20. Staying Ahead of Nature with Geoff Fosbery

In EP 20 of Bill Crabtree’s conversation with Geoff Fosbery, they explore the challenges, weaknesses and opportunities shaping modern Western Australian agriculture. Drawing on more than four decades of experience, Geoff explains why diversity is essential to building resilient farming systems and why repeatedly relying on the same crops, herbicides and management practices will eventually create problems. The conversation covers crop rotation, herbicide resistance, ryegrass competition, early sowing, soil acidity, lime and gypsum, no-till farming, regenerative agriculture and the emerging potential of lentils in Western Australia. Geoff also shares practical lessons from his career as a technical farm consultant, including why getting a crop established ahead of the weeds can sometimes be more valuable than simply increasing seeding rates. It is a wide-ranging conversation filled with practical agronomy insights, farming history and important lessons for the future of Australian agriculture.