Pre-conference Tour One: Fully Booked Friday, 6 November 2015,  8.30 AM to 4.00 PM 
Taste of the NSW Northern Rivers - Departs from Southern Cross University
Sub-tropical Horticulture - Avocados, Australian Bush Foods, Custard Apples, Coffee, Pecans and Macadamias
Full Day Tour - $95.00 + GST (total $104.50)  includes bus, morning tea and lunch

Tour One will take you to visit subtropical orchards and plantations where you will learn how farmers in these industries manage farms for biological and organic production. 

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 Stop One:  Miloudamat Organic Farm produces avocados and custard apples as well Australian native bees. SoilCare members, Mike and Louise Hogan, purchased this 4 Ha property with degraded soil in 1998 to establish an organic avocado farm.  
Mike's first goal was to establish 100% ground cover with diverse ground cover species including of Haifa Clover, Red Clover, Maku Lotus and Kikuyu shortly followed by Pinto Peanut and Sweet Smothergrass.  More recently Mike has added strategic planting of sorghum and buckwheat as cover crops as well as a Good Bug mix of flowering herbs and annuals exclusively for beneficial insect habitat.  Great attention is given to habitat management for beneficial insects and soil biology.  Mike incorporates earthworm bed leachates and native bees into the management of the farm. 
The Hogans have actively managed to increase soil organic matter which now measures 14%.  They have fine tuned their system with biological and organic farming practices. 
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Stop Two –  Zentveld’s Coffee Plantation and Roastery - From Crop to Cup
Zentveld’s, founded by SoilCare members John and Rebecca Zentveld, is a family coffee plantation at Newrybar in the hills behind Byron Bay.  Since 1993 they have been produced fine, complex Australian coffee blends for cafes, restaurants and retailers. 
The cool micro climate of the NSW North Coast induces a slower ripening season, developing beans with characteristic sweetness and naturally low caffeine. 

The Zentveld Roastery processes distinctively smooth beans and with complexities in processing, roast profiling and blending they craft coffees for all tastes and brewing methods.  The coffee is vacuum packed, within 24 hours of roasting, into customised bags with a one-way degassing valve for maximum freshness and shelf life.  Zentveld’s award winning roasts and blends are sourced from their own plantation as well as other local plantations producing high quality arabica beans.

With environmental sustainability in mind, one-fifth of the plantation is dedicated to local rainforest species, creating a wildlife corridor and creek line regeneration.

In recent years the Zentvelds have turned their attention to regenerative soil management.  With guidance from farm manager and founder of Holistic Management Farm Services, Guiseppe (Bep) Pera, John and Rebecca are extending and developing new biological farming practices on the plantation to promote soil and plant health.  
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Stop Three:  ‘Thebian' Macadamia and Native Bush Foods Orchard
Rainforest remnants have been connected to create a picturesque rural scene within this macadamia and bush foods orchard. The philosophy of the owners of Thebian Farms, Ian and Beth Hotson, is to manage the farm, observing biological farming principles, to achieve good productivity in a sustainable way.

Recognising that a healthy soil is the key to maintaining a healthy and productive orchard, they have improved soil health by changing  farm management practices:

•   Stopping the use of damaging chemicals and encouraging a return of macro and micro biology to the soil
•   Adding organic matter to the soil using compost, manures, groundcovers and mulch
•   Assisting establishment of groundcovers by appropriate canopy management
•   Using regular physical, chemical and biological soil analyses to balance mineral levels for optimum soil health
•   Using biological principles for control of plant pests and pathogens wherever possible

 Beth and Ian Hotson's son, Anthony, value-adds to the family farm produce with his product label, Rainforest Foods.  Rainforest Foods produces jams, jellies and sauces, from several species of native rainforest trees including of course the Macadamia. As a pioneer in the native food industry, Rainforest Foods is committed to sharing the culinary potential of our rainforest plants and supporting the regeneration of our beautiful Australian rainforests.
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Stop Four:  Wilson River Pecans, Geoff and Debbie Bugden
Wilson River Pecans is a pecan nut farm, with approx 5000 trees owned and operated by SoilCare members, Geoff and Debbie Budgen.  The goal they have set for their riverfront farm is to obtain optimum soil pH, biology and a healthy mineralised soil.  They are doing this by employing biological farming practices and, as they say, 'working with nature'.
Geoff is specially interested in ground covers and cover crops for soil health. Geoff takes a yearly soil sample and monthly leaf samples and tries to achieve balance with both soil and leaf minerals. Geoff makes his own compost using woodchip from the farm along with woodchip trucked in from local arborists. Geoff and Debbie also purchase pecan nuts from most of the local pecan nut farms, clean them, dry them, bag them and export them to China along with local sales. Geoff will explain that his passion is learning more and more about the biology within his soil, on the root system of the trees and ground covers and how this biology makes it way into the tree, leaf and pecan nut.  

Pre-conference Tour Two: Fully Booked Friday, 6 November 2015,  9.00 AM to 4.00 PM
SOFT AGRICULTURE - Organic Grazing, Cropping, Compost and Biochar Production 
Full Day Tour $65.00 + GST (total $71.50) includes bus, morning tea and lunch

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Tour Two will travel to Mallanganee to visit MARA SEEDS and SOFT AGRICULTURE to view the areas where organic products are grown and processed. The tour will pass through the organic croplands and stock grazing areas located between the Richmond Range and the New England plateau. 
Morning tea will then be served at the SOFT AGRICULTURE factory and afterwards a brief presentation will be displayed on the history, developments and plans for the future of SOFT AGRICULTURE.  After this presentation a short tour of the processing factory is planned where visitors can view the composting facility, organic seed processing area, stock-feed processing plant and fertiliser blending and pelleting plant.   
  
Mara Seeds and SOFT Agriculture Pty Ltd is a family owned business which has been growing and developing since 1967. Located 50 kilometres west of Casino in north-east NSW, Mara Seeds is involved in the production, processing and marketing of a range of organic products from oilseeds to grass seeds which are value added for specific markets.  Initially a processing facility was built to handle soybeans. Mara Seeds was a pioneer soybean grower in northern NSW, being the second farming operation to ever grow soybean on the Far North Coast.

In addition to our strong soy industry links the business has developed a strong position for temperate and sub-tropical grass seeds and cereal crops in domestic and export markets, based on innovative niche quality-led strategies.
It was in the mid 1990’s that management identified the diminishing returns on artificial fertiliser and chemical systems and increased costs, both financially and health related.
In 1996 management changed its approach to an organic farming system to allow for the development of niche specialised products and also to cater for the growing organic culinary soybean and beef markets in Australia, with the view to expand overseas as the market developed. Mara Seeds Pty Ltd gained certification with the Biological Farmers Association (BFA) and to date have a company that deals in products free from harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and artificial fertilisers.

In 1997 the company saw an opportunity to develop a composting facility to produce organic compost and biological tea products for use on-site as well as for commercial sales. The compost and biological tea to date has yielded tremendous results in several vegetable and cropping programs. More recently, raw minerals, soil ameliorates, biochar and other materials have been incorporated into the composting program which has produced a bio activated compost / mineral blend through the phosphor-composting process. This process is commonly used in many countries and aims to activate the minerals through digestion by biological organisms to increase the nutrient availability for plants and soil organisms.
Mara Seeds continues to build and develop organic products for domestic and export markets with the view of promoting the Australian Organic Industry.