In 2020, a series of topic reports were written as part of a ‘think piece’ project on regenerative agriculture in New Zealand, as part of the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge. The aim of this work was to provide a framework that could then be used to develop scientific evidence and research questions specific to regenerative agriculture in New Zealand.
One of the reports in this series sought to understand the regenerative principles applied in New Zealand. The key objective of this research, undertaken by Sam Lang, was to identify what principles guide the practices and decision making of New Zealand farmers and growers that are explicitly adopting what they consider to be a regenerative agriculture approach on their farms. The research also sought to understand what attributes these farmers and growers considered to be part of a regenerative mindset.
The research process
Data for this research was collected using focus groups of pastoral (dairy, sheep and beef), arable, and viticulture farmers and growers who have a reputation as being leading and experienced regenerative agriculture practitioners. The focus groups were focused on discussion around two key questions:
- What are the principles that guide your practices and decision making?
- What does a regenerative mindset mean to you?
While the focus groups were split into sectors, the findings had little difference between sectors so the focus of analysis became multi-sector rather than sector-specific. Additionally, while a regenerative mindset is commonly considered to be distinct from regenerative principles, it was found that participants combined the two together. Therefore, analysis was focused on the key principles that farmers applied in regenerative agriculture and what mindset attributes fall under those principles.
The analysis of the focus groups identified 11 regenerative principles that are used in New Zealand. Within these 11 principles there was a split of principles that are more focused on mindset, attitudes and human behaviours, and others that relate more directly to physical farm systems and practices. While this research identified 11 principles, Lang states that these should not be considered as definitive, but rather hopefully provide guidance for farmers and growers interested in regenerative agriculture systems and practices.
The 11 regenerative Principles
Living systems are complex and constantly evolving – understanding how nature functions supports holistic decision making.
The focus groups found that for many farmers and growers, knowledge of ecological processes, soil biology, and microbiomes is quite limited. However, knowledge and understanding were considered a critical piece of the puzzle to develop systems and practices that leverage natural processes.
It was identified that as farmers begin to transition their farms systems, they soon realise that their farm ecosystems are even more complex than first thought. Investing in learning from others was thought to be something that can aid farmers to reduce the risks in any transitions that they make to regenerative practices by sparking ideas, avoiding making the same mistakes, and understanding the nuance of certain changes.
When it comes to regenerative mindset and viewing the farm as a living system, this gives nod to views such as observing the whole ecosystem and understanding how nature and living systems work; seeing nature as a teacher and mimicking ecological patterns; and embracing diversity in nature, people and worldviews.
‘There’s a whole lot we don’t know and I’m finding that the more I know, the more I realise I don’t know. And that’s what makes it so much fun’ – Arable Focus Group
Context varies from place to place, person to person, and season to season – adapt your system and practices to suit.
All focus groups featured the need to know and understand your context, whether it be physical environment, physical infrastructure, community, skills, knowledge, goals, and so on. It was found that this principle encompasses a lot of key elements such as:
- Being clear on your goals, values, and your ‘why’
- Assessing the likely impacts of decisions on all of your goals
- There’s no prescription – systems and practices should reflect each unique context, and they will likely change over time
- If adopting practices or ideas from elsewhere, don’t necessarily expect the same outcome
- Consider problems or possible solutions with your whole complex system in mind as everything is connected
The mindset that is encompassed in this principle also has many elements, such as being flexible and adaptive in approach, being outcome focused, looking to solve the root cause of problems, and transitioning at your own pace. One other key feature is acknowledging that aspects of some mainstream New Zealand systems follow some regenerative principles, but then looking for other areas of the system to improve.
‘Doing the best we can for the (whole) farm – taking all factors into consideration (when making decisions)’ – Viticulture Focus Group
Be curious, question your beliefs and test different ideas
The research found that for those in the focus groups there was a mindset that nothing was off the table. These farmers and growers give themselves permission to question everything that they do and consider any alternatives. The use of observation was of high importance to help identify causes and effects of positive and/or negative outcomes. These farmers and growers also found that questioning everything led to an increased sense of excitement, as well as increased autonomy when it came to making on-farm decisions.
Being open is a key feature of the mindset element of this regenerative principle. Whether it be open to learning and improving, open to being vulnerable, or open to being wrong, the benefits of being curious and questioning lead to a mindset that allows for the adoption of regenerative principles.
‘It’s just having an open mind, I think, at the end of the day is what it boils down to – being open to new ideas is how, sort of, I’ve got to be where we are heading. If you have a closed mind, you’re never going to try anything, are you? You’re just going to do what the rep tells you and buy the recipe and, if it fails, it’s probably the contractors fault and nothing that you’ve done. Try new things.’– Pastoral Focus Group
Connect with like-minded peers to speed up the learning journey – include perspectives different from your own.
A commonality across many of the 11 principles was the pursuit of continuous learning. The farmers and growers placed high value on being able to learn from the experiences of others. They also placed emphasis on learning from a broad and diverse range of perspectives. Collective learning is further enhanced by many aspects of a regenerative mindset such as always questioning and remaining curious, collaboration with nature and people, embracing diversity, having a possibility mindset, and the willingness to be open and vulnerable.
‘To be better and viticulture you go to a viticulture conference, but to be better at regen, you’re best off to engage with people across the spectrum of producers – I’ve learnt some really interesting things from sheep farmers or whatever – you just seem to be able to engage with such a wide group of people’ – Viticulture Focus Group
Push beyond your comfort zone – small failures provide the best learning opportunities
A key finding from focus group participants was that they no longer view failures as negative experience, but instead consider them as valuable learning opportunities. These opportunities to learn from failures are seen as opportunities that will deliver the greatest gains in the long term. Embracing failure was therefore a key principle that participants identified. A key takeaway was that these farmers and growers prioritised establishing on-farm trials to push themselves out of their comfort zone to test ideas before implementing them further across their whole farm.
The advice of the farmers and growers for other people was:
- Always be running trials, including control areas or blocks to test whether your current practices are working
- Fail at a scale that you can afford, whether it be the corner of a paddock or the whole farm
- Have a ‘practice paddock’ where you really challenge yourself – its a faster way to learn than only making incremental changes
- Share your experiences and encourage others to do the same
Embracing failure further feeds into the mindset approach of being open and seeking to learn. It also champions an attribute of looking at problems or challenges as opportunities, and having a possibility mindset.
‘As farmers we have to be comfortable to do that, and know that sometimes we might end up with our face in the mud – laugh a bit, keep your humour!’ – Pastoral Focus Group
Try to use practices that help improve ecosystem function while keeping others up your sleeve for if, or when, you need them.
Having an open and flexible toolbox was something that was important for farmers and growers in this research, and it reflects the non-prescriptive attitude that participants have towards regenerative agriculture. The farmers and growers were driven by a goal to reduce and/or eliminate tools or practices they thought were particularly harmful to soil biology and insects in particular, however they also placed value on maintaining the ability to use practices or tools if absolutely necessary such as to save a crop. The saying ‘there is no right or wrong, just actions and consequences’ was used as a descriptor of how farmers and growers had a more open-minded approach to practices used on farm.
Having an open and flexible toolbox further feeds into previous principles of learning, embracing failure, and questioning things. One key feature of this mindset is the focus on outcomes – what are the outcomes of my actions for my farm system, the ecosystem, and so on?
‘If someone said ‘I’ve got a big open toolbox’, I could get excited… Don’t throw any of the tools out. Just be responsible for the impact, both positive and negative of your choices of tool… Use them responsibly, but know all the implications, both positive and negative. You can use a bit of Roundup, but what are the implications if you used 4L or if you used 2L and you buffered it – again, it comes back to understanding, doesn’t it?’ – Pastoral Focus Group
Transitions take time – clear goals, planning and monitoring are key.
It was emphasised that in order to transition to regenerative practices successfully, there was a need to:
- Identify your biggest limiting factors
- Focus on doing a few things well
- Plan (don’t just wing it), and
- Monitor progress
A big focus of this principle is that transitioning farm systems takes time. Farmers and growers identified that it is really important to not go ‘cold turkey’ from current practices, but instead focus on identifying the biggest limiting factors and address those before moving on to something else. It was generally emphasised that a focus on improving soil health and maximising photosynthesis were good starting points for anyone wanting to transition to regenerative practices.
‘If we keep everything too broad, it becomes an overload of what we’re trying to achieve. So, I think we’ve got to have a focus around it and focus on that one particular thing (or two or three things) for a period of time’ – Pastoral Focus Group
Treat your farm like a solar panel – bigger green leaf area supports great photosynthesis, meaning more food for soil microbes and improved soil health.
A core principle that underpinned the systems of the farmers and growers in the focus groups was to maximise photosynthesis.
Why?
Plants feed soil microbes by leaking soluble carbohydrates (sugars) out through their roots as exudates (Lang, 2021). Without living roots and active photosynthesis, energy supply to soil microbes is limited and therefore the many positive functions of soil microbes will also be limited (Lang, 2021). The practice of over-grazing was considered to reduce the amount of root exudates and contribute to shallow rooting systems with decreased resilience to drought and increased nutrient loss (Lang, 2021).
‘It’s the living roots that feed the soil microbes that keep the minerals mobile and plant available. Once we remove the living roots, we remove the ability to feed the microbes, and the minerals that they were making mobile become immobile and unavailable to plants. There is a lag time from when we reintroduce living plants to getting those minerals mobilised, so it is in our best interests to keep plants growing all the time’ – Arable Focus Group
Keep the soil covered and limit soil disturbance from chemical application, soluble fertiliser, machinery, and livestock compaction.
Minimising soil disturbance was a strong theme across pastoral, arable, and viticulture focus groups. Reasons for this included increasing solar energy capture, regulating soil temperatures, increasing water infiltration, supporting nutrient cycling, and reducing erosion and compaction.
It was emphasised by the farmers and growers that minimising disturbance was not an ‘all or nothing’ approach, but reducing unnecessary disturbance as well as being proactive about helping to soil to bounce back from disturbance.
‘As you minimise soil disturbance, you don’t just enhance soil moisture, you improve soil loss, nutrient cycling, there’s a whole lot of things you improve, if you don’t have bare soil… sediment and nutrient loss… it’s not just moisture, it’s also temperature… soil temperature and all that gets affected’ – Pastoral Focus Group
Diversity benefits the whole ecosystem – microbes, insects, plants, birds, livestock, and your community.
The farmers and growers valued diversity highly. What was apparent was that diversity was important in multiple ways, including:
- Below-ground (soil microbes)
- Above-ground (plants, insects, birds, livestock)
- At a landscape-level (pastures, crops, trees, wetlands, etc)
- Different knowledge systems
- Perspectives
- Cultures
These farmers and growers described how they used diversity to improve the health, function, and resilience of their farming systems and businesses.
‘Diversity is like our communities. We want as many different services in our communities as possible. The more services we have, the more resilient our communities are. It’s no different in the soil. If we have lots of different services, that community is much more resilient’ – Arable Focus Group
Livestock are a powerful tool for building biological function and fertility in our soils, when managed appropriately.
Livestock were seen as a powerful and valuable tool for improving the health and productivity of any farm system, provided that they were managed appropriately. Livestock played different roles for arable and viticulture growers than it did for pastoral farmers, but both identified the importance of grazing management to improve the mobilisation and cycling of nutrients already in the soil. This did not mean that fertiliser inputs were off the table for most farmers however, with it still being an important tool especially with those transitioning their systems.
‘When we started placing our mobs strategically, we grew a lot more grass, as opposed to just putting ‘fertiliser’ on those parts. I’m just watching results or outcomes and the mob grazing, the dung and urine placement, the density, the overnight mob placements are just transforming what we are doing without ‘fertiliser’. I’m not saying we can go without fertiliser – that’s not the issue – it’s management, which is turning our production around a lot’ – Pastoral Focus Group