SIMON OSBORNE

LAND AREA: 280 hectares

SOIL TYPE: Heavy clay loam

WHERE: Leeston on the Canterbury Plains

FARMING METHOD: Intensive arable and sheep

PRODUCE: Linseed (for oil, food and fibre production), oats, wheat (different varieties for milling, bread, pasta and breakfast cereals), barley (for animal feed), vetch, phacelia and clovers

MARKET: Food manufacturers and seed merchants, and farmers

MAIN REGENERATIVE PRACTICE: No-till for nearly five decades, no insecticides. Focus on soil biome health to reduce or eliminate the need for fungicides and synthetic fertilizer and minimal agrichemical input.

KEY INSIGHT: “Eating healthily, so you sustain a healthy microbiome in your body to help fend off ill health and diseases of old age is exactly what I am doing for my soil. Though the soil is vastly more complex than a human body — believe it or not.”