Putting more relevant numbers around Australia’s livestock emissions
The Australian sheep meat industry has already achieved a status of green house gas stabilisation.
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Knowledge Base
Soil carbon to decline from global warming negative feedback loop
This research contends global warming is likely to increase soil carbon losses particularly in regions with high carbon stocks.
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Comparing grasses without grazing them has little value for building climate resilience
Applying artificial climate treatments to pasture species without including different grazing regimes is absurd, it makes the research conclusions around pasture species resilience in face of climate change irrelevant.
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Carbon-chomping soil bacteria may pose hidden climate risk
This research is suggesting that the carbon sequestered in the soil can be released faster than previously thought [and play a role in] future climate change,”
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Soil health farming versus conservation agriculture
Soil health (regenerative agriculture) initiatives must credibly delineate grain yield, grain quality and across farm ecosystem functions outcomes from what is currently being achieved with science based conservation agriculture.
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Unique insight into Merino breeding and pastoral history
“A Twentieth Century Shepherd – The letters of E.H.B. Lefroy” demonstrate the activities and passion of a remarkable Australian who devoted his life to helping others in a science based quest for a more productive and profitable pastoral Merino wool industry.
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Messaging on minimum pasture ground cover quantity is inconsistent and often ignores ecosystem functions
Livestock farmers are being given mixed messages around minimum pasture levels that preserve pasture plant resilience and ecosystem functions.
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Ruminant methane decision pending – GWP100 versus GWPstar
The European Commission is about to settle on a new policy on methane which could have profound implications for ruminant livestock agriculture.
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Phosphorus fertiliser an advantage for specific native grass species
Some native grass species will respond to increased plant available phosphorus, but best practice grazing management is critical to ensure their persistence when fertiliser is applied.
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No meat interview demonstrates “go with the flow” journalism
Too many journalists fail to ask their on-air guests questions about generalisations made, in this case about different types of meat production in Australia versus overseas.
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Regenerative agriculture’s version of science creates division between farmers
In part two of a three article series on regenerative agriculture Patrick Francis examines why the concept is creating unnecessary divisions amongst Australia’s broadacre farmers.
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What makes a regenerative agriculture farmer
Regen Ag has emerged over the last five years under the misapprehension of providing a more holistic methodology for profitable farming while improving ecosystem functions compared to conventional or agricultural science based farming.
Read MoreNeil Black western Victoria 1839
The excerpts from Neil Black’s diary relate to Western Victoria’s landscapes, pastures, wildlife, livestock, animal husbandry, labour, wages, living conditions and bushfires in 1840.
Read MoreJames Bonwick Western Victoria 1857
Find out what Victoria’s pastoral landscapes, vegetation and wildlife were like before pastoralism. James Bonwick provides an insight in 1857
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Feeds and husbandry to reduce ruminant methane emissions
Ruminant livestock industries are under pressure to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and strategies exist to help do this.
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Soil carbon trading credits questionable on perennial pasture farms
The challenge for agricultural science surrounding increasing or maintaining soil organic carbon level, is to provide farmers with knowledge that gives them confidence that the practice changes being recommended will achieve the desired outcomes under their individual soil type, climate, enterprise and business circumstances.
Read MoreAg science versus regenerative ag
Let’s work together to understand how and where regenerative agriculture works, identify possible problems, and work out the economic benefits.
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Long-haired rat story enchanting
Learning about the biology of the long-haired rat is the key to this book’s intrigue, because the long-haired rat took decades to scientifically identify as the unique Australian rodent, Mus villosissius.
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Soil carbon – US research points to plant diversity and soil pore size as keys to storage
Soils from restored prairie ecosystems, with many different plant species, had many more pores of the right size for stable carbon storage than did a pure stand of switchgrass.
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Can dingoes contribute to ecological restoration of the WA rangelands?
David Pollock contends there is an argument in some pastoral areas such as where Wooleen station is, for using dingoes as a means to reduce uncontrolled grazing pressure of kangaroos and feral goats because the station livestock carrying capacities are so low due to land degradation that the pastoral businesses cannot afford to contribute to the costs of dog control.
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Book review The Wooleen Way
Pollock’s insights into the connections between ecosystem functions, pastures and grazing management, put him into a rare group of outstanding farm/station ecosystem managers, observers, and influencers in the industry.
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Sustainable Intensification of agriculture – for food and nutritional security
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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Controlling kangaroos is essential for rangeland resilience
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 sheep export Independent Observers reports inadequate for trade to continue
Live 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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Served with a side of science — building community trust in food production
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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Organic versus inorganic fertilisers’ impacts on soil health
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 MoreDreaming of a more equitable Australia via a culture of compassion
Hugh McKay – Do you dream as I dream of a kinder, more compassionate, more generous, more equitable Australia?
Read MoreWA on-farm trial with perennial grasses to boost soil carbon
The 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’s largest single source of consumed energy is biomass
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 MoreMurray Elliott chronicles Merino breeding’s enlightenment
“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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Fairy ring fungi boost pasture growth and palatability
For pasture enthusiasts fairy rings present an insight into the power of soil biology to influence pasture plant growth.
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Producing more food from less land
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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Live sheep exports – Where is evidence WA sheep farmers rely on it for business survival?
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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Beef cattle farming supporting small holder livelihoods – a case study
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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Agroforestry systems may play vital role in mitigating climate change
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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Recognizing the soil carbon sponge to counter global warming
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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The history of farm land management in Australia – there are two different versions
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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World livestock an asset not a threat to human food availability
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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Agroforestry delivers holistic outcomes for Kenyan farmers
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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