AN unsustainable future was the catalyst of change that led Shane and Amanda Watts on a holistic grazing journey that culminated in them winning the Australian Government Reef Program Grazier Award last week.
The North Queensland Register spoke with Shane the morning after they were presented with the award at the Reef, Range and Red Dust Conference Dinner held at the Events Centre in Caloundra.
The Watt’s own and manage Sonoma Station, a 14,400-hectare property near Collinsville were they run a herd of 3000 mixed commercial cattle primarily for the live export trade.
Aware that their cattle were negatively impacting the waterways causing erosion and bank instability, they decided it was time to change their grazing practices or face the prospect of a bleak road ahead.
“We saw a chance to change our grazing practices when NQ Dry Tropics made funding available for three producers in the Bowen Broken Bogie (BBB) basin through the Queensland Government’s Regional NRM Investment Program and the Australian Government Reef Program just over 12 months ago,” Shane said.
The three-year (2013-2016) Building Resilience in the Burdekin Grazing Industry project involves the selected producer’s trialling the holistic management approach to improve their economic, social and environmental performance.
The Holistic Management approach involves developing a decision making framework to help graziers improve their performance and importantly, supports practical, cost effective and innovative approaches to land management and restoration issues.
The process commenced on Sonoma with Savory Grassland Management’s holistic trainer Rodger Savory visiting Shane and Amanda to help develop and implement the plan.
“Through the planning process with Rodger we implemented a strategy which,” Shane said.
“Over last decade and during that time we’ve put in three application through Australian Reef Program for water quality improvement grants which helped cover the cost of riparian fencing and sub-divisional land fencing as well as off-stream water infrastructure including pipes and tanks.
“We then combined a 2200-strong herd of our breeding females and younger females into one mob which are being rotated through our existing paddocks.
“This means we only need to monitor one herd of cattle, one water point and one supplementation area, which makes our operation very easy to manage.
“We’ve also installed water medicators into the water supplementation area which has allowed us put urea, minerals, Vitamin A and Vitamin E in the supplementation which has cut out the expense of dry licks.
“These works have enabled us to protect 1,900ha of riparian vegetation.”
Shane said this year they’ve been trialling the practice of high density grazing which involves closing off a small section of land using portable electric fencing and allowing 750 dry heifers to graze the area.
"We are trying to mimic nature where densely-packed herds of animals tend to graze an area of land quickly in concentrated numbers before moving to a new area.
"The cattle deliver concentrated manure and urine to the soil area and trample any old dead grass which is returned to enhance the soil.
"It has increased infiltration and certainly allowed us to better manage our way through this dry season."
Due to the practices they’ve employed, Shane said even though they’ve only received 15 inches of rain on Sonoma this year they’ve still grown the same amount of grass as they would during an average 28 inch rainfall year due to up to 90 per cent of property being rested at any one time.
“We will continue to monitor our results after the wet season, and will continue modifying our plan to try new things.”
“It’s been a revelatory experience for us.
“By taking a shot and trying something new we’ve discovered that by putting all cattle together in one herd, as long as your water infrastructure is up to scratch you don’t have to spend any money by mobbing your herds into existing paddocks.”
He said the holistic management plan has created real benefits and outcomes on Sonoma, and he encourages other producers to take a long look at the results of the project and how they may be able to implement the practices on their own properties.
“Hopefully other producers can see what mistakes we’ve made during the project, to ensure holistic management plans employed on their own operations run efficiently.
“I’d like to thank NQ Dry Tropics for nominating us for the award and for all their support throughout the project. They’ve helped make our ideas come to fruition.”
