A Field Trip to Niels Olsen’s Farm

niels olsen farm in hallora
Enthusiasts inspecting the work of the Soilkee Renovator at Niels Olsen’s Farm in Hallora, Victoria

I took Allan Yeomans to visit Niels’ farm, about 1.5 hours south east of Melbourne. Niels raises cattle and grows many different species creating a “salad bowl” of living plants for his cows – including peas, oats, rye corn, chicory, plaintain, tillage radish, vetch, and clover.

mix of plant species
Mixed salad bowl of plant species for the cows to eat.

Like Allan Yeomans, Niels is an inventor. In the picture you can see his machine, the “Soilkee Renovator” which aerates the land, buries organic matter and drills seeds directly into the soil. Matthew Warnken of AgriProve is working with Niels to submit an application for soil carbon credits – enabling Niels to be paid for a significant increase in the carbon content of his soil. I still don’t understand how the economics of this works – but I’m hoping to learn more about it during the course of the project.

Niels’ farm is the destination for our public soil sampling field trip from MUMA on 9 March. Book on the MUMA website, as places are limited.

While we were on the farm, Niels’ family gathered a soil sample for us. We’ll be testing it live on Wednesday 13 February 2019 between 10am-3pm at Monash University Museum of Art, using the Yeomans Carbon Still.

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