Using Equity for sustainable land management

Introduction

Located in the lower Hunter region, Tocal College (Tocal) has operated as an agricultural teaching facility for the last 50 years. It was bequeathed for rural education purposes by Charles Alexander in 1947. 

The land on which Tocal is located has a long and diverse history of use dating from the Indigenous owners through to early European settlement. Today, it operates as an accredited agricultural college.

Comprising 2,200 hectares, Tocal runs approximately 300 Holstein milking cows, each producing around 26 litres of milk per day.

Challenge

Tocal wanted to improve water management systems on farm with installation of a new centre pivot system. They needed to balance productivity with conservation and sustainable management of native vegetation.

In 1994, a bike shift irrigation system was installed to support production of pasture feed for the dairy herd. This system of irrigation provided poor distribution of water across the irrigated paddocks. The sprinkler head pressure was difficult to regulate. The system also utilised a three-phase electric pump located on the Paterson River. The pump required significant energy to operate. 

Over a 3-year period, Tocal had spent an estimated $10,000 a year on electricity for irrigation, a cost that was likely to increase with rising energy costs. 

In addition to cost and technical efficiency issues, the bike shift irrigation system presented a significant labour challenge for the dairy operators. Staff needed to physically move the irrigation equipment on quad bikes which is both costly and a high safety risk.

Over the past 50 years there is clear evidence of the planning for and implementation of environmentally sound practices at Tocal. It was important to continue this legacy through managing areas on the property primarily for conservation.

Solution

Local Land Services worked with Tocal management to find the best solution under the Land Management Framework. The aim is to balance their long-term conservation goals with improving their water use and pasture quality. 

Approval was provided for a certificate under the Equity pathway of the Land Management Code. 

Credits associated with existing revegetation of riparian corridors and plantings on the property offset the removal of 26 isolated paddock trees. No set aside was required. 

Tocal replaced 37 hectares of bike shift irrigation with a new water and energy efficient centre pivot irrigation system. They are also planning upgrades to the adjacent milking shed.

Three new centre pivot irrigation systems were installed over 40 hectares of land to: 

• improve pasture growth
• deliver efficiency gains in both water and energy use
• allow better use of high-nutrient water from on-farm dams
• improve safety and working conditions for staff and students.

Outcomes

Home grown feed is a key driver of farm profitability. The new irrigation system has delivered: 

• 30% increase in available dry matter in the irrigated paddocks
• up to 70% increase in available dry matter in irrigated paddocks in drought years.
• an expected 15% further production increase through better water distribution, scheduling and volume

"The centre pivots now give us a much more efficient way to apply water and much better distribution of water. So we can now grow good quality pastures all year round."

Matt Brett, Tocal Dairy Manager

Further upgrades to the dairy shed are also planned. This will provide better facilities next to the improved irrigation areas. These facilities will reduce the distance and time required for the herd to travel between pastures and milking.

In an average year the bike shift system would operate for 100 days requiring: 

• 3 hours per day shifting sprays
• 2 full days for set up and decommissioning
• 3 days for maintenance and repairs. 

This represents a labour cost in the order of $23,000 to $26,000 per year. The new centre pivot irrigation system is expected to deliver significant labour savings.  

It is anticipated that an initial investment of $950,000 to upgrade the shed and replace the irrigation system will provide net benefits of $37,500 per year. This is an 8% return on investment. The whole project is estimated to have a payback period of approximately 13 years.

Additionally, reduction in the use of quad bikes and manual movement of irrigation equipment will significantly reduce the risk of injury or accident. 

Tocal continues to invest in management of conservation areas on the property including vegetation corridors surrounding the irrigated paddocks.

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Video transcript

Sustainable Land Management at Tocal College, Hunter region

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G'day I'm Matt Brett. I'm the manager here at Tocal Dairy. We have about 300 milking cows producing about two and a half million litres a year. The farm’s located in the Lower Hunter near Maitland in the Paterson area, running for approximately thirty years.

So we undertook a voluntary certificate under the Land Management Code. We worked on the equity principle, where we were given basically credit for the amount of native vegetation and plantings that we'd already done.

We've spent a lot of time protecting our vegetation of importance right across the landscape. We've also done a lot of vegetation planting along riparian corridors. So all of that work is taken into account under the new code.

Under the new legislation we were allowed to clear the paddock trees that we needed to put the new pivot system in. Being able to remove the trees in this area here has allowed us to put in three centre pivot irrigators, so we cover about 40 hectares of land with those centre pivots.

We had bike shift irrigation under all that land previously, so the centre pivots now give us a much more efficient way of applying water and we get a much better distribution and application of water over that whole area. So we can grow good-quality pastures basically all year round now.

The new irrigator will make our use of water far more efficient. We expect to see an increase in pasture production anywhere up to 30%.

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Now with our old system we had to shift all the sprinklers with quad bikes. We felt that we wanted to eliminate that risk off the site. In basically 10 minutes I can go around and hit the buttons. You can turn them on from the office on the computer program and get them started.

So these pivots have allowed us to really improve the amount of production we've got off this area.

We probably estimate over the life of the project that they're probably saving up to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 20-year period.

We're spending over 950 thousand dollars. We're going to get an increase and an improvement financially that will pay off over a 13 year period.

And we've got basically a dam full of high nutrient water there — some phosphorus and nitrogen — and we can basically suck that out, pump it back on and make grass grow. These pivots were all designed with the fact in mind that we wanted to put the effluent through the three pivots. So we can basically have our effluent pump set to automatic and as soon as you hit the button up here on the pivot the effluent pump kicks in and we can disperse the effluent over the 40 hectares now so we don't get a large nutrient build-up in any one area.

It's a good outcome because we're making use of what we've got on-farm. That's a big thing for a pasture-based area.

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Tocal had some forest trees that were in the middle of their pasture. They'd been operating their dairy and irrigating around these forest trees for about 30 years. Under the previous system they did undertake an assessment to see what they could do and the outcome of that was that they would have to set aside about 16 hectares. Ultimately it was taking away good alluvial country. Under the current system they offered flexibility to select a particular mechanism under the code to use that best suits their business.

Under the Land Management Code we were allowed to remove the paddock trees. We'd already had significant amounts of plantings over the years. We had a lot of trees that we'd retained so the code allowed us to remove these trees for this new project.

An officer here working at the college — it's been a great learning curve because I get to learn from Matt about what new innovations they're taking on board, what efficiencies that they're gaining in their business. And it's refreshing to be able to offer these farmers a process where they can achieve what they want to achieve while protecting the environment but also boosting their productivity.

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