Sub sections:
Grain and Graze
Grain & Graze Border Rivers Region
The PIIC Grain & Graze Border Rivers project with the Queensland Murray Darling Committee Inc. was completed in June 2008. The project investigated if an opportunity for improved performance of both grain and animal production existed through better integration of cropping and grazing enterprises.
Carol Harris (NSW I&I Glen Innes) coordinated the project. NSW I&I members of the team included Graham Crocker, Fiona Scott, Ian Daniels, Bob Martin, Bob McGufficke, Lester McCormick, Stephanie Belfield and Jeff Lowien. The UNE project team members included Chris Guppy, Simon Jasper, Corrine Jasper, David Lamb, Mark Trotter, Jim Scott, Milton Curkpatrick and Craig Birchall.
Grain and Graze was a partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation Limited, Grains Research and Development Corporation and Land & Water Australia. In the Border Rivers area Grain and Graze was a collaborative program between the Queensland Murray-Darling Committee, Border River-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority, PIIC, the CSIRO, and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
From August 2006 to June 2008, the PIIC project established five research sites, coordinated or contributed to nine field days and seminars and conducted seven workshops. Total farmer participation in PIIC activities was 1360 and 72% of participating landholders have changed their outlook towards mixed farming systems and 70% believed that Grain & Graze helped improve their strategic position.
Twenty eight annual and two short-lived perennial legumes were evaluated at McMaster Research Station to identify the most appropriate legumes for the Border Rivers.
Specific project outcomes were:
1. The establishment of a 138 ha farmlet study at McMaster Research Station to investigate the effect of integrating and improving pasture enterprises on mixed farming. The experiment comprises three farmlets - 46 ha each on the three soil/land management areas of the property. Soil chemical and physical fertility, pasture and crop growth, groundcover, livestock performance, input costs and price data has been collected. Although only in its preliminary stages (2nd year) the experiment will be on-going (8 years) and over this time will demonstrate the influence of pastures on production, natural resource base and profitability of mixed farms over the whole-farm. The experiment has had the involvement of the local farming community. The farmlet comparisons are more realistic, in terms of cropping and livestock dynamics, than traditional small-plot research.
2. Innovation in remote plant and soil technologies and the development of low-cost GPS tracking collars for livestock. These developments offer researchers an important tool for understanding the complex interactions between animals, pastures and crops. In mixed farming systems, the use of low-cost remote sensing technologies would allow farmers to keep records on cattle grazing behaviour, growth rates, soil compaction, nutrient measurements and crop yield. This would assist the farmer to optimise crop and pasture management to maximise productivity in both enterprises.
3. Two experiments conduced at McMaster Research Station examined the effect of livestock on soil physical properties on vertosol soils and if there is an adverse effect on subsequent crop yield. The implications of these experiments are that producers may be not be doing as much as damage as they thought by grazing livestock on vertosol soils due to their capacity to repair themselves. Grazing dry soil has minimal impact and results suggest that grazing when wet is recoverable.
4. The evaluation of 28 annual and two short-lived perennial legumes at McMaster Research Station to identify the most appropriate legumes for the Border Rivers. The practical implications of this experiment were that it is often a good idea to plant a mixture of early and late maturing species such as medics and arrow leaf clover. This allows the farmer to take advantage of dry conditions with the survival of early maturing lines and the extra feed produced by the later maturing lines in good seasons or when late rains occur.
5. Financial tools developed to increase farmer’s knowledge and expertise in business and risk management. The tools included a fact sheet on “Simple steps to analyse farm business profitability”, a series of budgets for utilising lucerne in various enterprises in northern NSW and a farm business management workshop.
6. One hundred producers completed accredited ProFarm courses (Landscan, ProGraze and Paddock Plants) in the Border Rivers of Northern NSW.
7. A new workshop “Pastures for challenging soils” delivered at Yelarbon and Texas. This workshop trained producers in soil testing & interpretation, appropriate fertiliser management based on soil tests. The workshop also ran through how to choose appropriate pasture species for productive and sustainable pastures.