Agriculture from the Ground Up
Leonie 3 episodes Nov 11, 2026
Agriculture from the Ground Up is a practical podcast that helps farmers, advisors, students, agronomists, and anyone in agriculture build on their existing knowledge. It covers topics from soils and nutrition to cropping, livestock, economics, and decision-making. The goal is to help listeners fuse all these elements together for better, more confident, and more profitable farming. The host, an agriculture educator and perennial student, aims to fill hidden knowledge gaps to support resilient and profitable businesses.
Episodes
Episode 22: Cure, Containment or Catastrophe? Salinity in WA with Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard (Part 1)
Send us Fan MailWhat’s the difference between sodicity and salinity, and why does it matter which one is in your paddock? In the first of two episodes on salinity, Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard joins Leonie to look at salt here at home in Western Australia. Ed is a Senior Principal Soil Scientist with DPIRD and a Professorial Fellow at Murdoch University, and has been researching salt-affected and waterlo
Episode 21:Reading the Salt in Your Soil: Electrical Conductivity and Salinity
Send us Fan MailWhen I was a kid, salinity was a very real fear among farmers, and I spent many school holidays planting saltbush into our salt scalds. Looking back now, I can see so much more clearly what was actually happening. In this episode we look at what electrical conductivity really measures, where salt in WA soil comes from, how to read a salinity test properly, and what you can do about
Episode 20: Sowing Next to Last Year’s Row: Margaret Roper on Water Repellency, Part 2
Send us Fan MailWater repellent soil sheds the first rain, but right along last year’s crop row, the water disappears straight in. In part two of my conversation with Dr Margaret Roper, we look at how farmers turned that observation into near-row sowing, what the research found when it was tested, and the questions that are still open. Margaret also shares what she’d most like every farmer to know
Episode 19: Non-Wetting Soils. Why Water Beads Off Your Soil, with Dr Margaret Roper (Part 1)
Send us Fan MailIf you farm sand, you probably know the feeling. The rain finally arrives, and instead of soaking in, it beads up and runs off, leaving dry soil just below the surface.Last episode, we looked at what water repellency is and why it’s such a stubborn problem for so many of us. Today, we go deeper with someone who has spent much of her career working on it.Dr Margaret Roper is a soil
Episode 18: Non-Wetting Soils. The Hidden Profit Killer
Send us Fan MailYou walk the paddock three weeks after seeding. The rows are patchy. You had rain. You watched it fall. Five centimetres down, the soil is still dust dry.The rain did not fail. The soil refused it.In Western Australia, 10.2 million hectares are at risk of soil water repellence (3.3 million at high risk) at an estimated cost of $250–330 million a year.This episode of Agriculture Fro
Episode 17: The Great Connector. What Soil Organic Matter Actually Does
Send us Fan MailOrganic matter has been turning up all through this series; as most of the CEC on a sand, as the waxes behind non-wetting, as part of why pH keeps moving. This episode puts it in one place.Soil organic matter is not just carbon. It is living organisms, fresh residues and stable humus. Labs usually report the carbon slice, about 58 percent of the whole, which is why we multiply by 1
Episode 16: Why Some Soils Hold Onto Nutrients (and Others Just Don’t): Cation Exchange Capacity
Send us Fan MailLast episode we talked about pH, and I said buffering would come back properly. Today is that episode.Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is the reason some paddocks hold onto calcium, magnesium, potassium and ammonium, and others leak them with the next decent rain. It is also a big part of why two paddocks with similar fertiliser bills can perform so differently.In this episode of Agr
Episode 15: Your pH Is a Rainfall History. Why the Number Sits Where It Sits Part 2
Send us Fan MailLast episode we unpacked what pH actually is. This one asks the better question: why is your number the number it is?Drive east out of Perth and the pH climbs as the rainfall drops. That is not a coincidence. Leonie walks through the four drivers of soil pH, parent material, rainfall, time, and management, and why only the last one is in your hands. Ammonium fertiliser and every tr
Episode 14: Do You Actually Know What pH Means? The Number on Every Soil Test Part 1
Send us Fan MailYou already know your pH. It is on every soil test you have ever paid for. This episode is not rates, products or a lime program. It is what that number is actually measuring.Leonie starts with a question most of us cannot answer cleanly: what does pH stand for? There are two answers in common use; potential hydrogen and power of hydrogen, and both are useful. One tells you which i
Episode 13: Chemistry Basics Part 2. Chemistry at Work in the Paddock and the Spray Tank
Send us Fan MailPart 1 was atoms, charge and the periodic table. This episode puts that chemistry to work in places you already know: soil water, the fertiliser bag, and the spray tank.Leonie starts with a correction from last week: why potassium and calcium skip ahead on the electron shells, and why that is exactly where the transition metals (iron, manganese, zinc, copper) get their name.Then th
Episode 12: Chemistry Basics Part 1. Why the Periodic Table Matters in Your Paddock
Send us Fan MailMost of us left the periodic table behind at school. In the paddock it still matters. A lot.This is the first of two short episodes that introduce the chemistry you actually need as a farmer, soil scientist or agronomist. We start with the big picture: what the periodic table is really telling us about the elements that end up in your soil, your fertiliser bag and your crop. We’ll
Episode 11: The View From the Hill. Where We're Going with this Podcast
Send us Fan MailWhat if the nutrition problem, the moisture problem, the pH problem and the non-wetting problem in your paddock are not four separate issues — but one underlying constraint wearing four different hats?In this episode, Leonie steps back from the individual soil topics and looks at the whole system. Using the simple idea of standing on a hill and surveying the farm, she traces how th
Episode 10: Frost From the Ground Up with Dr Ben Biddulph
Send us Fan MailCSIRO gave us Wi-Fi, Aerogard, plastic banknotes and the word petrichor (that earthy smell of rain on dry ground).This week they give us Dr Ben Biddulph.We're heading into prime frost risk, so I sat down with Ben, Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO in Perth, formerly Chief Scientist of Primary Industries at DPIRD, and one of the country's leading voices on reproducti
Episode 9: What Native Plants Reveal About Our Soils with Kingsley Dixon
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Agriculture from the Ground Up, Leonie sits down with Professor Kingsley Dixon (one of Australia’s leading plant biologists and restoration ecologists) to explore what Western Australia’s native plants can teach us about our soils.Kingsley explains how the very constraints that challenge farmers on sandy and duplex soils (extreme infertility, phosphorus limitatio
Episode 8: Beyond the Soil Map. What Really Matters Under Your Paddock with Tim Overheu
Send us Fan MailTim Overheu, Principal Research Scientist at DPIRD, returns for round two, and this episode goes well beyond soil types.We dig into why water holding capacity, not soil classification, is often the real driver behind precision agriculture decisions and why "farming to the characteristic that matters," whether that's pH, organic carbon or moisture, beats farming to ar
Episode 7: Soil Texture Part 2. How to Measure Soil Texture (and Why Overseas Research Can Mislead You)
Send us Fan MailIn Part 2 of our soil texture series, we get practical.Leonie walks through how to measure soil texture in the paddock using the classic hand-texturing and ribbon test and explains how particle size analysis works in the lab, including the clever physics of Stokes’ Law that lets scientists separate clay from silt.You’ll also learn how to read the texture triangle, and why the same
Episode 6: Understanding Soil Texture. Sand, Silt and Clay and Why Size Matters Part 1
Send us Fan MailThis episode explains what soil texture really is. Leonie breaks down the three mineral particles that make up texture — sand, silt and clay — and shows that the difference between them is simply particle size.Key points covered:Texture is an inherent soil property that does not change in a human lifetimeExact size ranges used in Australia for sand, silt and clayWhy gravel and ston
Episode 5: What's Under your Paddocks? Soil Horizons and Parent Material with Tim Overheu
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Agriculture From The Ground Up, Leonie sits down with Tim Overheu (Principal Research Scientist, past National President of Soil Science Australia, and one of Western Australia’s most experienced soil scientists).With more than 30 years of hands-on experience across WA’s unique landscapes, Tim shares practical insights into:How parent material shapes the soils we
Episode 4: From Parent Material to Soil Horizons & Classification. Reading the Story in Your Paddock
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Agriculture From The Ground Up, we connect the dots between parent material and the soil profiles you dig into every season.Leonie walks through the CLORPT framework (Climate, Living organisms, Relief, Parent material, Time + humans), explains the important difference between layers and true soil horizons, and unpacks the four soil-forming processes that create t
Episode 3: Where in the World Did Your Soil Come From? A Global Tour of Soil Formation
Send us Fan MailWhy do Scottish farms look so green and productive while many WA Wheatbelt soils are sandy and naturally low in nutrients? The answer isn’t farming skill or climate alone; it’s geology and the age of the parent material.In this episode, Leonie takes you on a global tour of soil formation: from glaciers grinding fresh rock in Scotland and loess-blown fertility in the American Midwes
Episode 2: Where Does Our Soil Come From? The Geological Recipe Under Your Paddocks
Send us Fan MailIn this foundational episode, Leonie explores the very beginning of soil: parent material. Discover why two farms just 10 kilometres apart can perform so differently, even when they get the same rainfall and use the same varieties.You’ll learn:What parent material really is (and the difference between residual and transported material)The three main rock types (igneous, sedimentary
Episode 1: Welcome to Agriculture From the Ground Up
Send us Fan MailWelcome to the very first episode of Agriculture From The Ground Up: a practical video podcast series dedicated to bridging cutting-edge soil science with real on-farm application in Western Australia and beyond.Hosted by Leonie Smith; an aspiring soil scientist, agricultural educator, former farm manager, and mum of four. This introductory episode explains why this podcast exists
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