VicNoTill president Michael Gooden describes stepping intothe paddocks of broadacre cropping farmer Brendan 'Patto' Pattison at Marrar NSW, as like stepping 10-15 years into the future and seeing what broadacre cropping systems have the potential to become.

Michael sits in the tractor, ute and walks through Patto's paddocks for this Farmers Helping Farmers episode that brings real farm life to your ears, learning more about cropping and soil health in just over an hour than what he could in a decade.

"Whenever I visit Patto on farm, am blown away bywhat he’s doing and how far he’s taken it,” Michael says. “He is a quiet achiever and a true innovator. He is deeply knowledgeable about systems farming and where he wants to take his. In his own quiet way he has contributed a lot, not only to VicNoTill, but to Australian agriculture as a whole.”

Brendan has a long history with innovation, being the first in their district in the NSW Riverina to use a disc seeder in 2007 as a way to gain more groundcover.

He started minimum till 10 years prior to this, and gradually phased out sheep to go 100% cropping. He took a 'whole of system' approach to introducing the disc and has maintained that focus ever since.

It has taken time for their system to click into placeand he says it has been a ‘pretty slow’ journey for the dual benefit of improving soil quality without compromising profitability.

After joining the board, Patto made big steps forward in his system by dropping synthetics out and putting more focus on biology. He says being involved with VicNoTill continually inspires him to further tweak his system and trial new things.

• Patto was a VicNoTill board member from 2018-2024. An indepth look at his farming system features in Issue 74 of VicNoTill's member magazine From the Ground Up. His presentation at the VicNoTill Carbon Power conference is available to watch on VicNoTill's You Tube channel.