The Dirt — Tasmanian Farming News April 2025
Welcome to the April 2025 edition of our monthly newsletter, The Dirt. Get the latest Tasmanian farming news from our community and beyond!
TEAM UPDATE
I sit here in my home office on a cold autumn morning, wondering how to introduce myself to a community that I have been strongly involved with in the past but one that I have spent some time away from in recent years.
Over the past two months, I have been orientating myself with the inner workings of Sprout, and because of that learning curve, I have kept putting off the impending introduction to our two new staff members. This is mostly due to the fact that when one is faced with having to write a bio about themselves, everything else becomes much more important – very quickly.
With the learning curve starting to flatten and my new colleague Dom sending through her bio, I decided it’s time to bump mine up the list of things to do so that we can get them into this months newsletter!
Additionally, in this months letter you’ll find information about a number of events coming up, most notably Cross Pollinate 2025! We’ve also been busy compiling the final bits of our State Abattoir Review paper, getting ready for leafy greens legislation consultation and looking for a few new faces to help populate our board and grow Sprouts capacity to help Tassie’s small producers!
I hope you find some value in the April addition of The Dirt and thank-you for reading my little ramble,
Calum Jacobsen
Administration and Communications Officer
MEET THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Dominique Bowen-Butchart
Producer Liaison Officer
Dom grew up with her hands in the soil and the wind in her hair, she spent her childhood immersed in the rhythms of boutique farming. Raised on a small property in the West Tamar, her parents planted a vineyard while she was still in the womb and later expanded into a neighbouring apple orchard. Festival season meant building cubbies under market stalls, late summer was spent freeing silvereyes from nets, and harvest left her with sticky fingers and sun-kissed cheeks.
Taking the leap across the ditch to pursue higher education, Dom extended her deep appreciation for ecology, sustainable practices, and animal welfare. After completing studies in Animal and Veterinary Bioscience and Agriculture she worked as an environmental impact consultant in Melbourne. Eventually, she returned to Tasmania to raise her children amidst a country lifestyle. In 2018, Dom and her family purchased a 25-acre farmlet in the beautiful Huon Valley, where she now balances life as a farmer, researcher, and mother. When COVID-19 altered their plans, she embarked on a PhD with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. Her research leveraging her experience in animal science, environmental consulting, and innovation while expanding her understanding of the complexities of agriculture and food systems.
Dom is a mum, running a small beef farm while undertaking a PhD – enough said. Her children are a major part of her work, as their future climate, food security, and wellbeing were the inspiration behind her decision to pursue climate-agriculture research. They have invested heavily in her PhD journey, in return, Dom has sought to involve them wherever possible – bringing them along to science and agriculture events, accompanying her on field research trips, meeting farmers, joining farm tours, and walking on sacred country with First Nations elders. Through these experiences, her children hear and see stories about working with and stewarding the land. They also witness their mum working tirelessly to grow her capacity to contribute to something greater than herself.
Dom firmly believes community connection is central to sustainable food and land systems. She also makes a point of finding joy amidst the pursuit of historically compassionate and future conscious landscape stewardship. Dom is welcomed to the Sprout team as “half an Ollie”, our new Producer Liaison Officer, responsible for guiding our Sprout Producer Program participants, and for all gasbagging about farming opportunities.
Calum Jacobsen
Admin and Communications Officer
With a mixed background of work Calum is never quite sure which hat to lead with and with family spread across WA, QLD and Tasmania he’s called many places home. His journey started in a suburban backyard in Perth, where a childhood passion for growing things led him to complete a Permaculture Design Certificate shortly after finishing high school. Raised to carve his own path, Calum’s work life has flowed between small business, hospitality and small-scale agriculture, driven by a constant desire to dive into new ideas and take on fresh challenges.
Pre-2020, Calum and his partner Samara ran Broadchurch Farm in the Southern Midlands, a small market garden and mixed livestock farm where they successfully launched their meat chicken enterprise and served up pastured beef and heritage pork to community and restaurants around the state. Broadchurch Farm earned great recognition in the local food community, winning a state medal at the Delicious Good Food Awards for their pasture-raised chicken. Through his time on farm he uncovered a wealth of knowledge as he constantly networked and searched for new information and experiences. His hands-on experience working on-farm, in an abattoir and butchers shop has significantly shaped his understanding and experiences of Tasmania’s small scale livestock farming environment. However, like many others, Calum’s farming journey was disrupted by COVID, forcing a shift away from agriculture as they faced operational challenges that led them to rethink their direction.
Next came a chapter in Brisbane, where Calum and Samara spent time alongside family and launched multiple hospitality businesses. His personal pursuit was establishing a community-focused café, where he honed his operational management skills, overseeing up to 25 team members in a rapidly growing business. It was here he really leaned into understanding the nuts and bolts of running and growing a small business while maintaining a connection to community values.
With the arrival of their son, Arlo, Calum and Samara made the decision to return to Tasmania, drawn by the slower pace of life and the support of family. Now, Calum enjoys spending more time with his young family, embracing the joys of parenting while tending to veggies and chooks in their suburban Hobart yard.
Calum’s journey may have taken him away from farming for now, but he’s eager to return to land when the time is right. For the moment, he’s keen to use his diverse skills to explore new ways to help Sprout and the small-scale producers we represent, driving innovation and building stronger connections within Tasmania’s food community.
CROSS POLLINATE 2025
Farming Through the Seasons: A Year in the Life of Small-Scale Farms
This year’s Cross Pollinate is shaping up to be one exciting, knowledge packed day! The conference will be featuring 12 different topics, each representing a month in the year, you’ll get a hands-on look at how small-scale farmers navigate the changing seasons. From tackling the heat of summer to planning through winter’s rains and embracing the renewal of spring, this event will dive deep into the real-world challenges, successes, and lessons of farming month-to-month.
While we are still working on the fine details you can expect live talks, recorded conversations, and dynamic panel discussions, speakers will share their expertise on crop planning, soil health, livestock care, climate adaptation, and local food production to name a few. Every session will be packed with practical, on-the-ground knowledge for both new and experienced farmers, as well as those passionate about sustainable food systems.
And it’s not just about learning—there will be plenty of time to mingle, connect, and exchange ideas with fellow farmers, industry experts, and local food champions.
Come be part of the conversation – make sure you SAVE THE DATE!
📍 Moonah Arts Centre
📅 June 22 2025
🎟 Ticket release – May 2025
SPP Field Days 2025
Well, our 2025 Sprout Producer Program field day weekends had a fine start. Over the last weekend, we visited some of our Northern farms.
First cabs off the rank were Luke and Lisa, at Nurture and Nourish Farm in Branxholm. We explored their inherited and improved gardens, at the centre of which was a massive kiwi vine. We learned of their rich red ferrosol soils, the joys of high rainfall, the challenges of water accumulation, and making worm farms in wood chip piles. Luke and Lisa’s food forest plans are well underway.
We then hightailed it to Lebrina and Woodsong Farm, to see Jess’ microgreen and edible flower production. After a bite to eat under a beautiful shade tree, we explored Jess’ innovative, container housed micro-greens set-up and chatted about optimum airflows. We could have spent a week exploring Jess’ farm, as everywhere we turned there was a beautiful nook, garden or plantation to examine and Jess’ knowledge of permaculture and homesteading is abundant.
Last visit of the day was to Lalla Valley Farm to visit 2024 participants’ Rowan and Lauren. Now, what do you get when you combine an engineering mind with small scale farming? You get ingenious adaptation and curious invention, that’s what. When Rowan has a problem to solve, he has the knowledge and tenacity to build or retrofit a solution. We are talking portable paddock irrigation systems, foliar sprayers using IBC’s, and combing furrow ploughs with direct seeding. If I could download and install Rowan’s brain, I would.
Brains exploding, it was time for beer and pizza.
On Sunday, with the autumn chill making herself known, we reconvened at Harry’s La Luna Farm. An organically grown, off grid and super tidy market garden in Bridgenorth. Harry’s approach to integrated pest management, means edibles are interspaced with insect attracting flowers and herbs. Again, there was so much to see and learn from Harry, so we made the decision on the spot to spend more time after lunch revisiting points of interest, like solar powered irrigation set-ups, planting sequences and all the tools (literally) of the market garden trade. We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Abbey and her abundant seed saving and tenacious business knowledge, as Tassie Seeds is just up the road from Harry’s farm.
What a great start to our farm tour series. In May we will be in the Huon Valley and have some treats in store for our participants. I look forward to sharing that wrap with you in the June newsletter.
With gratitude, Dom
Tasmanian Livestock Service-Kill Processing Report
This has been in the pipeline for months now and we are very proud to be on the cusp of releasing our report into the Tasmanian Livestock Service-Kill sector.
With the dire situation of processing in the state it’s vital that we all help shed a light on the fragility of the system that many of our livelihoods and communities depend on. With the recent closure of Cradoc Hill and packed bookings in the Derwent Valley our producers in the South are unable to access adequate processing services forcing many to de-stock and cease production. This is putting increased pressure on fragile systems state wide.
Our full report into the current state of play is set to be published later this month. This in-depth study attempts to cover all touch points to service-kill processing in the state and draws on systems around the country that could hold the keys to a more sustainable processing option for our Tasmanian farmers.
We hope our report is a step closer to a secure processing solution – Stay tuned for its release later this month.
Leafy Greens Consultation
As the 🥬 FSANZ Leafy Greens Standards have been finalised, the state government has been putting together the draft legislation to enforce these standards. This standards came into effect from early February, but Tasmanian legislation had not been developed at this stage. We know from Minister Jane Howlett (as of our meeting with her on Monday 31/3) that the Department of NRE have been given the go ahead to undertake community consultation.
We will be in contact with NRE early next week to follow up on the release of the Draft Legislation and their plans for community consultation. Once we’ve been able to get our teeth into the nitty-gritty, we will look to schedule an online consultation session to aggregate your feedback on the legislation.
We will share more details when they are available, so please keep your eyes peeled 👀!
AGFEST 2025
For the second year running, we are super excited to be part of the AGFEST field days 2025! 🎉
Join us at Agfest where we’ll be alongside Eat Well Tasmania, School food matters and Loaves and Fishes talking about getting local food to Tasmanians! 🌱
We’ll be sharing insights on what we do and how we support the small scale farming sector, chats about local food systems, and how we’re all working towards a resilient agricultural future for Tasmania. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with producers and build relationships with various stakeholders and government too. Given that this year, a Federal Election will be imminent, Agfest will no doubt be peppered with Politicians both State and Federal, and we will use this opportunity to shine a light on what needs to be done.
As a punter, it’s a great opportunity for you to connect with like-minded farmers, producers, and food enthusiasts who share your (and our) passion for local and sustainable food systems. 💚
📍 Find us at 804 on Eighth Avenue
📅 May 1-3, 2025
🎟 Tickets on sale now – grab yours today!
Can’t wait for the chance to talk all things food, farming, and sustainability with the masses! 🙌
Join Our Board – Help shape the future of small-scale farming!
Are you passionate about supporting small-scale farmers? We are looking for two dedicated individuals to join our volunteer board and help drive real change in the Tasmanian agricultural sector.
We would love to connect with people who have experience in the following areas:
- Fundraising & Development – experience in fundraising, philanthropy, or partnerships.
- Policy & Legislation – experience in policy development, legislative frameworks, or advocacy
Be a part of our team, and help:
🌱 Make an Impact – Help farmers thrive and contribute to a more resilient food system.
🌱 Strengthen Communities – Support local growers and increase access to fresh, healthy food.
🌱 Expand Your Expertise – Gain hands-on experience in non-profit governance and leadership.
⏳ Commitment: ~10 hours per month, including online board meetings, annual AGM and planning sessions and adhoc project work.
📩 Interested? Let’s chat! Email info@sprout.org.au, or send your CV & cover letter—we’d LOVE to hear from you!
GROUNDED Australia
GROUNDED Australia is thrilled to share that this years, festival will be held in Western Australia with the help of Regen-WA and Galloway Springs! It’s promised to be two unforgettable days of farming, food, connection & community. For continued update on their program make sure you follow them on social media or sign up for their newsletter!
📍Western Australia’s South West
📅 September 19-20 2025
🎟 Tickets on sale in May
Hobby Farm and Small Livestock Producers Survey
Jab Agri Solutions has reached out in need of community support. They are currently running a survey assessing small farmers understanding of industry requirements with the aim of better tailoring educational opportunities for the sector. If you have 10 minutes please follow the link below and help shape the future of small farm education.
A message from Jab Agri Solutions:
Please help us support the future of hobby farmers and small livestock producers in Australia.This survey has been designed and developed in collaboration with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Integrity Systems Company (ISC). It aims to assess how well hobby farmers and small producers understand industry requirements and where we can provide better education and support.
By sharing your experiences, you’re helping us shape programs and resources to close the knowledge gap and make compliance to industry requirements easier for everyone. It only takes a few minutes to complete, and by completing the survey, you’ll go into the draw to win one of ten $100 gift vouchers. The survey closes on 22/04/2025 and can be found here:
Brand Tasmania – Storytelling Workshops
From March to June, Brand Tasmania is hosting a series of workshops designed to help you tell your uniquely Tasmanian story. These workshops will be held across the state—in Hobart, Launceston, St Helens, and Devonport—to ensure easy access for everyone.
Each three-hour workshop will focus on one of the following topics:
- The Art of Brand Storytelling
- Using Your Brand Story for Sales Success
- Phone Photography for Service and Tourism Businesses
- Phone Photography for Product-Based Businesses
Find out more below:
Brand Tasmania Workshops
Liver Flukes Research Request – University of Melbourne
Calling All Livestock Farmers!
We’ve received a request from Athar, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, who is currently developing comprehensive guidelines on liver flukes in livestock. They’ve asked us to share their survey with our small producer network!
The survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and will contribute to a greater understanding of liver flukes in Australia. The goal is to significantly reduce production losses caused by this parasite.
Your participation would be greatly appreciated!
Bird Flu Preparedness
We are incredibly lucky here in Tasmania. While large parts of the world have been grappling with the H5 Avian Influenza outbreak since 2021, we have remained largely unimpacted. However, that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down!
The Department of NRE has developed the Tasmanian Avian Influenza Readiness and Response Plan, outlining how the department will respond to an outbreak and providing guidance on how you can prepare.
While we cannot prevent infectious wild birds from migrating to Tasmania, we are still at risk. That’s why it’s imperative to notify the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline at 1800 675 888 if you notice any sudden or large numbers (more than 5) of sick or dead birds or other animals.
Stay vigilant and prepared!
That’s it for our Tasmanian Farming News this month. As ever, do get in touch if you have any questions or issues. We’re always here to help.
Thanks as always,
The Sprout Team.