Rain ready rangelands: Staggering potential on a vast scale

Soils For Life

The United Nations General Assembly recently voted 2026 as the International Year of the Rangelands and Pastoralists. An incredible 81 percent of Australia is considered rangelands, and despite the sometimes challenging conditions, the opportunities for landscape repair through agriculture are immense. In this episode, we hear from three farmers who all grew up in the semi-arid rangelands with a deep connection to the environment and a desire to heal the land. Jody Brown is a fourth generation farmer from Longreach in central west Queensland. The family farm Latrobe station is certified organic running cattle, goats, and a couple of horses on around 45,000 acres. Alejandro Carillo owns Las Damas ranch in Chihuahua Mexico, and has become well known around the world for using livestock to restore soils and landscapes in semi-arid environments. And Glenn Landsberg owns a small farm in Southwest Queensland, and works as a natural resource management consultant with a focus on landscape rehydration. Thank you to all of our guests for sharing their stories and wisdom. You can follow Jody Brown on linkedin.com/in/jody-brown-93648932/ and find out more about Latrobe Station on facebook.com/people/Latrobe-Station/100063555377640/ Alejandro Carillo can be found online on instagram.com/lasdamascattleranch/ and linkedin.com/in/alejandro-carrillo-b3a7a7/ and you can read more about Las Damas ranch desertgrasslands.com Glenn Landsberg can be found on linkedin.com/in/glenn-landsberg-758a02198/ Soils for Life CEO Eli Court recently attended the Regenerative Rangelands Conference at Jody’s station, and wrote about the experience and what he learned from Alejandro and the other speakers soilsforlife.org.au/inspiration-from-the-chihuahuan-desert/ A film has also been released about this conference and rangelands regeneration, which can be viewed youtube.com/watch?v=G5IuR4YAIJY In the episode, Glenn mentions maps of what used to be the ‘native grain belt’. A representation of this map can be found on page 3 sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/faculty-of-science/research/potential-native-grass-production.pdf from the University of Sydney. Episode produced by growloveproject.com