From Slovenia to Australia: Different Conditions, a Common Goal: More Resilient Soils

Australian farmers during their visit to Novak Farm on the Kranj–Sora Plain.

At the invitation of KGZS – Kranj Institute, the Slovenian Association for Conservation Agriculture joined a visit by a group of Australian farmers to the Kranj–Sora Plain. The meeting provided an interesting opportunity to compare Slovenian and Australian experience in soil management, water management and the adaptation of farming systems to increasingly challenging weather conditions.

On Wednesday, 2 September, a group of Australian farmers visited the Kranj–Sora Plain, mainly grain growers and beef cattle and sheep producers. The group was led by Lloyd O’Connell, editor of the Australian agricultural magazine Australian Grain and Director of Greenmount Travel, which organises specialist agricultural tours for Australian farmers to different parts of the world.

The visit was organised by KGZS – Kranj Institute, and the group visited, among other locations, the Novak and Zupan farms in the Prebačevo area. At the invitation of Robert Golc, Head of the Agricultural Advisory Department at KGZS – Kranj Institute, the Slovenian Association for Conservation Agriculture (SACA) also joined the visit.

During the visit to Novak Farm: Lloyd O’Connell, Robert Golc (KGZS Kranj) and representatives of the farm in discussion with the Australian guests.

The invitation was particularly welcome given the professional background of the Australian guests. Several of the farmers had many years of experience with minimum and zero tillage, and the visit quickly developed into a substantive discussion on soil and water management, machinery and the resilience of agricultural production.

Conservation agriculture: change does not happen overnight

The activities of SACA were briefly presented to the guests by Secretary General Aljaž Novak. The Association brings together around one hundred active members, most of them farmers, as well as researchers and agricultural advisers from different parts of Slovenia.

The presentation focused on the three core principles of conservation agriculture: minimum mechanical soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and diverse crop rotations or crop diversification.

Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that changes in soil do not happen overnight. The transition takes time, but after several years it is possible to monitor and measure changes in soil structure, soil aggregate stability and biological activity, as well as reductions in soil erosion. Less intensive tillage also means fewer machinery passes and potentially lower fuel consumption, while covered and better-structured soils can cope more effectively with both periods of water shortage and intense rainfall events.

Water was one of the central themes shared by both sides. Slovenia is extremely diverse in terms of precipitation: over the 1991–2020 reference period, the lowest long-term average annual precipitation was around 718 mm in Goričko, while at Vogel it reached approximately 3,535 mm per year. Despite the high amount of rainfall received in many parts of the country, its distribution throughout the year is not always favourable for agricultural production. As a result, Slovenia can experience both drought and intense rainfall or flooding within the same year. (Arso)

A brief introduction to the TRAILS4SOIL project

As part of the presentation of SACA’s activities, we also briefly introduced the Australian guests to the European TRAILS4SOIL project, in which our Association is a partner.

The project brings together farmers, researchers and other stakeholders in nine European countries – from Portugal and Spain to Moldova, Romania and Ukraine – and covers a wide range of soil types, climatic conditions and farming systems. TRAILS4SOIL operates through five Living Labs and a network of 100 experimental sites, where the effects of different regenerative and conservation agriculture practices on soil health are being monitored.

We presented the project to the guests as an example of broader European cooperation on soil health and invited them to visit the project website for further information.

Such international comparison is important because there is no single recipe for improving soil health. Practices must be adapted to local conditions, while measurements and long-term monitoring are needed to determine how soils and farming systems respond to individual changes.

At Novak Farm, the guests were also introduced to the farm’s own dairy products and treated to refreshments during the visit.

Australia: decades of experience in reducing tillage

The discussion with the Australian farmers demonstrated just how valuable experience from very different production environments can be.

For many of them, minimum or zero tillage is not a new practice, but the result of several decades of development in farming systems. One of the guests described an approximately 30-year transition from intensive ploughing and repeated cultivation towards minimum and zero tillage, highlighting more efficient use of available rainfall and positive production results associated with this change in farming practice.

During the subsequent discussion, the Australian participants explained that minimum tillage is now very widely adopted in Western Australia, while complete zero tillage represents a smaller proportion of farming systems.

The discussion quickly moved from general principles to very practical issues: fuel consumption, the number of machinery passes, water availability, drought, soil compaction, herbicide-resistant weeds and technology choices. It became clear that, despite operating under very different conditions, Slovenian and Australian farmers face many remarkably similar questions.

From a few hectares to several thousand

One of the most obvious differences between the two countries is the scale of farming. Slovenian farms are generally much smaller and are often made up of numerous spatially separated parcels of land, whereas Australian producers, because of very different natural and economic conditions, farm areas that are difficult to imagine from a Slovenian perspective.

One of the guests described his approximately 3,100-hectare farm as being among the smaller farms in their conditions. At the same time, he stressed that when visiting European farms, Australian farmers admire and respect what farmers are able to achieve on much smaller areas – the scale and operating conditions are simply completely different.

The differences in water availability are equally striking. Some participants from Western Australia reported receiving approximately 400 mm of rainfall per year, predominantly during the winter months. Summer rainfall is considerably less reliable, making the efficient use of available soil water one of the key elements of their production strategy.

The comparison is particularly interesting because some parts of Slovenia receive more than 3,000 mm of rainfall per year, while certain Australian production areas operate with approximately 400 mm. Nevertheless, one key question is the same in both environments: how can rainfall be infiltrated into the soil as effectively as possible, surface runoff reduced, and water retained in the soil until crops need it?

Different conditions, similar questions

The visit demonstrated that farm size, climate, soils, water availability and production technology can differ considerably between Slovenia and Australia, while the fundamental questions remain surprisingly similar.

How can unnecessary soil disturbance be reduced?

How can rainfall be used more efficiently? How can good soil structure and soil functionality be maintained? How can costs be reduced without compromising yields? And, above all, how can a farming system be developed that is agronomically, environmentally and economically sustainable in the long term?

Representatives of Novak Farm, KGZS – Kranj Institute and the Australian group at the conclusion of the visit.

For SACA, taking part in the visit was above all a valuable opportunity to exchange experience directly with Australian farmers, for whom reducing the intensity of soil tillage has a long-established tradition. Such meetings confirm that conservation agriculture is not a single prescription, but rather a process of adapting practices to individual soils, climates, farms and production systems.

Conditions at opposite ends of the world may be very different, but the common question remains the same: how can we build functional, resilient and productive soils that absorb and retain water more effectively while supporting stable and economically viable agricultural production?

We would like to thank Robert Golc and KGZS – Kranj Institute for the invitation and for the opportunity to take part in such an interesting and valuable international exchange of experience.

Editorial preparation:

Aljaž Novak, Slovenian Association for Conservation Agriculture (SACA).

Photographs:

Aljaž Novak, Slovenian Association for Conservation Agriculture (SACA).