🌿 How Healthy Soil is Boosting Farm Profits
Did you know that some of Australia’s most profitable farms are making more by doing less?
By focusing on soil health, crop diversity, and natural systems, these farmers are reducing chemical inputs, improving yields, and building stronger businesses.
This approach is called biological farming. It covers a range of practices that work to restore and improve soil health. While many people are familiar with organic farming, biological farming goes further, using science and nature together to boost profits and long-term productivity.
One method of biological farming known as ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ in Australia was highlighted in Netflix show in Down to Earth with Zac Efron (Season 2, Episode 2), as they learnt how savvy farmers were optimising their yield.
👉 Watch the episode on Netflix.
Whether you’re a crop grower, grazier, or just passionate about sustainable agriculture, here’s everything you need to know to get started.
🌱 What These Farmers Do Differently
Biological farming focuses on building healthy soil, using natural cycles, and reducing waste where possible. While the methods can be different for each farm, here are a few of the main ideas behind it:
Build Living Soil:
Healthy soil helps plants grow strong. Farmers add things like compost and let tiny bugs and worms do the work. This makes the soil full of life and keeps it rich for the next crop.
Keep It Covered:
Bare soil dries out fast and can wash away. That’s why farmers grow cover crops or leave old plant bits on top. It protects the ground, keeps the water in, and gives the soil time to rest.
Mix It Up:
Different plants help each other. By growing a mix of crops or letting animals graze between seasons, farmers keep the soil healthy and pests under control, without using too many chemicals.
Let Nature Feed Itself:
Good soil already has what plants need. Tiny fungi and microbes break down old plants into food for new ones. This means farmers can use fewer fertilisers and save water too.
💰 Why It’s Paying Off
Biological farming is about spending smarter, not spending more.
Lower costs: Fewer tractor passes, sprays, and fertiliser applications reduce bills.
Better soil: Healthy soils hold more water and nutrients, reducing the need for irrigation and supplements.
Resilient yields: During drought or floods, biologically active soils bounce back faster.
Market demand: Consumers are paying premiums for low-chemical or regenerative produce.
Case studies from Soils For Life show that regenerative farms often maintain or increase profits while cutting input costs.
📹 WATCH: A story about soil regeneration
🤝 Case Study: Lakey Farm and the Power of CSA
In an ABC News Rural report on the power of Community Supported Agriculture, John and Tristia Lakey of Lakey Farm in Victoria’s Sunbury region, just 50 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD, shared how their regenerative, mixed-livestock property now supplies meat boxes to around 80 regular subscribers each month.
“About half of the animals we slaughter each month are already pre-sold,” John Lakey told ABC. "We know our income up to one or two years in advance, because those sales are guaranteed so long as people commit to our 12-month deal on subscriptions."
The idea is simple, but powerful:
Customers buy a share of the farm’s harvest in advance, committing to a subscription. This shared-risk model smooths out the uncertainty of weather, markets, and logistics, while giving consumers a steady supply of ethically produced food.
"We're actually using every aspect of what an animal can produce, which means we get revenue from different streams, then we don't have to have quite so many animals." Ms Lakey explained.
The Lakeys’ story proves how CSA can turn customers into partners, giving farmers predictable income, stronger community ties, and a fairer, more transparent food system.
Their experience mirrors that of Jonai Farms, featured in Down to Earth with Zac Efron (Season 2, Episode 2), where farmer Tammi Jonas shared that her CSA has a 20-year waiting list. That’s a powerful sign of growing demand for organic and regenerative farming that prioritises soil health, avoids chemicals, and still delivers strong financial results.
🫵 How you can get started
Start small: Trial one paddock with a multi-species cover crop.
Keep it covered: Avoid bare soil by planting between harvests.
Feed the microbes: Use composts or biological inoculants if needed.
Rotate wisely: Mix crops or integrate grazing animals to build fertility.
🌟 Final Thoughts
Healthy soils grow healthy profits. Farmers are working with natural systems, to reduce risk, cut costs, and build stronger businesses for the long haul.
Biological farming can also work hand in hand with carbon farming, allowing producers to not only improve soil health but also earn additional income through carbon credits.
Start small, track results, and see what happens when your soil starts working for you.
Until next time!
From our patch to yours — see you next edition.
