According to 2019 Farrer Medalist, Professor Tim Reeves, agricultural sustainability successes have resulted from the combined efforts of scientists and farmers working together to identify, develop and adapt new technologies and systems to both address continuing challenges to productivity and profitability, and to also seize the new opportunities that continually arise.
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Kangaroos do the most damage to the environment during extended dry periods when perennial grasses are forced to go into dormancy. Australia would probably be better off financially and environmentally if properties were fenced to protect them from kangaroos. Alan Lauder explains why.
Read moreLive export participants who treat sheep as widgets that must endure a level of suffering and deaths on voyages undermine community trust in the trade. The community won’t accept avoidable sheep deaths on boats as a cost of doing business, its members know that these unavoidable outcomes will end once the sheep live trade from Australia ends.
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The people that we trust adhere to rules and standards and act with integrity. How people have acted in the past also becomes part of our judgement about whether to trust them.
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All mixed species perennial pasture paddocks on Moffitts Farm carry a high load of pasture dry matter which when combined with high soil organic carbon (4 – 5% soil organic carbon) means all rainfall (except in extreme rainfall events – over 50mm in 24 hours) is absorbed by the soil sponge. When enough rainfall is absorbed it takes days or weeks to move by sub-surface drainage to replenish the creek ponds (springs).
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In a US comparison after 12 years applying organic or inorganic fertiliser to a continuous crop rotation manure is the fertiliser that supports better soil quality by improving almost all soil properties.
Read moreHugh McKay – Do you dream as I dream of a kinder, more compassionate, more generous, more equitable Australia?
Read moreThe potential opportunity for carbon storage in WA sandy soil on the research trail farm near Wagin is more likely to be below 10cm because of the perennial grasses deeper root systems compared to annual grasses.
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Sweden achieved its EU renewable energy obligation for 2020 way ahead of time in 2012. It is already well on the way in 2019 to meeting its 2030 renewable energy share and GHG emission reduction target.
Read more“Merino Sheep Breeding” by Murray Elliott is a story that had to be told and few if any other players could write it as well as Elliott who was involved for more than 50 years and had the knowledge and passion to influence change in an industry bogged down by tradition and protectionism.
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For pasture enthusiasts fairy rings present an insight into the power of soil biology to influence pasture plant growth.
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Multi-species perennial grasses, herbs and legumes are being planted on Moffitts Farm to produce year round green, high quality, and persistent pastures.
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On current trends, the area of land under conservation or protected from commercial uses will exceed that allocated to grazing by the year 2045. By then, both grazing and conservation will each command around 35% of the Australian land area.
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The 2018 lambing season ended with 143% lambs marked. This result is similar to our experience over the last three years. Our emphasis is on providing ewes with optimum nutrition and lambs with wind chill protection using bulky perennial pastures.
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A late autumn break had implications for pasture growth and subsequently the lamb numbers available for Meat Smith. Despite the late break ewe condition was maintained on pastures through mating and pregnancy without supplementary feeding.
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The history of sheep farming in WA since 1990 demonstrates farmers have the capacity to find alternative enterprises to live sheep trading.
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In Indonesia the successful GGL/small holder farmer model feeding pineapple and other food processing wastes with multiple livestock options to allow full participation at all levels within the community is simply miraculous.
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There is a tendency to treat agriculture and forestry separately when addressing natural-resource concerns, but agroforestry offers a set of conservation and production technologies that can help to integrate forestry and agriculture efforts beyond carbon cycles, such as water quality and biological diversity.
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In the soil, the decomposition of living things forms the soil carbon sponge, which can resiliently sustain plant life, affect the earth’s hydrology and heat balance, and may give humans the near-term leverage we need to avert catastrophic climate change, restore hydrologic function, maintain our economies and civilizations, and maintain and enhance human health.
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In this essay David Smith contends that the message that agricultural scientists have promoted for decades and the core of the courses in land management they have taught, is acceptable, and a recognition of the work of the agricultural science/natural resource management profession.
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A world analysis of the feed consumption of all livestock classes shows that the bulk of their diets are supplied by pasture, browse, food processing wastes and bi-products. Just 13% is supplied by grains that could be used for human food production.
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The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) program trains farmers in agroforestry techniques that increase their resilience and food security in the face of hotter, drier growing conditions.
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Study of the mostly microscopic soil food web has been going on for decades but is now attracting more interest from researchers looking for environmentally benign methods to improve agriculture.
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I would not recommend this book to most farmers, they have many other more balanced publications and knowledge sources to help them understand and adopt a holistic approach to decision making.
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By working with nature farm productivity is rewarded with optimum lamb and ewe welfare, optimum lambing percentage, and optimum pasture growth to support ewe milk production and lamb growth rate. Applying some simple pasture management techniques supports natural sheep reproduction cycles, pasture growth and paddock ecosystem functions.
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Michael Lyons’ Nuffield report recommendations provide an excellent blue print for any livestock business to operate under or at the very least consider seriously.
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In balancing conservation concerns and agricultural aims, there are other factors to consider, including what farmers want and what happens to crops growing near forests.
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The latest CSIRO Biodiversity Knowledge Project seems premised on agriculture being a negative force. In reality farmers have some really positive stories of land use and climate resilience, which we should be sharing and learning from.
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Brassica has been demonstrated as the most cost effective pasture species for finishing heavy trade lambs over summer, autumn and winter on Moffitts Farm. The alternatives such as supplementary feeding lambs with pasture silage, lucerne silage or pellets are in our experience more expensive per kg dry matter fed, more labour time consuming and result in more variable lamb growth rate performance.
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Vigorous pastures species managed for resilience to variable rainfall will be able to accommodate a range of insects such as Yellowheaded cockchafer larvae, field crickets and red legged earth mites. They become part of the soil food web rather than a problem.
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Small and absentee landowners need to consider a wide range of animal welfare, environmental, infrastructure, technology, cost and time issues when deciding on which type of livestock to buy for their farms.
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Many Australian farmers have dramatically improved the state of the environment over the past decade, however, while these improvements are noted in the State of the Environment report released in March 2017, the authors persisted in painting a gloomy picture of the future.,
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Many people are unaware that poison 1080 is the most environmentally sensitive and target-specific poison available to protect Australia’s vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems from feral animals, because it occurs naturally in over 30 species of native plants.
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After 30 years of landcare farming practice change, greater emphasis should be put on protecting the enhanced environments built up across participating farms. It’s time for more dollars being allocated to exclusion fencing for its long-term benefits in protecting farm ecosystem functions and livelihoods.
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Given the Animal Industries Advisory Committee failed to understand what constitutes best practice grazing management which protects ecosystem functions, and the Victorian state government supported virtually all its recommendations it is unlikely that the changes to be made to planning procedures for livestock enterprises will make a significant difference.
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On Moffitts Farm near Romsey, Victoria a ram joining management program is reducing the lambing period to about three weeks. Coupled with attention to high pasture herbage levels in lambing paddocks for avoiding bad wind chill impacts and ensuring high levels of ewe nutrition, lamb marking percentage is keeping above 130% .
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The recent statement by Animals Australia that farmers who are involved in the live export trade are being “kept in the dark” over the treatment of their stock seems to be correct. This situation can be easily changed to give farmers knowledge about what happens to their livestock overseas.
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Seasonal rainfall conditions changed dramatically between May and September 2016. After 30 months of below average monthly rainfall, above average rainfall has made a significant impact.
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The Wongwibinda, Northern Tablelands NSW fertiliser trial was established through local farmer interest in composts as an alternative source of phosphorus and other plant nutrients. Unfortunately the trial has produced biased results.
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The latest expose showing killing cattle with a sledge hammer in a Vietnamese abattoir highlights the inability of the Australian government’s Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) to prevent animal cruelty.
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