What is Regenerative Farming?
Rotational Grazing & Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing
We move our animals daily to fresh pasture, ensuring they benefit from the highest protein grasses available while allowing grasses to recover and regrow stronger.
We use the pasture 'Rule of 3' ~ to graze a third, trample a third and leave a third for rapid regrowth. This improves soil structure, increases carbon sequestration, and enhances pasture diversity.
Chickens follow behind our Angus cattle and Wiltipoll lambs, breaking down manure and any residing pest populations.
Building Healthy Soil & Carbon Sequestration
Healthy soil is the foundation of everything we do. By avoiding overgrazing and promoting deep-rooted perennial grasses and clover, we store more carbon in the soil, fix nitrogen naturally and increase organic matter, which helps retain soil moisture.
One of our most important allies in healthy soil is the dung beetle. Dung beetles bury manure deep into the soil, breaking it down into organic matter that feeds microbes, improves soil aeration and boosts carbon. They also reduce parasites, control flies and enhance pasture growth.
By fostering a thriving dung beetle population, we're not just managing waste naturally ~ we're enhancing soil fertility, improving pasture productivity, and actively contributing to carbon sequestration.
Diverse Pasture & No Synthetic Fertilisers
Our animals graze on a diverse mix of native and perennial grasses and clovers, ensuring a nutrient-rich, balanced diet.
Our pasture includes native grasses, Kikuyu, Cocksfoot, Winter Fescue, Summer Fescue, Perennial Ryegrass, White Clover, Arrowleaf Clover and Sub Clover. We don't use synthetic fertilisers and instead rely on natural manure cycling, natural minerals, worm teas, fish emulsion and organic matter to boost soil fertility.
Water Management
Water is one of our most precious resources, and at Clavering Hill, we've designed our farm to capture, store, and use it wisely.
Our spring-fed dam, which marks the beginning of the Wingecarribee River, is part of an underground chain of ponds, ensuring a steady, natural water supply. To make the most of Robertson's considerable rainfall, all our farm buildings are equipped with infrastructure that channels rainwater directly into the dam, maximising water collection.
Our land has been carefully shaped to slow water movement. By designing contours that reduce the velocity of runoff, we prevent soil erosion and give heavy rainfall time to soak deep into the ground instead of rushing away. This approach builds soil moisture, supports plant growth, and enhances resilience during dry periods ~ all while protecting our waterways.
Encouraging Biodiversity
Nature thrives when plants, animals, fungi, and insects work together so we take an active role in encouraging biodiversity across our land.
Our farm is home to Autumn Saffron Milkcap and Slippery Jack pine mushrooms, which flourish under the canopy of our century-old Radiata Pines, adding to the richness of our ecosystem.
We keep bee hives to support natural pollination, ensuring healthy pastures, strong flowering plants, and the production of pure farm honey.
We farm a 'flerd' of Angus cattle and Wiltipoll lambs as well as a brood of Australorp and Isa Brown chickens. Nature has gifted us a large flock of native Wood Ducks, Plovers, Ibis and Egrets, and the occasional off-course Pelican, each playing a role in land regeneration.
Natural Ecosystems
We maintain and plant trees, protect remnant rainforest and actively retain and care for our water sources to support birds, pollinators, beneficial insects and the aquatic life and organisms.
Clavering Hill sits at an elevation of 763m above sea level and is protected from the North, South and East by elevated hills of up to 810m. At the highest point of Clavering Hill, a patch of remnant rainforest sits quietly, but it's role in our farming ecosystem is anything but passive.
This ancient, biodiverse pocket of native vegetation plays a vital role in the health of our land and the success of our regenerative farming system through water regulation, providing a biodiversity haven, creating a windbreak and climate buffer and most importantly, storing carbon and contributing to overall soil health.
Protecting this remnant rainforest is not just a matter of conservation ~ it's a critical part of our farm's resilience, productivity, and long-term vision for regenerative agriculture.