Article courtesy of local community publication The Kandanga Rag. Interviewer Leon Kelly.
Question Time with…Tim Scott
Tim is well known in the Valley as the proprietor of the Kandanga Farm store. Provocative in views, he constantly challenges the norm to make one question the need for continued use of chemical in and around our valley and beyond.
Passionate about regenerative farming practices, Tim’s dictum of ‘focus on what you want and not what you don’t want’ layers thinking with consider ponderance.
Tim also finds the time to get involved with his community. Currently he is a part of the volunteer crew for this months Mary River Festival and with that we felt it was a perfect opportunity to interview Tim.
Why? Because Tim has started a new movement of sorts, save the Mary Valley from unnecessary chemical usage!
Grab a cuppa and meet Tim,
RAG – From the top, where did you grow up?
Tim – I was born in Roma, Queensland on a beef cattle property. Our place was not very big in comparison to others around us at 5000 acres. We ran cattle and Goats at home, but I did contract mustering and got to know the country out there pretty well. The family farm was a good business, but overall too small for me to take on together with another sibling and continue to carve out a living. Ultimately our place got gobbled up by a large corporate.
RAG – When did you move to the Mary Valley?
Tim – 2006; first moving to Moy Pocket for 6 months after coming down from Augathella. We then moved to our little block at Amamoor and built a shed to live in. We lived there up until about 6 years ago, at which time we moved to Kandanga.
At Amamoor we ran a microchip business which grew over just 3 years to around 16 employees. It was a solid business and we managed to rapidly build it in the Pet and Laundry RFID market. In addition to the microchips we were also doing printed livestock tags and NLIS tags, which is a compulsory tagging identification program for cattle.
With the Traveston Dam fall-out there were then blocks of land available for economic development and we were offered one based on an application I lodged. The basis was to develop the microchip business and other low impact ag-tech style businesses capitalizing on NLIS tag opportunities. Unfortunately, the microchip business here fell over with the Swiss owner of the company making the decision to move the business into the city, leaving us and our staff high and dry.
Needing to now rejig our plans quite hastily, we developed further our ideas around what we now have here today, which is a sort of closed-loop farm supply business.
RAG – What attracted you to the Mary Valley from Augathella?
Tim – The focus for moving was mainly to do with the land & water. At Augathella or even Roma, it is just so hard to buy in and it sometimes forgets to rain. All the properties are very large, in the tens of millions of dollars or they are generational. Unless you are in the lucky sperm club, it’s very hard to get a start. Down here we could buy a small place and make that start.
At the time we were also running a thing called Beef Stock Market, where we had 15 places running cattle under contract, moving up to 10,000 head a year. With cattle in Qld, WA, NSW and Vic, I had to be near an airport and Augathella was 9 hours away from one, so down here became attractive from that point of view as well. I was also doing Polo and there was a bit of that down here as well.
RAG – Tell us a little about the Polo please.
Tim – It’s a long association. Before I went to Uni, I lived in Alabama, grooming & training horses for Polo. Then when I finished Uni, I had a few years doing the American, Australia and New Zealand seasons, mainly training young horses and playing mid-level polo. I was never that good of a player, so I would concentrate on getting the young horses up and going to a certain level where the professionals would then take them on- usually to sell.
It went quite well, and we eventually got to a stage where we were selling over 100 horses a year, with buyers from around the globe. England, Australia, the US and even a couple to Argentina. It was predominately New Zealand horses we sold due to their incredible thoroughbred lineage.
RAG – Lets drill down a little more on why Mary Valley appealed to you 16 years ago?
Tim – Straight out of Uni both Amber (wife) and I had been sales rep’s for Agriculture supply companies and travelled extensively throughout Northern Australia. Simply putting it, this area just stood out. The moment I drove through Imbil and over the bridge taking in the river and abundance of water, I was drawn to the area. Everywhere you go you look for water and this place has it.
With farms small enough that we could afford to buy in, good rainfall, water, soil and proximity to airports and other infrastructure, it had all the appeal needed for us to make a home. And the diversity. In Roma and surrounds its cattle, wheat and not much else; here in the Mary Valley the is an abundance of farming options and its only your knowledge that stops you growing something here.
RAG – Why a farm store?
Tim – Well as reps, and later running the distribution business, both Amber and I got a good insight into what is available and what’s around. Basically they (stores) all tend to operate under one model, regardless of being corporate or privately owned, with the privately owned businesses usually run a lot better due to the vested interest factor.
We noted they tended to be highly reliant on cyclical chemical and synthetics sales with staff trained to sell silver bullets- and that is something that really bothered us. We struggled with the obvious issue; to have a viable business in the industry you needed to rely heavily on selling synthetics and chemicals. This became the catalyst for us to develop our ideas into what we have today.
Yes, we initially opened with chemicals on our shelves but soon realized we needed to take the plunge, align with our values, and move to chemical free supply within store. This was particularly driven by our biggest sale in the first few weeks of operation with a pallet of glyphosate to Landcare, and our future plan to have food and farm supplies under the one roof. These double standards had to stop!
Rag – Chemical free tends to go against the grain, doesn’t it?
Tim – Yes, but I’m not sure why. What I have learnt over time is that it’s the human component of management that’s the issue, not really the “problem” itself. It’s paradigms formed over just a couple of generations.
A lot to do with food production without chemical is to do with knowledge and management, not what you put on it as a silver bullet. By this I mean, “I have xx pest, so I hit it with ’xx silver bullet’ chemical, where through management you can actually combat said xx pest over time and eliminate it while promoting good soil health and ultimately biodiversity. It’s often slower in results and one needs to be more proactive, but at the end of the day by opting for a chemical-free approach you are helping to nurture the future is how I see it.
Education is the big factor. Generally most people don’t know a chemical free method, purely due to the fact it hasn’t been widely taught. That’s the tertiary Ag. Science system I experienced anyway. Therein lies the opportunity to engage with education programs, workshops, and the like to learn new ways to approach the ongoing challenges of managing the land for production with our chemical use. To be biologists again- rather than chemists.
RAG – Tell us about your ABC Landline moment?
Tim – Well that came about predominately because of our BOS bag. We realized that we had to come up with something chemical free to combat external parasites, over and above paddock rotation methods and nutritional inputs. It needed to be non-chemical and not a ‘silver bullet’ solution to sit with our values within the business.
The idea had been around for years, that is using a dust bag, but we could never find a dust that was Certified Organic to put in them. We eventually came up with a product that is an “On-Label” insecticide that is Certified Organic, and which works really well. We now supply bags & the dust to over 200 other outlets and we are the second biggest users of that product in the country.
Landline saw that bag while doing another story and approached us about doing a story at Kandanga.
RAG – What stands out to you living here in Kandanga?
Tim – The people are really stimulating, and you never quite know who you are about to meet next.
The variety in people’s backgrounds is a constant source of amazement to me. And everyone always seems to be doing something different with their lives and their farms.
The depth of knowledge within the rural community and their farming knowledge across so many crops is another incredible asset to us all.
The new people arriving to the valley, bring new energy and it is that energy which helps drive change and growth. Out west, communities remained relatively constant and with that there was little change, things were almost stagnant. Here in the Valley, it is exciting to watch as people come and go and the community around us moves with the times.
RAG – What are some possible opportunities for the Valley in years to come as you see it?
Tim – Regenerative Agriculture, chemical free and or Organic farming practices are my thoughts of course!
There is no doubt that Regenerative Ag is seen as the great white hope moving forward for managing climate variability. It seems everything, courses, workshops, conferences etc., you go to these days the conversations are about climate change and best practices to combat it, or work with it.
We are lucky here in the Mary Valley as we have several people who are nationally and even internationally renowned for Regenerative Ag and that’s something unique to the area. These guys travel around the country consulting to councils, corporates and concerned individuals on how to do regenerative agriculture, fix rivers, rehydrate land and re-build landscapes. In fact the reverse is now starting to happen, and heaps of people are travelling here to the Valley to learn about Regenerative Ag which is really helping to put Mary Valley on the map.
We are so lucky to have these proponents of holistic management, natural sequence farming, biodynamics and organics living among us, who all provide incredible banks of knowledge for us to tap into.
Rag – Give us a snapshot of what Regenerative Agriculture is please.
Tim – When it comes down to it, it’s about your soil. Using the tools you have- plants, animals, microbes, insects and machinery, to rehydrate and re-invigorate soil.
In the process of fixing that soil, you are sequestering carbon which improves the biodiversity, re-hydrates water systems, improves air quality and even adds to community amenity. All these elements can play into an ecological credential that can be sold like any other off-take from your land. The Australian Government has just announced an Ecological Trading platform, while internationally exists the Green Bond market which is a trillion dollar a year market. We have a “beyond carbon” day explaining this in August.
Unfortunately tools like chemicals, fire, synthetics and tilling generally dehydrate and damage soil micro-biome incredibly, so to manage regeneratively, you usually favour natural soil improvement techniques. The pay offs, even outside the trading of ecological benefits, are enormous; healthy soil, good water retention and diverse pastures all lead to increased carrying capacities, improved yields and lower inputs.
Focus on what you want in your paddocks, not what you don’t want. If you want to have nice green paddocks with good digestive proteins, then focus on that. If you want a forest, focus on that. Learn to create the conditions for what you are chasing and then that way everything will proliferate. The minute you start focusing on what you don’t want, and fighting nature, you start to lose.
It may well take a generation to achieve, or it may only take one major climatic event. It just depends on how exhausted and depleted the soil is you are working with, your knowlege and what your tools are.
RAG – What else you would like to see in the Valley’s future?
Tim – It probably sounds idealistic, but I would also love to see the Valley become chemical free (soon). A place for the rest of Australia and the World to aspire to. We could become the benchmark for significant change and as international borders re-open, be so well known for this, we are on everyone’s bucket list.
I would also like to see the Valley seize the opportunity to further develop its identity as a ‘learning hub’ for regenerative farming, and regenerative business. We could easily become the premier specialist education center for best practice Regenerative principles. There alone, is a new industry opportunity for the Mary Valley.
I would love to see a farm trial, like the one over at Cooloola. farm gates, for those who want it, to have a sign ‘this farm is chemical free’. Some might be value adders, where the real money is! Visitors could attend events and take home produce from participating farms or stay, work and learn. We need to look beyond coffee shops and day trips, we need to offer a full Agrotourism emersion experience for our visitors.
A simple first step is to see the Gympie Councils ‘no spray register’ as a ‘opt in’ register rather than an “opt out” service as it currently stands, even if it was just for the Mary Valley to start with. Like garbage, a charge put on roadside chemical treatments and ag-tech solutions for mowing and other road-safety tools being trialed here to replace current practices.
I would like to see more food production, value adding and branding. The Mary Valley has all the tools to be self-sufficient in food and energy. This may seem aspirational but to produce more than we consume in such an environment is easily achievable. Why are we relying on supermarkets and little trucks delivering food? It’s all here! Chatter is currently about the impending food crisis we are facing by 2050 with a global population explosion to 10 billion. Everyone, and I mean everyone, even those with a small backyard can produce more food than what they do now. It is simply education on how to that’s missing. And the upside benefit is they will be regenerating the land if they do it correctly and with the right knowledge.
RAG – What do you like to do in your spare time.?
Tim – Ha, well that’s something I don’t have a lot of. I do love our farms though and spend any spare time working on them. Our Certified Organic grass-fed beef business has grown incredibly and could easily be a full-time job in itself which would be nice.
The kids are doing a bit of sport, so that sees us running around to different venues in support of them.
We like to travel, but that has changed for obvious reasons. Our 12-month trip around Australia last year was cut short due to the covid, so we headed back here after just a few months. There will be another opportunity to head off one day I hope.
RAG – How would you like people to think of you?
Tim – Just to be known as someone who is having a crack, you know, just having a go.
After doing a holistic management course where one of the first things they did with us was to sit us down in a graveyard to write our own eulogy, it became quickly apparent that family, happiness, and pride in how you live your life is what matters the most. We aren’t here long so money and material things didn’t come into it, they are just tool’s you use.
I feel if people see that I love and look after my family, my animals and land, and I am doing the best to look after the environment and put into practice what I preach, then that is what matters to me.
It was tough gig to edit down our chat. We found Tim’s enthusiasm incredibly endearing to the cause he promotes, regenerative ag.
After reading about what Tim has to say, hopefully people consider that a future of chemical free farming for the Mary Valley is a very possible option; even though the first steps could be somewhat uncomfortable. And it just may require a radical change in ones point of view.
Over time, as thinking comes around, we all may concede that those practices of past are not necessarily the correct way to move forward. Think climate change and what we are rapidly learning about it in terms of past practices and subsequent impacts on our environment today.
One thing is clear, Tim only want’s the best for the future for his family and yours and for that he makes no apologies as he fly’s his chemical free banner.
Pioneers never did discover new opportunities by sitting quietly in a comfortable armchair.
All the best from The Rag Team
