Riverina grazing property thrives under holistic management
The Austin family has reclaimed control of their land, livestock, business and happiness by adopting holistic management.
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EIGHT years ago, Nick and Deanna Austin introduced holistic farming methods to their NSW property, Mundarlo, and they haven’t looked back since.
A former engineer, Nick is the third generation to farm the 1400-hectare property located on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, 50km from Wagga Wagga.
It was a big change swapping conventional farming practices to holistic management but for Nick it meant reclaiming control of his life and defining what they wanted from the business, community and the landscape.
He describes the Millennium drought of 2009 as the catalyst for change.
“That spring I got off the feed wagon for the last time after feeding our weaners in a feedlot for six months, seven days a week,” he says. “I also had our breeding herd coming back from the north from agistment in worse condition than they left and 10 per cent never coming back. Our crops were looking like failing for the third time in four years. I finally decided that Mundarlo was not giving us what we wanted. I basically felt out of control, we never had enough time and we were battling to make money.”
Nick, who had done a holistic management course years before, found the principles resonated with him, along with the advice of the late Bruce Ward, a holistic management educator based in NSW.
He later met other like-minded farmers in the Eastern Riverina and together they formed the 8Families regenerative farming group, inspired by Zimbabwean biologist-farmer Allan Savory, who developed holistic management principles.
Nick says the transition to holistic management was not easy.
“It was scary and tough and at one point we had $60 in the bank,” he says.
“However, as we continued to make decisions towards our holistic context things got easier, and we gained control again of our finances and our lives.”
Nick, 46 and Deanna, 44, now run a trading enterprise of about 500 cattle and 1000 sheep.
“These days three big things govern everything we do; it needs to be profitable; to provide a balance between business and family time, and; improve ecosystem function,” Nick says. “We also have a big focus on soil health and regenerating our landscape. We stopped cropping because it wasn’t following these rules.”
All animals are run in one mob and they use holistic planned grazing to manage where they are at any point in time.
“Long recoveries in pastures allow plants to fully recover before being grazed again. We don’t broadacre spray weeds anymore as anything green on the surface is driving biology below the surface. We also don’t put chemical fertiliser out, but instead are subdividing paddocks to help improve our grazing management.”
Nick tests his soil annually.
The couple, who have two children, Ellie, 15, and Harry, 12, also have off-farm enterprises. Deanna runs an allied health business in Wagga Wagga, which includes her pilates business and they receive royalties from a sand quarry on the property.
Nick says being a member of 8Families has been a great source of support. There are nine members of the collaborative group, including Michael and Anna Coughlan, Bill and Joy Wearn, Pete and Pamela Lawson, Kate and Jochem Heijse, Gillian Sanbrook, Sam and Prue Pincott, Rebecca Gorman and John Sevior and Michael and Ellie Gooden. They all follow the principles of holistic management to produce beef, lamb and eggs that are free of antibiotics and hormones and are raised on grass.
“We focus on creating pastures that carry enough nutrients to nurture animals and regenerate soils at the same time, without relying on chemical props,” Nick says.
“Once you have finished holistic management training there is very little support to change your practices and 8Families has given us the encouragement to make the changes. We also have a lot of fun with people who are like minded and have the same values,” he says.
Initially 8Families investigated selling products directly to the public as a group, but it wasn’t logistically viable.
The families all sell their produce independently, but recently many of them started using the services of Provenir, a mobile on-farm abattoir and processor that sits perfectly with their values, according to Nick.
“We have control of the product to the time of sale and all the hard work we have done to raise grass-fed, stress-free animals is not lost loading animals on to a truck and then carted off to an abattoir,” he says.
Nick believes his switch to holistic management has been a great success.
“We view success by how happy we are, and we are so, so much happier now than before we made the change to holistic management. Every decision is taking us to where we want to be and not where someone else wants us to be,” he says.
“It has changed our lives and way of thinking and we have much more time: time to work on business and time to be with family and do the things we want to do.
“Now I think about how nature would solve a problem not a human trying to dominate nature.”
Nick wants to encourage others to consider holistic management.
“For the good of humanity, we have to stop considering the soil as a medium to hold plants. It is a living, breathing thing. Once we start working with nature and not against nature, you start to relax and if you are making decisions based on the life you envisage, you will be much happier and thus more successful.”
Nick isn’t concerned if the principles are not supported by peer-reviewed data.
“All I can say is we’re happier than we’ve ever been, have more time to do the things we want to do, are making more money and the land around us is improving,” he says.
As for the future, Nick hopes at the age of 98 he can walk with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the top of the hill near his house, see how much the land has improved in his lifetime and give an entertaining speech on why doing and having less, sometimes gives you more.
“We have a long way to go to get the landscape biodiversity and soil health to where I want it,” he says, “but we are on track.”
FARM FILE: Mundarlo
Nick and Deanna Austin run 500 cattle and 1000 sheep on their 1400-hectare Mundarlo property, near Wagga Wagga, NSW. They have adopted holistic management principles over the past 10 years to regenerate their soil and pasture, and improve ecosystem function. They sell cattle to processors, including on-farm abattoir Provenir, as well as feedlots. Sheep are sold directly to processors and through the yard system.
Where: Riverina, NSW
More info: 8families.com
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