Courses

Join Eugenio Gras and Nick Ritar for a three-day course on how biofertilisers can drastically increase your on-farm fertility and save you tens of thousands of dollars a year on inputs. Representing the pioneering work of COAS in Mexico, Eugenio will lead you through the why and how of making your own organic fertilisers out of easily available ingredients. This workshop focuses on practical techniques of defining what your soil needs and enhancing it by applying biofertilizers for small, medium and larger-scale farming, grazing and forestry operations.
Over the last 20 years, pioneering scientists in Latin America have developed a range of ‘farm-made’ BioFertilizers to replace energy-intensive and expensive artificial fertilizers. These techniques have enabled farmers across Latin America access to the tools and knowledge needed to get themselves ‘off the drip’ of increasingly unaffordable artificial fertilizers. And now we're bring this open-source knowledge to the world. This very popular hands-on workshop will re-define the role that bio-fertilizers and organic inputs can play on your property.
One tonne of healthy topsoil will typically harbor as much as 25% of its weight in living microorganisms. Encouraging more microbiology (of the right kind) to your soil strengthens its structure, makes nutrients available to the plants above, builds humus and leads to resilient, productive soils, naturally. Biofetilizers using everyday organic materials that are already present on the average farm. This workshop will introduce multiple techniques for making a range of biofertilizers, using a range of fermentation and brewing processes that are easily within the scope of the average landowner. Full curriculum available upon request.
This workshop will cover: •    The history of biofertilizers •    Different types of biofetilizer •    Creating beneficial soil biology •    Chromatography •    Nutrient Retention •    Building Soil Structure •    Bio-remediation •    And many take-home biofertilizer recipes for you to use on your farm...

Biofertilizer resources and further reading:

• Fermented Biofertiliser How-To: from COAS's recipe
• Lime Sulfur How-To: from COAS's recipe
• Biofertilizer handout from COAS (pdf download)
• Eugenio Gras's photos, including many biofertilizer workshops
• Photos from Eugenio's 2010 workshop at Milkwood Farm

About this workshop:

This workshop will be held on-farm at Milkwood Farm near Mudgee in Central west NSW. As such, please wear appropriate clothing for a working farm environment. We will be spending a portion of the day outside in the field.

Registration for this workshop includes lunch, morning and afternoon tea, all made with local produce from the Mudgee region. Mudgee has many accommodation options - see below in the venue details if you'd like to stay the night before or after the workshop.

This workshop will be a jam-packed day of essential knowledge, and a chance to meet other like-minded folks from across NSW who are passionate about regenerative grazing and creating sustainable livelihoods from farming.

About the teachers:

Eugenio Gras is one of Latin America's foremost sustainable agriculture experts.

Currently working intensively for COAS in the training of farmers, producers, academics and professors throughout Latin America, Eugenio has taught and spoken worldwide on his innovative techniques for creating organic, natural fertiliser from whatever is at hand on a given farm.

Eugenio's photos.

Nick Ritar is a renouned Australian educator and regenerative agriculture advocate, with experience in both aerated compost tea technology and biofertilizers. Having studied under Dr Elaine Ingham and Paul Taylor of the Soil Food Web institute as well as Eugenio Gras, Nick has been implementing aerated compost tea, biofertilizers and composting techniques on his familiy's farm near Mudgee. Nick's education website.

This workshop is coordinated and run by RegenAG's NSW provider, Milkwood Permaculture. If you have any questions about this workshop feel free to contact Milkwood Permaculture by email or on 02 63737763 for more information.

About FarmReady funding:

This course is currently pending approval from FarmReady. When approved, eligible primary producers and their families will be able to access a full subsidy to attend this course. Please contact the course co-ordinator if you would like to be notified when this course becomes FarmReady approved. For more info about FarmReady funding in 2011/2012, please see our FarmReady page.

>> For more info and to book into this workshop, head to the RegenAG website.

RegenAG is a global alliance of farming families who are committed to helping regenerate the world's farms, soils, communities and on-farm livelihoods. Milkwood Permaculture is proud to be RegenAG's NSW co-ordinator and course provider.