it. Everyone thinks they are cute and fluffy, which they are, but the problem is, they breed so quickly," Michael explains.
Andrew's eyes light up when he talks about how all those measures combined have brought ring-tail possums, parrots, firetails, threatened freshwater lobster, burrowing crayfish, native wasps and native bees back to their patch of land.
We have never had to get bees in to pollinate our peas or canola, or anything, because we have enough native pollinators around to do that for us.
Looking ahead
Michael and Andrew are working towards hosting school excursions on the property to educate and inspire the next generation.
"We weren't taught about the environment in school. You were learning about Egypt or the Romans, or something like that," says Andrew.
Those areas we fenced off 10 or 15 years ago, we're now starting to see some beneficial rewards now. It's really nice just to drive around and see what we've done.
You can tell Andrew is very proud of how Michael has chosen to run the farm.
"You're doing a great job," he says to his son. "It's the next generation now. We've got your children or whatever family members opt to come on and carry on."
What a magnificent project to have the privilege of contributing too, no matter what age.
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