March 2025 marked the return of the Talkin’ Soil Health symposium to the calendar for the first time since 2022. Fran Hoyle (Director) and Bridget Watkins (Regional Soil Coordinator) from the SoilsWest team at Murdoch University presented at the event hosted by Wheatbelt NRM in York.
This years’ event, themed “Capture Your Investment”, featured numerous speakers presenting across a range of subjects including soil health for business and global outcomes, current research, soil sustainability, and tools to assist in decision making processes.
The clear takeaway messages from the day centred around the recognition that, while exciting new research continues, there is significant knowledge and information available to growers to assist in their soil management decisions and the real power is in monitoring soil health trends over time.
Growers and industry representatives are encouraged to equip themselves with information and a great start point is the Soil Quality ebooks series and the Soil Quality Knowledge Base.
If you would like to know more, contact Bridget at bridget.watkins@murdoch.edu.au.
The Regional Soil Coordinator project provides opportunities for researchers, primary producers and community groups to collaborate and share knowledge related to soil health and management. This project is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust. The project is led by the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub, partnering with SoilsWest Murdoch University.
