Agricultural land covers 55% of the Australian landscape, with grazing the dominant agricultural land use. Climate change's current and predicted impacts are driving innovations within the livestock sector toward carbon-neutral and nature-positive outcomes. Regenerative agriculture in Australia has become a fast-developing movement that offers an alternative to industrial and conventional agriculture to mitigate the effects of climate change. The aims of this research are twofold; 1) to determine if Australian regenerative beef cattle production systems are more resilient than conventional systems in a changing climate and 2) to develop a set of guiding principles for regenerative agriculture in Australia.
The research has a multi-disciplinary approach utilising mixed methods, including a longitudinal case study of beef grazing systems in Northern New South Wales, Australia that incorporates the environmental, social, and economic indicators required for a resilience framework. Using these results, a set of principles for regenerative agriculture unique to Australian conditions was developed and tested to produce a guide for achieving resilience in a changing climate. This research is significant as it fills a gap in the theory and practice of Australian regenerative agriculture.
The overarching arching objective is to examine if regenerative beef cattle production systems are more resilient than conventional beef cattle production systems in a changing climate and whether comparing these production systems highlights the need for a set of guiding principles for regenerative agriculture in Australia. There were two themes within the research; the first addressed the resilience of regenerative and conventional farming systems, with the methodology including a literature review, case study, longitudinal survey, and thematic analysis. The second theme sought to establish a set of regenerative agricultural principles for Australia utilising a literature review and quantitative survey approach.
This thesis found the beliefs, orientations, and behaviours of Northern NSW beef farmers differ between regenerative and conventional cohorts, including differences in management action, forward planning, and strategy. It identified economic, environmental, and social indicators that align with the Stockholm Resilience Framework and affect a farmer's ability to remain resilient in a changing climate. Regenerative farmers rate higher against this resilience framework than conventional ’farmers in drought conditions and a changing climate, meaning regenerative farmers and their farms are more resilient in maintaining diversity and redundancy, managing connectivity, managing slow variables and feedbacks, encouraging learning and participation, and broadening participation. It concludes by finding that implementing regenerative practices will assist producers in being resilient in a changing climate.
The research proposes a set of principles for regenerative agriculture to guide future farming practices and management decision-making. These principles are:
1. Be ecologically literate, think holistically, and understand complex adaptive systems.
2. See your landscape as a community that you belong to and work with.
3. Remain curious; seek transformative experiences and continuous learning.
4. Acknowledge and consider diverse ways of working with landscapes.
5. Engage in ecological renewal and make place-based decisions through monitoring.
6. Engage with First Nations people.
7. Understand that human cultures are co-evolving with their environments.
These principles have the potential to act as a guide for future farming practices and management decision-making with the understanding that farming practices will continue to evolve, as will our knowledge and understanding of working with ecological systems. The principles can assist farmers in navigating climate change and the associated economic, environmental, and social disruption and uncertainty. In addition, this thesis supports farmers' ability to capitalise on the opportunities that are presenting themselves through regenerative agriculture practices, including ecosystem service markets, carbon sequestration, and enhancing landscape health and biodiversity.