Their patented cultivator, the Soilkee Renovator, has achieved huge dry matter yield and available nutrient increases as well as massive carbon sequestration on their land.

“The whole benefit is improving nutrient availability and tapping in to those nutrients, improving the functionality of your soil and increasing water use efficiency,” says Niels, who farms at Hallora, in the Strzelecki Ranges in South Gippsland, with Marja and their three sons, Shane, Jamie and Shaun.

Originally dairy farming on the property Niels purchased in 1985, the family made the change to beef cattle in 2008.

“The workload was probably the biggest reason,” Niels says. “We had a fertiliser and agricultural earthmoving business and couldn’t keep doing three jobs.

“Milk prices were very good (at the time) and the herd doubled in value. We looked at the debt with the bank, and so we cashed the cattle in.

“Six months later they were back to half the price — we were very lucky. We haven’t looked back. The income isn’t the same as dairying, but at the time we had two other money streams and a mineral-based fertiliser business and now Soilkee is our main money earner.”

SEARCH FOR THE KEE

The Soilkee Renovator was born from Niels’ decision to improve his soils after noticing a decline in pasture growth. The machine builds topsoil, improves soil health and function, and enhances plant growth and biodiversity.

“The main focus came on to our soil when it was looking like I was going to have to pay some tax,” Niels says. “I put a heap of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium mineral fertiliser) on and grew heaps of grass; 12 months later I did that again. And eight months after, when summer came, my farm went brown and the neighbours were still green.”

Niels began soil chemistry courses, in an effort to work out what was going on.

“The soil was very acid at (pH) 3.7-4.2 over the property,” he says. “Adding highly acid fertiliser stopped the pick up of moisture over summer.”

Niels travelled to New Zealand and the US looking at farming systems and attending seminars about improving soil structure.

“Sitting in a seminar, hearing about crops of maize a metre high grown in a Mexico desert — in 15 inch (380mm) rainfall — and achieving far greater yield results than we were here, I thought, why can’t we do that? How can we do that?”

This set Niels on his path of inventing the Soilkee Renovator.

“We got washed out one winter and the fertiliser business stopped,” Niels says.

“I built the machine and ran it down the paddock; 10 days later there were big green stripes down the paddock. I thought this is different, there’s something going on here.”

Now patented in 47 countries, Niels’ Soilkee Renovator aerates the soil with minimal pasture disturbance, burying organic matter and top-dressing with soil while drilling seed into rows.

Rotating blades create a competition-free seed bed for germination, leaving about 80 per cent of the pasture undisturbed.

“The Renovator makes a trench for the seed and in doing so, sprinkles soil over the existing pasture,” Niels says.

Aeration and the green manure crop within the worked-up portion of the pasture provide aerobic conditions and a food source that activates soil fungi, bacteria and earthworms.

The undisturbed portion acts as a cover crop, protecting the soil from the elements, reducing erosion and keeping soil biology habitat intact.

“The main thing is that actual green matter is going back into your soil profile naturally, with the soil life doing the work,” Niels says.

The pasture renovator was first trialled in 2012.

Then in 2014, Commercialisation Australia funded 50 per cent of a $500,000 trial across three farms.

In trial results, the Soilkee strips showed improved species, improved response to rainfall and pasture quality as well as preferential grazing and dry matter yield.

“It came out at a 23 per cent dry matter yield increase, a huge increase of available nutrients across the board and 0.9 per cent increase in carbon in the top 150mm,”

Niels says.

SOIL CREDITS

About 100 of the Olsens’ 121 hectares are under an approved carbon project, started in 2015 and run in partnership with Agriprove and Corporate Carbon. Niels says a baseline test was carried out and 12 months later they found that 11.3 tonnes of carbon was sequestered per hectare.

Under the Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund scheme, one Australian Carbon Credit Unit is issued for every tonne of carbon sequestered. After a lot of book work and auditing, the Olsens were allocated 404 carbon credits in March this year.

“It felt very good; as though all of the paperwork might have been worth it,” Niels says. “Especially when you’re the first one.”

The Olsens received $4000 worth of carbon credits in their first application.

“If we do four or five tests we can quite easily earn $15,000 on 100 hectares each year. That’s based on $10 per carbon credit.”

The current price is $16, with a Government guarantee of $10 per credit, Niels explains.

“Corporate Carbon manage the paperwork side — something farmers hate doing — and they’re doing a good job of managing it,” he says. “As soil carbon increases and the soil is no longer bacterial dominant — but rather has a more desirable bacteria-fungi balance — nutrient availability is optimised and the water-holding capacity increases, with soil carbon able to hold up to 30 times its own weight in water.”

Niels says Soilkee has virtually doubled the yield of dry matter on his farm — from 10 tonnes per hectare to 20 tonnes.

“The whole farm is becoming the best vegie garden you’ve ever seen,” he says.

“In 10 years from now we’re hoping to have a one-metre deep functioning soil under 100 hectares of the property.

“We already have worms over the whole 100 hectares down to inhospitable high-aluminium clay — gum trees don’t even go down there.”

Soilkee Renovator at South Gippsland

VIEW GALLERY

GREEN MACHINE

Soil carbon farming group AgriProve has launched a national competition to encourage farmers to match the Olsens’ achievement in soil carbon capture.

The AgriProve 20/20 Olsen Prize for Soil Carbon Farming offers $20,000 to the next farmer who achieves 20 tonnes of dry matter yield plus 20 tonnes of soil carbon abatement per hectare in a 12-month period, under an Emissions Reductions Fund project.

The target is adjusted based on rainfall, reducing by two tonnes per 100mm less rain. For example, in 500mm rainfall regions, the goal is 10 tonnes of dry matter yield plus 10 tonnes of soil carbon abatement per hectare.

AgriProve managing director Matthew Warnken said: “Building soil carbon with regenerative agriculture has outstanding potential to scale because it enables farmers to improve the productivity and resilience of their farm, while earning income from carbon credits and improving their profitability.”

“We are offering a $20,000 prize as an incentive for action.”

The prize is designed to encourage farmers to register projects under the ERF, and build an evidence base for soil carbon farming.

To find out more, visit agriprove.io

FARM FILE:

Soilkee

South Gippsland beef farmers Niels and Marja Olsen have received carbon credits through Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund. They sequester carbon in their soil using a pasture cultivator designed by Niels, called the Soilkee Renovator, which seeds new pasture while retaining ground cover and turning organic matter into soil.

Where: Hallora, South Gippsland

More info: soilkee.com.au