IT’S been tough going for Northern graziers over the past several years with drought, limited market access and increased input costs all combining like a perfect storm to thwart producers at every turn.
But adversity leads to adaptation and change, which is what a group of 197 graziers and beef industry representatives got to see the fruits of first-hand on Barry and Leanne O’Sullivan’s Glenalpine Station near Collinsville, which is in the midst of a trial using holistic land management practices, which have had a profound effect on natural grass growth and rejuvenation on the property.
Progress reports on the trials at Glenalpine and two other sites at Tom and Karen Murphy’s Table Top Station and Shane and Amanda Watts’s Sonoma Station were at the forefront of the Resilience in Grazing Open Day held at Glenalpine on Tuesday.
The three trial sites are part of an ongoing project being conducted by NQ Dry Tropics through funding from the Queensland government’s Regional NRM Investment Program with the aim of supporting graziers to improve their management practices to benefit the environment while creating a more sustainable grazing operation, which will in turn help graziers improve their bottom-line.
Holistic land management was developed over 40 years ago by Allan Savory, a Rhodesian biologist, game ranger, politician, farmer, and rancher, who was searching for ways to save the beautiful savannah and its wildlife in southern Africa.
His son Rodger Savory (Director of Savory Grassland Management) has continued Allan’s practices and implemented the system successfully in highly variable country across the world and is acting as a consultant on the project in the North.
“Holistic management teaches people about the relationship between large herds of wild herbivores and the grasslands and then helps people develop strategies for managing herds of domestic livestock to mimic those wild herds to heal the land,” Mr Savory said.
“Holistic management embraces and honors the complexity of nature, and uses nature’s models to bring practical approaches to land management, and restoration,” he said.
“The planning procedures embedded in the holistic management approach are designed to incorporate this complexity and work with it. It does take time, skills and discipline to use this decision-making framework successfully – but the economic, environmental and social benefits are enormous.”
While holistic practices are not a new development in the global scheme of things, it has never been conducted in a monitored trial in the North.
The trials on the three operations began last year with daily site monitoring conducted by CSIRO and James Cook University researchers.
For an image gallery from the open day click on the photo below.
NQ Dry Tropics Project Manager Rod Kerr said the main aim of the open day was to allow guests to see that with a strong plan in place holistic land management can markedly improve pasture composition and improve water quality while stopping gully erosion and controlling weed infestation.
“We understand it takes time to change perceptions when it comes too bringing new methods to a long-established way of doing things, but I think graziers that attended the open day would have gone home impressed with the results and how quickly they’ve come about,” Mr Kerr said.
CEO of NQ Dry Tropics, Scott Crawford said the results from the trials so far have shown an astounding difference in pasture quality and growth over the combined 56,000 hectares of land involved across the test sites at Glenalpine St, Table Top St and Sonoma St.
“We understand that many graziers in the North are doing it tough at present, but when the chips are down that is often the best time to give a fresh approach a shot, and the results we’ve seen so far from the trial sites have been very encouraging,” Mr Crawford said.
Tom and Karen Murphy from Table Top Station, Collinsville, said while the holistic management practices go against everything they (and most Northern graziers) were taught growing up, the improvements in natural grazing grasses and legumes coming back on their operation since they began the trial is remarkable.
Barry O’Sullivan said the results of the high intensity grazing and gully rehabilitation project at Glenalpine speak for themselves.
“The herd size has increased from 1200 head in 2014 when the trial began to 2700 head now, due in large part to using high density herd grazing utilising an electric fencing system which has allowed the land time to rejuvenate its natural grasses to the point where it is now 700 per cent denser after 12 months,” he said.
“The trial has been a life changing experience, and I hope other graziers in the North get involved if the government continues and expands the project to include new trial sites.”