Eco-logical Farming Handbook
Regenerative agriculture is the best way to grow. The challenge has been how to do it.
By identifying the fundamental principles underpinning the successful regenerative practices used around the world, the message is straightforward. We need to get the ecological functions supporting our production systems 'tuned up and running again'.
Bringing back these FREE ecological services you'll:
- Reduce your fertiliser, pest control and other input costs
- Boost production in good times and get less set-backs when the weather plays up
- Gain opportunities increase your income streams growing additional products within your production systems
Understanding the 'eco-logic', you'll have the know-how to develop techniques that work well for your unique growing conditions and production systems. Established regenerative practices became the source and inspiration for your ideas, rather than recipes to follow.
And what’s more, you'll supply vital ecosystem services – biodiversity, carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, and reduced fertiliser, pesticide and sediment runoff. Not because you have been lucky enough to receive a grant or incentive payment (although these are always useful) – because these services are supplied naturally as by-products from repairing the ecological infrastructure on our farms.
Are you ready to try this easier way to grow?
Wiro Bound Hardcover
Price: AU $78 - including delivery
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019
Digital Version
Price: AU $34
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019
Need more information about the Eco-logical Farming Handbook? Then read on…
Why this eco-logical approach to regenerative agriculture makes sense
Lower production costs
Colin Seis has reduced his production costs by 75% by getting his nutrient cycling system functioning again. He uses 70% less fertiliser on crops and hasn’t fertilised his pasture for over 30 years. Yet his soil tests show increases in major and micro plant nutrient availability.
Drought-proofing
We're improving the water cycle on our farm by combining Holistic Planned Grazing with Silvopasture.
See the benefits in our dry season. The legume trees provide extra forage and nitrogen fertiliser. Our pasture is productive and drought-proofed.
Pest-resistance
Hydroponic growers, Graham and Fiona Grant used to regularly spray synthetic pesticides. Now they only use organic pest controls as a back-up.
They have created 'functional biodiversity' by providing suitable food plants and habitat to maintain populations of beneficial insects.
Benefit from Nature's FREE ecological services
While a small number of farmers around the world benefit from using traditional practices maintaining functioning agro-ecosystems, the majority of us are not so lucky. Substituting for these free ecological services by cultivating soil, applying synthetic and biological fertilisers, and pest controls has become the norm – virtually everybody does it!
This interventionist approach defines current ‘conventional agriculture’, whether we use ‘chemical’ or ‘organic’ inputs.
When we realise what we can achieve by getting our agro-ecosystems functioning again and understand the principles of how to do it, we break this ‘intervention habit’.
Most agricultural soils, for example, don’t show the customary signs of soil degradation – salinity, erosion and compaction, but are degraded because they no longer function properly. They lack functioning nutrient recycling systems and soil structures promoting plant growth.
Carbon and organic matter levels in the soil are useful measures to track our progress, but we need to get our agro-ecosystems ‘tuned up and running’ for these metrics to improve!
A reliable pathway to follow
Using this ‘eco-logical’ approach to regenerative agriculture, you'll address the root causes of your problems, take the path of least resistance, and use your know-how to trial techniques, learn, and share your experiences.
Nature contributes the innovation and technology
Using millions of years of research and development by ‘learning from Nature’, we make the real technological advances in farming by creating agro-ecosystems that are easy to maintain, resilient, and highly productive - using the energy and resources we have available.
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ISBN 9780646987149
Leave your tractor in the shed. Give the job of making good soil structure to the experts – your soil organisms.
Save money on commercial pest controls with a team of technologically advanced, highly motivated insect and bird pest controllers.
Give the microbes and other organisms in your soil ecosystem the job of managing your fertiliser regime.
Sustainably intensify your production by growing more with extra solar panels.
"Thank you so much for writing your book. It is a most concise, yet comprehensive guide to regenerative food production systems I have come across. I have had contact with several of the people referred to in your book, but it is difficult to bring all of the different ideas and practices together. The Handbook does that brilliantly."
Peter Stray, President of the Geelong Landcare Network, Victoria, Australia.
"This beautifully Ecological Farming Handbook book presents really practical ‘hands-on’ information for farmers wishing to improve both the overall productivity and the sustainability of their land.
Dr Seabrook draws on the experiences of farmers around the world and her own at Hill Top Farm in tropical Australia, where she is transforming degraded land into fertile pastures and multi-layered production systems. The effects are dramatic.
She emphasises the need for individual farmers to think about what they want to accomplish, and then use eco-logical principles to achieve it.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook shows us how to work with nature to improve soil fertility, minimise pests and diseases, reduce the impacts of drought and so to maximise production - all this, without reliance on expensive agrichemicals.
This farmer-friendly, wildlife-friendly, and climate-friendly approach is applicable around the globe from resource-poor smallholders to large-scale enterprises."
Prof Roger Leakey, Vice President of International Tree Foundation, former Professor of Agroecology and Sustainable Development at JCU Cairns, and former Director of Research at The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).
"Wendy Seabrook is on the money when it comes to regenerative agriculture. Her teachings and advice are being shown to markedly improve lands used for farming and cropping. I especially enjoyed reading her 'Eco-logical Farming Handbook' where every page is full of information that creates more 'wow moments' than I thought possible! A great read."
Charles Alder
CVO / CEO EcoForce Australia,
Co Founder of Rural Aid
"Extraordinary."
Jessica Peace, Organic vegetable producer, UK.
"The great thing about the Eco-logical Farming Handbook - we are on a journey and understand where we want to go."
Martin Lines, UK Chair, Nature Friendly Farming Network.
Frequently asked questions
Will this approach work in my climate?
Farmers from the cold north of Scotland to the hot, sultry tropics and arid landscapes of Africa use this eco-logical approach. The ecological principles are the same. Tools, techniques and species differ as growers adapt these practices to their climate.
Does the size of my property matter?
Size doesn't matter. Smallholders, market and community gardeners, large-scale crop and grazing operations improve their soils and reduce crop losses by repairing their ecological infrastructure.
Will it work with what I grow?
There are orchardists, dairy farmers, market gardeners, grain producers, grazers, and even hydroponic growers already getting amazing results. The ecological principles are the same. Farmers choose suitable practices for their production systems.
Will my yields drop?
Farmers often experience higher and more reliable yields. With less impacts from pests and diseases and fewer crop losses during tough times. They also create opportunities to increase their income streams by stacking new enterprises within their production systems.
Superb value
With the Eco-logical Farming Handbook you get much more than a repackaged list of regenerative practices.
You benefit from over 12 years of research using 'grounded theory methodology' to clarify and validate the ecological principles, and translate this 'eco-logic' into an easily digestible farmer-friendly format.
You'll have the know-how to develop suitable practices to repair and then maintain the ecological functions in your agro-ecosystems. An inventory of practices and design templates is provided in the Handbook to help you.
Your production systems will be firing on all cylinders!
Extra Bonuses
1. Links to videos showing what farmers achieve
2. Inventory of tools and design templates
3. 15% off our 'GrowMap' publication
Why I am passionate about getting this Eco-logical Farming Handbook to farmers
I’ve farmed and worked with farmers for over 30 years, but I now do so with avid enthusiasm!
Getting the ecological functions on our farms working again is the most powerful tool we have to solve the 'climate and ecological emergency', give farmers a fair go, and ensure everyone's access to nourishing food.
It amazes me is that I didn't realise earlier that using ‘sustainable’ practices was not ideal. Like almost everyone else I was busy sustaining land in poor condition and in need of repair.
Everyone was doing the same thing... We believed it was impossible to grow food without regular applications of fertilisers, pest controls and other inputs.
When people look back at this time, will they say “can you believe that they mostly ignored Nature's wisdom?” Combining human ingenuity with million of years of ‘research and development’ by learning from Nature is common sense - it's 'eco-logical'!
Reduce fertiliser costs – feeding your plants with a functioning nutrient recycling system
Boost production - growing more photosynthetic panels
Drought and water-proof your farm – with a functioning water cycle
Reduce labour and pest control costs - creating functional biodiversity and other beneficial connections
Create opportunities to sustainably intensify your production
Wiro Bound Hardcover
Price: AU $78 - including delivery
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019
Digital Version
Price: AU $34
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019