Introduction to Pasture Cropping with Colin Seis

Free recording and transcript of our mini class hosted live by Didi Pershouse Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

  Enroll in Course

This event has ended but you can still sign up to access the 2-hour recording, chat, and transcript. It was a wonderful event!
Wednesday August 21st, 2024

(Please consider making a donation along with your registration, to help provide more free workshops in the future. You will see various options when you sign up.)

"Pasture Cropping" and "Multi-species Pasture Cropping" are forms of 'perennial cover cropping'; where annual crops are zero till sown directly into perennial grassland after the grass has started its natural dormancy. Both were developed by award-winning Australian farmer Colin Seis, author of Custodians of the Grasslands. In this mini-class, we have a chance to hear his story and have a conversation with him.
The Seis family is one of the early pioneering families in the Gulgong district of New South Wales. They have been grazing merino sheep and growing cereal crops since the 1860s.
Fourth-generation farmer Colin Seis stewards the 2000-acre property "Winona," which runs 4000 merino sheep managed using holistic planned grazing. Cattle are also run on the property when seasons allow. The property is managed using methods that continually regenerate its grassland, soil, and farm ecosystem. This dramatically reduces farm inputs while producing up to 20,000 kg of wool and selling 1500 sheep and cereal grain annually.
Enterprises on Winona consist of a merino ram breeding operation and native grass seed harvested from the property's native grassland. Five hundred acres of oats are sown annually using the 'pasture cropping' technique that Colin developed over 30 years ago. Colin also runs one of the largest kelpie, working dog studs and sells dogs and pups to many countries like North and South America, Europe and Scandinavia, and all states of Australia.
'Pasture Cropping' can produce high-yielding crops and has been proven to restore landscape ecological health, restore native grasslands, improve pasture quality, improve soil nutrient cycling and sequester large amounts of soil carbon.
Colin further improved the method by developing 'Multi-Species Pasture Cropping' in 2011. This was done by using a group of up to 10 annual plant species. This mix of plants includes legumes, cereals, flowering plants, and species that add organic matter to the soil. The species mix produces excellent forage and grain and can also include vegetables.
The technique has been shown to restore pasture diversity, enhance ecological function, soil health, and soil carbon, and reduce insect attack while reducing pesticide and fertilizer use on farms worldwide.
'Multi-species pasture cropping' addresses many of the ecological problems associated with present-day agricultural practices. It has the potential to feed the increasing human population with nutrient-dense, healthy food while restoring grassland ecosystems and soil health on farms worldwide.
In addition to owning and managing Winona, Colin's dedication to farmer education support programs and enabling the extensive scientific study of his practices have resulted in 'Pasture Cropping' being adopted worldwide. Because of this, there are now well over 3000 farmers in many countries, managing an estimated one million hectares, using the technique to grow crops and restore grasslands and soil.
Colin has been awarded many times for his achievements during the development of pasture cropping and regenerative land management techniques. Some of these awards include;
  • Australian Conservation Farmer of the Year in 2005.
  • Australian Carbon Farmer of the Year, in 2007
  • Australian Green Agriculture and Innovation Award 2012 (GAIA), (which is awarded for leading contributions to soil health and sequestration of Carbon)
  • Australia's most prestigious farming and environmental award, the National Bob Hawke Landcare Award, September 2014.
  • The NSW regional achievement and community award 2015.
  • In August 2019, Colin was inducted into the 'Australian Carbon Farmer' Inaugural Hall of Fame.
  • In January 2015, the Australian newspaper, "Melbourne Weekly Times," called Colin a visionary and suggested him as one of the world's top 6 most influential farmers.

This event is free to all, but please consider making a donation along with your registration, to help provide more free workshops in the future. You will see various options when you sign up.


Your Instructor


Didi Pershouse
Didi Pershouse

Didi Pershouse is well known as an innovative international educator both in-person and online. She is the founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative. Her facilitator's guide Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function, is used in over 60 countries.

She became deeply involved in the intersection of food systems and health systems while providing rural health care for two decades at The Center for Sustainable Medicine, and wrote The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities.

Currently she is writing a field training manual for the UN-FAO Farmer Field School Program and the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative in India, involving over 800,000 smallholder farmers. She was a contributing author to The Climate Emergency: How Africa Can Survive and Thrive; Climate Change and Creation Care; and Health in the Anthropocene. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.

She serves on the Planning Commission for her town, is a board supervisor for the White River Natural Resources Conservation District, and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. While serving on the state appointed Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, she helped to reorient the program back to its public roots. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.


Course Curriculum


  RECORDING FROM THE CLASS
Available in days
days after you enroll

Get started now!