Bryant Ussher is using his family's property in the picturesque Noosa hinterland to demonstrate how farmers can tread lightly on the land, growing grass-fed cattle and gourmet mushrooms.
When he and his wife, Susie, began running Eastwell Farms full time in 2018, they embraced regenerative agriculture and started work on transforming their family's 162-hectare property at Kin Kin.
Hard-hoofed bovines have been much maligned for causing erosion in Australia, but Mr Ussher said they had reduced run-off, slashed chemical use, and increased organic matter in the soil by rotating one mob of cattle through 27 paddocks.
"We use the animals as the engine to fix up and help the environment. It's transforming really, really quickly. We're very pleased," Mr Ussher said.
"You get more plant action through having an animal graze it and then you move it on so that you get recovery. The management system's most powerful part is the recovery.
"They're a microbial factory walking around so they're putting manure and urine on the ground and that activates the biology in the soils and the plants without me having to be chasing around trying to change something with a tractor or [synthetic] fertiliser."
Chemical-free farming
The couple struggled to find animals that could cope with the moist, highly parasitic countryside until they settled on breeding Nguni cattle, which have been used by tribes in southern Africa for thousands of years.
They found the smaller Nguni were tick resistant, good on the hills, and thrived on the lush but protein-poor coastal pasture.
Mr Ussher said weeds were a sign of nature trying to repair itself with succession plants that had deeper roots, and the number of cotton bushes and milk thistles on his land was reducing, naturally.
"Once you get more health into your soil biology you grow stronger plants that tend to outgrow the less desirable ones," he said.
"We've only been doing it [timed grazing] since the middle of 2019 and already, by measuring just simple soil tests, we've increased soil organic matter by 1 per cent, which is a big change."
Their impressive set-up keeps cattle off the creek, using large round drinking troughs, gravity-fed from the hills.
Each trough services multiple paddocks and the cattle are willingly moved, almost every afternoon, to fresh pasture, in blocks fenced with a mix of electric tape and wire.
The Usshers are active members of Slow Food Noosa and Mr Ussher also took over the position of president of Country Noosa this year.
Their farm is a real-life example of the organisations' values by promoting sustainable agriculture, horticulture, and other rural enterprises in the Noosa Hinterland through field days, workshops, and social events.
Chef James Wu, from Embassy XO on the Sunshine Beach, showcases Eastwell Farm's grass-fed beef in a range of dishes including their signature dumplings.
"I just love the paddock-to-plate experience that I deliver to my diners. We get to showcase all the different cuts of the cow that your average customer may not get the opportunity to taste," Mr Wu said.
"Everyone's really used to the sirloin, the eye fillets, and rump but I get to use the flank, the shins, topside. What I get delivered is unique."
As well as selling meat and mushrooms direct to chefs and the public at the Noosa Farmers market, the Usshers home-deliver boxes of grass-fed beef and a range of sausages, patties and minces, many incorporating their fancy fungi, to the Sunshine Coast.
Susie Ussher and her son Alex Thompson-Welch grow pink, white, yellow and shimeji blue oyster mushrooms and lion's mane mushrooms on a mix of wood and soil substrate in converted shipping containers.
"I really wanted to find an alternative for the people who don't eat beef, and mushrooms just fascinate me. They're exciting and delicious," Ms Ussher said.
"And everything [the spent substrate] goes back onto the paddock, the compost goes onto the paddocks. Everything's cyclic and that's really important to us."
Mr Thompson-Welch, a resident mushroom expert, has begun culturing their own mushroom spore in his specially designed lab.
He has also created a series of kits for people who want to grow their own mushrooms at home.
"People love them because it's so easy, everything's done for you in the box, you just take it home and open the window and voila, you're away."
