Out at Esk: what a visit to the T2T Producer Hub showed us about what's possible on farm

There's a version of the sustainability conversation in agriculture that stays firmly theoretical, and then there are farms like Ben Drynan's Gallinani, near Esk in Queensland's Somerset region, which make the theory look straightforward.

Our COO Will Onus joined Rebecca Honeysett from McDonald's Australia, Connor FitzGerald from Fulton Market Group, and producers Caitlin McConnel and Amanda Roughan this week for a visit to the T2T Esk Producer Hub: part of the broader Tassie to Townsville Project supporting beef producers to build emissions profiles that also improve production outcomes.

The tour of Gallinani was the centrepiece of the day. Ben is sowing multi-species cover crops enriched with recycled organic fertiliser, managing three generations of native timber for sustainable production, and pushing his overall productivity forward at the same time. It's not a trade-off between commercial and environmental outcomes- the two are reinforcing each other in a way that's increasingly difficult to argue against.

For Will, who runs cattle himself, that kind of farm visit lands differently than a conference presentation. Seeing it on the ground - the cover crops, the timber, the practical management decisions behind the numbers - reinforces what Ruminati is trying to help producers capture and communicate. An emissions profile built from data like Ben's tells a much richer story than a single number, and that story has real value as supply chain scrutiny increases.

The T2T project is doing important work in bringing together producers, processors and retailers to work through these questions together. The team heads back to the region next week, with stops in Rockhampton and Monto to follow.