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ROSS THOMPSON

Ross Thompson spent 42 years on a mixed-farming property on the Gwydir River at Gravesend. He now lives on the Gold Coast sugar cane lands.

Since 1966, as a farmer Ross had always been involved with the Farmers Organisations and during the 1990 Farmers Conference in Sydney he moved the motion that initiated the introduction of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) throughout Australia. Ross understood that he had to take action – as he said: ‘This led me to believe that if something needs to be done, you have to do it yourself.’

Ross started using synthetic fertilisers from 1967 and then started using the selective weedicide (24D) from 1968. Over the next 20 years farmers found that within the farming industry they had to increase the application rates of synthetic fertilisers every year. As time went on, more selective weedicides were being introduced into Australia, and as farmers we always seemed to be ‘killing something.’ The NITRATE fertilisers were killing the biology of the soil, and the weedicides were not only killing the weeds, but everything microbial as well.

From 1968 and over the following 20 years as farmers, we noticed that the small birds were disappearing in their thousands. The larger birds would survive whereas all small birds were dying out. Numerous species of birds disappeared throughout the region. They including canaries, finches, sparrows, wrens, pee wees, budgerigars and small parrots.

During 1988 Ross decided to stop using chemical farming practices and  re-establish native pastures on his farming land. This regeneration took approximately 2 decades. During that time, he started thinking about how to speed up the restoration of soil biology. This is what led to the development of RegenBiosoil.