Serenity Hill and Kirsten Lawson: Turning a profit from low-input agriculture

A North East Victorian family is using regenerative and low-input farming practises for financial and environmental gain.

“Resting in the shade of trees.”

That’s the meaning – and the motive – behind Pukawidgee, a regenerative fat lamb operation at Warrenbayne, resting at the foothills of the Strathbogie Ranges in Victoria’s North East.

Run and operated by Serenity Hill and her partner, Kirsten Lawson, along with their two children Eaden and Charlie, Pukawidgee is moving towards farming in a way that works with the land, and not against it, while capitalising on what healthy soils and pastures can yield.

Kirsten and Serenity co-founded the Open Food Network in 2012, an organisation supporting short supply chains and local food systems in 15 countries, including Australia.

Serenity grew up on her family’s beef and Merino farm close to where she now farms at Pukawidgee, and spent time planting trees across the family property.

Working close to the earth, tending to the soil and reaping the best quality produce they can is what’s driving Serenity and Kirsten, as they move towards farming regeneratively, a term here that means working with what nature can provide, while also fostering a strong connection with their consumers.

PROFIT DRIVERS

THE key to profitability in their regenerative enterprise, Serenity said, will be selling well-bred Australian White ewes, and meat processed and delivered to customer’s doors in Victoria, processed at eight or nine months old.

This clears about $200 per animal, Serenity said.

Rams were sourced from Roslynmead West, with a focus now on breeding for both quality of meat and temperament.

“Being able to finish lambs on grass, without supplementary feed, is the main thing, and then obviously having them in good shape, these beautiful stocky little lambs, where lambing is a dream,” Serenity said.

Instead of breeding for multiple births, Serenity said she was focused on increasing her production by joining stock sooner.

“Over summer, I wean the lambs between Christmas and New Year’s … the ewes were in such good condition and there was so much feed, I joined them straight away,” Serenity said.

“You can only do it in good years. This particular breed (Australian Whites) are not as seasonal as, say, Merinos. It means we’re having lambs in May, which is interesting. It’s an experiment, but I think that it could be quite promising.”

Serenity Hill, Kirsten Larsen, and their children Charlie Larsen-Hill and Eaden Larsen-Hill, at Pukawidgee, Warrenbayne. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Working across 168ha of leased land, they run up to 300 Australian Whites over about 44 paddocks.

“We manage the grazing to support the diverse perennial cover, much of it native grasses,” Serenity said.

“There’s a mix of native and introduced, annual, and perennial grasses with a lot of diversity across the farm. We’ve managed to get permanent cover over all the old sheep camps and are rid of all the capeweed now.

“We did this through grazing management without need for chemicals.”

Sheep are grazed in a single mob: a move often seen in regenerative agricultural setups, which Serenity said gave pastures optimal rest time, promoted long root growth, and built biology and natural nutrient cycling.

“ … when you’re low or no-input, it’s important to get the natural nutrient cycling going, with the way we do grazing,” Serenity said.

“We use drench very occasionally with no other inputs. We basically operate like an organic enterprise and are pursuing certification.”

Serenity said the vision for the farm was to produce food, at scale, while also building ecological function of the land.

She offloads lambs to market if pasture isn’t available, managing stock numbers in conjunction with the land.

Lambs are fattened, then processed at eight to nine months old.

Some are sold through local saleyards.

But Serenity wants to reach the point of selling all lambs as meat.

“We have a subscription people can sign up to, once a quarter, they can buy a whole lamb, a half, or boxes. They’re processed in Wangaratta, then packaged and shipped,” Serenity said.

“I’m now really happy with where I’ve got with the flock. It’s beautiful meat quality.”

Serenity is working towards hosting monstly open weekens on-farm, for people seeking a deeper connection to agriculture and where their food comes from. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

WATER MANAGEMENT

WATER – where and when it rains, and the catchment of it – is a key part of investing in pasture growth and health.

Long-term average rainfall is about 750mm annually, although Serenity said the past three years had been “unusually wet”.

“The summers are getting wetter and less rain in the winter,” she said. “We’ve been working to increase water holding capacity of soil, and also put in diversion banks and doubled the size of the main dam to catch run-off from those big summer downpours.”

The past three seasons had been unusually wet, “which has been great for grass growing but has brought challenges such as parasite control”.

Parasites are managed through careful grazing patterns, and avoiding routinely drenching sheep, “but we have had to use drench in the past couple of years”.

“Although not this summer, we expect more extreme hot weather and longer summers is something that we need to prepare for,” Serenity said.

“As we break up the farm into smaller paddocks a key consideration is reliable water points and also shade.”

Water is accessed by one main spring-fed dam which has been recently expanded to total three megalitres.

“We put in diversion banks to vastly expand its catchment,” Serenity said.

“A solar pump takes the water to the highest point on the farm and is then gravity fed to troughs.”

One to two troughs are moved around to various water points.

“I am slowly expanding the network of water points, which is making the grazing management much easier,” Serenity said.

TREE DREAMS

SERENITY plans to increase paddock tree cover.

“We are very lucky in that my parents invested heavily in tree regeneration in the past 40 years, from the very start of landcare,” Serenity said.

“So there is significant shade, increased biodiversity and also some farm forestry we can now take advantage of.

“In 2020 we got a grant from Goulburn Broken CMA for 2km of biodiversity planting along the roadside boundary. We are now opening up these plantings for grazing once or twice a year.”

Topography across the property is “beautiful” undulating country, with views over the Warrenbayne Valley.

“The lower, wetter areas are less productive (more acidic) but also provide green pick for longer,” Serenity said.

Soil types vary across the property.

“Warrenbayne has an unusual geology with a hard base under the valley apparently, which means it would have been a large wetland area adjacent to our farm before colonisation,” Serenity said.

Initially starting with about 20 paddocks, Serenity now runs stock across 44 paddocks, with the aim to double this.

“I use temporary fencing in spring and autumn to effectively have more paddocks, but this is labour intensive,” Serenity said.

“I love permanent fencing and want more of it. We manage all classes of sheep in one mob, except for weaning, and manage to maximise the time that paddocks are rest between grazing.”

Paddocks are rested for about three months, with the aim to increase resting time with more paddock divisions to be implemented in future.

Serenity says her regenerative system works by keeping input costs low, while preserving the natural resources of the soil. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

COST CONTROL

SERENITY said her regenerative system was designed to keep input costs “very low”, with the greatest input the cost of labour, which was mostly just Kirsten and Serenity with an occasional contractor.

But as infrastructure slowly improved, “I hope to bring the labour requirement down”.

Alongside the sheep enterprise, Pukawidgee also hosts a number of nature connection programs for kids.

Serenity aims to one day host monthly open weekends for people looking to experience farm life “at a deeper level”.

“We are currently putting in a proper access track, and we have access to a food van which will enable us to open for visitors in earnest in late 2023 or 2024,” Serenity said.