Repeated flood events have left a legacy of scars across Queensland’s farming landscape but you would have to look pretty hard to find any on Robyn Brosnan’s Millmerran cattle property.
During the past two years Robyn has been working alongside QMDC’s soil conservation officers and Millmerran Landcare to remove all trace of a six-metre deep gully which rapidly progressed on ‘Wahroonga’ after the January 2011 flood. Continue Reading…
The Dairying Better ‘N Better team is showcasing a range of the industry’s successful Reef Rescue projects through a new YouTube channel.
The videos showcase the high level of work undertaken by farmers along the Queensland coast and highlight the high value of the projects – both to the environment through improved water quality and to farms and farmers via improved management.
The channel has already had hundreds of views and the Dairying Better ‘N Better team (which is a partnership between the Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation and Subtropical Dairy) sees it as an effective means of telling the good stories associated with Reef Rescue and general dairy farmer stewardship of the land.
Life as a primary producer isn’t easy, no matter where you live. For primary producers in the dry tropics however, there are some unique challenges.
Dry tropics producers may endure long periods without rain and when it does arrive, it comes in monsoonal downpours. A big wet season can destroy fencing, remove topsoil and cause the loss of nutrients and seeds.
As Sustainable Agriculture Officer, Josh Schwarz, says, “Those soils represent your earning potential because pastures love to grow in them. Soil erosion leaves subsoils behind and unfortunately, the subsoils in our region are often of poor quality and they dissolve easily.”
That’s why helping farmers minimise sediment loss and maximise water quality is a priority for NQ Dry Tropics. NQ Dry Tropics staff meet station owners, listen to their plans and try to work with them to achieve their goals.
“All landholders have a dozen things they’d love to establish on their property if money wasn’t a limiting factor. It might be fencing, it might be returning vegetation to a stream bank or restoring soil health. If we can help them, we do,” Josh says.
Staff work with landholders by providing technical expertise, extension activities, training and grants. Landholders are consulted throughout and projects are tailored for each property.
We’ve been here for 20 odd years and we’ve always wanted to improve our fencing and water infrastructure so we can better manage our pastures. NQ Dry Tropics has made this feasible and we’re really happy with the result and the input we’ve received.
Wayne Shadforth, Lincoln Springs Station
Greg, Jamie and Brian Dore are well-known cane farmers in the Euramo region just south of Tully and have received Reef Rescue funding for a zonal offset discing project. This means that only 42% of the total area of their property is being tilled, significantly reducing the amount of soil that is worked.
Including their own farm, the Dores manage over 1,000 hectares of cane land in the district and are keen to participate in industry information sharing events, such as ‘farmers teaching farmers’ days as well as innovative projects like Project Catalyst, which supports cane growers to develop and test new practices in sugarcane production.
Farmers in the Fitzroy Basin, the largest catchment draining to the Great Barrier Reef, have been working to construct fences and watering points to keep cattle away from streams and creeks.
Central Queensland’s leading natural resource management group, Fitzroy Basin Association Inc. (FBA) CEO Paul Birch said these measures reduce the erosion of creek beds and improves the quality of water that flows from our basin to the reef.
“In the past year FBA has worked with farmers, landholders and community groups to fence over 400 kilometres of streams and creeks,” Mr Birch said.
The North Johnstone River is threatening to change course across a narrow neck of land on a farm in Far North Queensland potentially affecting water quality and availability of productive land over a large area. A low cost solution is being attempted to tackle what could be a large and expensive problem.
Not only is one of the paddocks under threat, but the breakthrough of the river could cause erosion and bank slumping for kilometres upstream. Weeds are trapping sediment and pushing water towards the erosion face which is enhancing the likelihood of the breakthrough.
In the Wet Tropics, the Australian Government’s Reef Rescue program is not only helping farmers to improve their land management practices so as to reduce sediment, chemical and nutrient runoff, but it is also reducing sediment loss in the clean-up of forestry blocks that were left almost completely destroyed by last year’s devastating cyclone.
Forestry Plantations Queensland (FPQ) Pty Ltd has been successful in acquiring a Water Quality Incentive Grant to minimise environmental impacts whilst replanting trees that were destroyed by Cyclone Yasi.
Reef Catchments Mackay Whitsunday Isaac is assisting Rob Burns and his family to stabilise a major gully slip through revegetation and riparian fencing.
With help from Reef Rescue funding, the Burns family will be permanently fencing a gullyslip on their property and the adjoining creek which will help to control stock access. They will also plant out the landslip area with local native plants to stabilise the soil and reduce any further slips.
With the magnificent Mount Bartle Frere, Queensland’s highest mountain, in the background, the banana farm Brad Finch manages near Mirriwinni in Far North Queensland is a particularly striking property. A banana farm for the last thirty years and a cane farm for an even longer period before that, the issue of sediment and nutrient runoff has long been a concern. With the Russell River bordering a significant section of the 70 hectare farm, sediment and nutrient runoff makes its way in to the river and possibly downstream, in to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
Brad Finch made the decision to change his lifestyle two years ago, swapping commercial fishing off the coast for banana farming. As soon as he began managing this farm, Brad started planning to upgrade to farming practices that help prevent erosion and better manage the health of the soil. One of the changes he was keen to make was to carry out contouring of the rows of banana plants. Continue Reading…
The Condamine Alliance Sustainable Agriculture program is dedicated to improving and protecting agricultural land in the Condamine catchment.
It does this by helping farmers obtain and apply new skills, knowledge and practices to better manage soil carbon and groundcover.
Groundcover is one of the best ways to guard against erosion and keep soil safe.
Over the past year, the Sustainable Agriculture program has helped 150 cropping and grazing farmers apply improved practices across more than 20,000 hectares to manage soil carbon and reduce erosion risk.
