Family proves profitable farming and healthy ecosystems can go hand in hand (2025)

A chorus of frogs on his chemical-free farm is music to Stuart Andrews' ears.

"That sound, that's the sound of a healthy farm," Mr Andrews said.

"The two things you lose out of a landscape first are the frogs and the bees."

In July, UNESCO warned 90 per cent of the world's land surface could be degraded by 2050, threatening biodiversity and human life.

But at Kybong, south of Gympie, south-east Queensland, the Andrews family is showing how farming can be profitable while regenerating soil and increasing biodiversity.

Their property, Forage Farms, borders the Mary River, home to critically endangered bum-breathing turtles, cod and prehistoric lungfish.

Farming beside endangered species

In 2016, when the family applied to start a pasture-raised egg, meat chicken, pig and beef farm, some worried their animals would cause harm.

"We had a lot of people that were scared that we were going to do damage," Mr Andrews said.

"I hope that they look upon us now and go, well actually we were wrong, we misjudged it."

At Forage Farms, Stuart Andrews, his wife Megan and sons Hamish and Lachlan showcase regenerative farming techniques.

Animals are regularly moved to fresh pasture to allow the land time to rest and recover.

"If you cannot make a profit then there's no way I would be suggesting to anybody that they farm the way we farm."

They have replicated natural wetlands by carving level contours around the base of their main production areas where chickens and pigs are rotated through higher paddocks.

The contours are designed to slow water to stop erosion and capture nutrient-rich runoff, allowing it to sink into the soil.

"So it can't carry away what we call your environmental capital, your fertility, your organic matter, worst case scenario your soil," Mr Andrews said.

"None of that happens. It withstands all of that."

Regenerative farming in the blood

Stuart is the son of Peter Andrews, an Order of Australia Medal recipient who challenged convention.

He founded the Natural Sequence Farming movement at Tarwyn Park in New South Wales' Upper Hunter Valley.

The subject of a series of Australian Story episodes, Peter Andrews's techniques transformed the family's eroded and salinity-plagued property by slowing water flows and building biodiversity.

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Central to his methods was stopping livestock accessing waterways, which he argued caused vegetation loss and sped up water flow, gouging streams and lowering the water table.

"They just thought he was a lunatic, pretty much," Mr Andrews said of his father's critics.

"But people from further afield, they could see it. They'd visit Tarwyn Park and just be blown away."

To the Andrews family, every plant is valued and there is no such thing as a weed.

The degraded land became lush, a stark contrast to parched neighbouring properties.

But Mr Andrews said his father lost the farm to the banks after "losing sight" of the core thoroughbred business that paid the bills.

From hard lessons to new beginnings

Mr and Mrs Andrews bought Tarwyn Park but eventually made the difficult decision to sell to a mining company.

They took their Natural Sequence Farming techniques to Queensland, building fertility at their new farm.

In December 2023, after the Gympie region's driest October on record, they pumped water into their contours for the first time, rather than irrigate traditionally.

Hamish Andrews said moving water through the root zones of the plants was far more effective than irrigation that lost water to evaporation.

"You see the neighbours, other people pumping 24/7 and we don't have to do that," he said.

The pigs, chicken and cattle enrich the soil rather than artificial fertilisers that could run into the Mary River and on to the Great Barrier Reef.

"Too much effort is spent focusing on the bottom of our landscape — our rivers, our creeks, the ocean," Stuart Andrews said.

"That's too late. We need to be focusing on the broader part of the landscape, which prevents the damage done in the creeks and the rivers and makes people, farmers more productive."

Eggs are the main enterprise, employing 11 people on the farm and profits are reinvested in improvements.

Their cattle are mixed breed, part Angus but predominantly Nguni and Boran — smaller, hardy tick and buffalo-resistant African breeds that tolerate heat and poorer coastal pastures.

The family runs Tarwyn Park Training, a complementary business with Peter Andrews, teaching Natural Sequence Farming, including contour design.

Since moving to Kybong they've endured droughts, floods and violent storms.

Their pasture-raised meat chicken business ended abruptly when the local poultry abattoir shut.

Despite the challenges, the family is focused on farming for the future.

"It's very fulfilling to know that you're producing a good quality product and that people appreciate it, at the same time as looking after our property and our landscape," Hamish Andrews said.

"And we get to work together as a family, which is great. I really love that," Ms Andrews said.

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