Agriculture from the Ground Up is a practical podcast that helps farmers, advisors, students, agronomists and anyone in agriculture build on to the knowledge they already have; from soils and nutrition to cropping, livestock, economics and decision-making, so that you can fuse it all together into even better, more confident and more profitable farming.
As an agriculture educator and perennial student, I want to help you fill those hidden gaps so you can make better decisions and grow a more resilient, profitable business.
Episode 18: Non-Wetting Soils. The Hidden Profit Killer
Send us Fan Mail You 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 From the Ground Up covers: the chemistry: polar water, hydrophobic waxes, and molecules that fli...
6 Oct 2026
Episode 17: The Great Connector. What Soil Organic Matter Actually Does
Send us Fan Mail Organic 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 1.72 to estimate organic matter. Three fractions do different jobs: labile material feeds microb...
29 Sept 2026
Episode 16: Why Some Soils Hold Onto Nutrients (and Others Just Don’t): Cation Exchange Capacity
Send us Fan Mail Last 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 Agriculture From the Ground Up we cover: what CEC actually is, using a simple car-park picture fo...
22 Sept 2026
Episode 15: Your pH Is a Rainfall History. Why the Number Sits Where It Sits Part 2
Send us Fan Mail Last 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 truckload of produce leaving the farm are both acid programs, whether you meant them to be or not...
15 Sept 2026
Episode 14: Do You Actually Know What pH Means? The Number on Every Soil Test Part 1
Send us Fan Mail You 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 ion is winning in the soil water. The other tells you the score is kept in multiples of ten. A d...
9 Sept 2026
Episode 13: Chemistry Basics Part 2. Chemistry at Work in the Paddock and the Spray Tank
Send us Fan Mail Part 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 the reactions that actually show up on farm: Solutions: almost nothing useful happens as a ...
2 Sept 2026
Episode 12: Chemistry Basics Part 1. Why the Periodic Table Matters in Your Paddock
Send us Fan Mail Most 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 look at why some elements stick around while others leach, how parent material sets the chemica...
26 Aug 2026
Episode 11: The View From the Hill. Where We're Going with this Podcast
Send us Fan Mail What 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 the fundamental nature of sandy soils (low surface area, low ability to hold water and nutrients)...
19 Aug 2026
Episode 10: Frost From the Ground Up with Dr Ben Biddulph
Send us Fan Mail CSIRO 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 reproductive frost in wheat and barley. He's spent more than two decades on the things that break crops in this c...
12 Aug 2026
Episode 9: What Native Plants Reveal About Our Soils with Kingsley Dixon
Send us Fan Mail In 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 limitation, non-wetting, and compaction) are the same conditions that native species like banksias have ...
5 Aug 2026
Episode 8: Beyond the Soil Map. What Really Matters Under Your Paddock with Tim Overheu
Send us Fan Mail Tim 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 arbitrary paddock boundaries. Tim shares a standout example of a farmer essentially "farming his organic carbon,...
29 Jul 2026
Episode 7: Soil Texture Part 2. How to Measure Soil Texture (and Why Overseas Research Can Mislead You)
Send us Fan Mail In 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 soil can be given different names depending on which country the research comes from. This int...
25 Jul 2026
Episode 6: Understanding Soil Texture. Sand, Silt and Clay and Why Size Matters Part 1
Send us Fan Mail This 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 stones are excluded from textureWhy clay has such high surface area and nutrient-holding abilityHo...
24 Jul 2026
Episode 5: What's Under your Paddocks? Soil Horizons and Parent Material with Tim Overheu
Send us Fan Mail In 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 farm todayWhy Western Australian soils are both ancient and surprisingly youngWhat soil horiz...
24 Jul 2026
Episode 4: From Parent Material to Soil Horizons & Classification. Reading the Story in Your Paddock
Send us Fan Mail In 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 the profiles we see in the paddock. You’ll also learn how to read the master horizons (O, A, E, ...
28 Jun 2026
Episode 2: Where Does Our Soil Come From? The Geological Recipe Under Your Paddocks
Send us Fan Mail In 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, metamorphic) and the very different soils they produceWhy WA soils are naturally sandy, acid...
28 Jun 2026
Episode 3: Where in the World Did Your Soil Come From? A Global Tour of Soil Formation
Send us Fan Mail Why 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 Midwest, to volcanic soils in East Africa and the deeply weathered ancient landscapes of Western Aust...
28 Jun 2026
Episode 1: Welcome to Agriculture From the Ground Up
Send us Fan Mail Welcome 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 and what you can expect. With over 10 years of hands-on experience managing soils on south coas...
Contact Agriculture from the Ground Up
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Agriculture from the Ground Up?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
