By Felicity Harrop, Soil CRC Soil Knowledge Broker
Building on the success of the recent Program 1 webinar series, Soil CRC Soil Knowledge Broker Felicity Harrop led a dynamic panel discussion for the Smart Soils Community of Practice in late November. The panel brought together Regional Soil Coordinators from each of the Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs, alongside Soil CRC participants from Program 1, ‘Investing in high performance soils’.
Together, they shared their experiences collaborating with researchers, identifying research priorities for farmers, and communicating research outcomes – highlighting what worked well and what didn’t. Participants valued the opportunity for deeper discussion with presenters.
South Australia Regional Soil Coordinator, Lucy Porter, said she left the session brimming with ideas. “I was busy jotting things down and have already mapped out actions to put into practice,” she said.
“The session with the CRC Program 1 members was incredibly helpful. It was great to see it in action – how Felicity facilitated the discussion to get the best from the panellists and respond to audience questions.”
Felicity also spent a day with the group preparing for the 2025 Australian Soil Judging Competition (hosted by Soil Science Australia in Armidale, NSW), and exploring how to translate insights from soil pits into practical information that supports sustainable soil management decisions.
Soil CRC student Evanna McGuinness also attended the Soil Judging Competition, coaching a Southern Cross University team. “These events are such an important opportunity for students and soil professionals to practice soil description and classification skills to better understand soils in the landscape,” Evanna said. You can read more about Evanna’s work here.
The Soil CRC also supported the Victorian Branch of Soil Science Australia and the NSW Soil Knowledge Network on their north-central Victoria field tour, which concluded on World Soil Day, Friday 5 December. The tour was co-organised by Nathan Robinson, Soil CRC Program 2 Leader, and attended by Michael Crawford, Soil CRC CEO, and Felicity Harrop.
During the tour, Felicity provided an update on Soil CRC activities and shared the soil carbon capacity building resources for NSW farmers and advisors, which were developed with support from the NSW Government’s Primary Industries Productivity and Abatement program. These resources are designed to help landholders and advisors assess soil carbon potential and identify management practices to increase soil carbon. Members of the Soil Knowledge Network – Brian Jenkins, Linda Henderson and Brian Murphy – provided expert contributions to these materials and participated in the tour.
Soil carbon discussions continued at the pasture field soil pits, where testing revealed high soil carbon levels: 3.2% at 0–5 cm and 2.5% at 5–10 cm. Given the sandy clay loam texture (66% fine + coarse sand) and low cation exchange capacity (7.9 cmol(+)/kg), these results indicate a strong soil carbon status. Soil carbon in the top 20 cm was estimated at 55–60 t/ha, well within the expected range for well-managed pasture systems.
Understanding both current soil carbon status and the soil’s capacity to store more carbon is essential, particularly when considering carbon-focused management practices. In some cases, soils may already be close to their maximum carbon potential.
Our CEO, Michael Crawford, enjoyed the opportunity to get into the field and talk soil with the others on the tour.
“What was really encouraging was to see some of the ‘legends’ of soil science in NSW and Victoria come together, share experiences, and pass on their expertise to the younger soil scientists who were in attendance,’ said Dr Crawford.