Best practice land management for groundcover and pasture

Introduction

Coolringdon is a grazing property with links to the earliest settlement of the Monaro district around the 1830s. Coolringdon was owned by the Casey family from the early 1900s to the 1990s. In the 1990s it was gifted to the Monaro community by the late Emily Litchfield, of the Casey family.

The John and Betty Casey Research Trust run the property. It is a working farm promoting best practice primary production and land management. Profits go to The University of Sydney’s Faculty of Agriculture and Environment for research projects on the Monaro.

Coolringdon covers 3,400 hectares and runs between 10,000 to 14,000 Merino sheep as well as cattle trading when conditions allow.

Challenge

The landmanagers were looking to ensure peak production levels and profitability without degrading paddocks.

The trustees want to make it a model farm that matches environmental values, the preservation of those things to the greatest extent profitable, but it also of course must be profitable

James Litchfield, founding trustee, Coolringdon

Coolringdon’s grazing system and profitable farm plan was based on a breakdown of:

• 50% improved pasture
• 10% lucerne flats for rotational grazing of stock
• 40% native vegetation / native pasture. 

An increase in improved pasture was needed in the lambing paddocks. This would ensure a high-protein diet and lift carrying capacity to meet production levels.

At the same time, they wanted to prevent invasive species such as African Lovegrass from spreading. They had already found isolated plants across the property. African Lovegrass is a major challenge for land management in the Monaro region.

Their goals for best practice land management included:

• ensuring there was good groundcover for ongoing soil health
• water capture and retention
• carbon sequestration and drought moderation.

Coolringdon management wanted to work within the legislative framework for managing native groundcover. But, they needed:

• clarity to work through regulations
• help with pasture assessment and species identification
• advice about treatment options.

Solution

Coolringdon management approached Local Land Services for support. They wanted to work within the Land Management Framework to manage native groundcover and meet their production goals.

Land Management officers visited the property to conduct field assessments and provide advice. This included plot-based groundcover measurements and species identification.

Local Land Services were able to assess the areas as low conservation groundcover. Past grazing practices dating back to the 1800s had caused a change in species composition. This had also significantly degraded native pasture quality and diversity.   

These areas, classed as Category 1 – Exempt land under the Land Management Framework are allowed to be cleared without approval.

Based on this advice, two 40-hectare areas of degraded native pasture were selected for improvement. 

These improved pasture areas were each within larger 110-hectare paddocks. These areas also included substantial areas of native woodland. In each, a 70-hectare area of woodland will be retained for stock shelter and fauna habitat.

Outcomes

Advice from Local Land Services gave Coolringdon management the clarity needed to move forward with their plans to expand improved pasture areas to help reach the desired production levels.

• Paddocks were first sprayed, then sown with oats and forage wheat to prepare the soil. These paddocks will then be sown with improved pasture species, including clover and phalaris.
• Future planning includes a subdivision fence. This will allow more flexible stocking on the improved pasture without putting pressure on the nearby native pasture.
• The data collected during field assessment was also used to get pre-referral advice from the Commonwealth that these areas were below the condition threshold for regulation as an endangered ecological community under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. 

Once the improved pasture is established in the 2 additional paddocks, management expects:

• production will increase from about 2 DSE (Dry Sheep Equivalent) per hectare per year to around 4 DSE/ha/year. Across the whole property, this would average around 4.5 DSE/ha/year.
• the expanded improved pasture available on Coolringdon under its rotational grazing system will ensure achievable production levels without overstocking and potential erosion
• increased groundcover also reduces the risk of incursion of African Lovegrass.

Profits will continue to support agricultural research by The University of Sydney, specifically focused on the Monaro.

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Video transcript

Sustainable Land Management at Coolringdon, Monaro region NSW

Introduction

Hello, I'm Howard Charles, trustee for Coolringdon, which is 3,400 hectares situated almost on the top of the ridge in Monaro.

We normally run around 10,000 to 11,000 sheep. It's very much a wool-growing operation, and we're very fortunate to be using Hazeldean genetics. This means we're producing very good wool—and a lot of it—which makes it a very profitable operation.

Best Practice Management

Coolringdon is this beautiful property that the Casey family left for us to administer on behalf of the Sydney University.

The importance of this property to Monaro is that it's dedicated as a charitable trust supporting research. That research has to be relevant to the Monaro.

On top of that, the trustees want to make it a model farm that matches environmental values, the preservation of those things to the greatest extent possible, but it must also be of course profitable.

The farm plan is to have 40% native vegetation, native pasture, and we have managed to conserve that native vegetation. 50% improved pasture, and 10% is lucerne flats, which we are very lucky to have.

They play a really important part in being able to take the stock down there in the spring, and then take the pressure off the native vegetation. And that's how the whole operation is designed.

Unlocking Opportunities

So we needed to lift our carrying capacity and we needed to improve some pasture in the lambing paddocks to get a higher protein diet.

And so we contacted Local Land Services to see if they could help us work our way through the regulation.

Well I could see on the first visit, it was probably what we call low conservation value ground cover. It had been grazed for many years and fertilised, and so it had changed in species composition, the different dominant grasses and much less in the way of diversity.

And so my suspicion was it was low conservation value. And I had to come back and take plot-based data to gather evidence to support that.

That's plantain that one, native plantain. It's been nibbled off.

Is that as good as the introduced plantain?

Well, it's not as big probably, that's one of the big differences, but certainly tough enough to grow in this

environment.

Looking After the Land Long Term

When I became a trustee in 1999, the property was well looked after but it was totally unimproved.

And improving means sowing improved pastures, because you've got to have a certain proportion of that before you can look after the natural areas.

Well, Monaro's a pretty unique climatic area. It gets very cold in winter, and still pretty hot in summer. Having good groundcover is really important to retain moisture to look after the soil microbiology.

And here our biggest threat is the invasion of African Lovegrass. And so here, keeping a good groundcover obviously stops having bare areas for seeds to start. Really important.

Working with Local Land Services

Will I think it is very important for land owners and Local Land Services to work together because in the future there will be continual updates and changes in technology and management systems. So they can help to keep the farming community up to date and vice versa.

Working with Local Land Services has been a joy. David has been very easy to work with. He’s an expert in his field, and the thoroughness he put into this and the whole operation has been very good from our perspective.

I think Coolringdon management is trying really hard to do the right thing and to provide good examples and run both a profitable and sustainable enterprise as an example to others.