Grain and Graze

Grain and Graze will increase whole farm profitability and productivity by 10% while enhancing social outcomes and natural resource conditions across the sheep-wheat zone. Grain and Graze is a research and extension program working in collaboration with farmers and regional natural resource management agencies.

The profitability of mixed farming systems varies across the sheep wheat zone, and the resource base is threatened by a number of degradation processes. Yet nearly 40,000 producers rely upon maintaining and improving both profitability and resource condition for continual business enhancement.

The project will identify what combinations and rotations of livestock, pastures, native vegetation and crops will optimise profitability and sustainability at the farm and catchment scale. It will provide mixed farming enterprises with new, ‘whole farm’ knowledge, tools and capacity to make changes that will increase production of crops, pastures and animals while maintaining or enhancing biodiversity and the catchment resources which sustain them.

Grain and Graze is operating in 9 regions across Australia and projects have been developed through consultation with regional producer groups, catchment management authorities and state agencies.

Regional projects are working in the following areas:

 

    
     
Avon (South-West WA)
  • Maintaining cropping profitability in a cropping / grazing rotation based on perennials
  • Using time, labour & management more efficiently to meet profit & quality of life goals
  • Extended Pasture phases in an annual / crop system to improve profitability and livestock productivity
Border Rivers (Southern QLD & Northern NSW)
  • Integration of short and long term pasture phases into a cropping system, to enhance whole farm sustainability & profitability
Central West/Lachlan (Central NSW)
  • Value of pasture cropping (east) and alley farming with saltbush (west)
  • Feed profiles and production options to efficiently utilise a range of available forage options
  • Biodiversity in mixed farming landscapes
Corangamite/Glenelg–Hopkins (South-west Vic)
  • Improving pasture growth over winter by removing the effect of water-logging
  • Integrated pest management for crop and pasture
  • Use of Lucerne as a break crop in cropping rotations
  • Strategic use of native grasses to optimise whole farm feed supply
  • Management of stubble
Eyre Penninsula (South-central SA)
  • Identification of barriers to optimising farming systems
  • Impact of farming system options on the triple bottom line
  • Integration of livestock with existing cropping enterprises
Mallee (South-west NSW, North-east SA, North-west Vic)
  • Determining the production impact of management decisions from a range of feeding scenarios to support increased stocking rates.
  • Soil biodiversity in mixed farming systems
  • Monitor farms to demonstrate best management practice
Murrumbidgee (Southern NSW)
  • Addressing whole farm feed supply using grazing cereals & short term pastures with particularly consideration to their management, enterprise mix, protection of the resource base and species diversity
Northern Agricultural Region (South-central WA)
  • Best bet grazing management strategies for livestock to improve whole farm feed mix and profit through use of perennials
  • Options to integrate perennial pastures into crop rotations
  • Identify the best suited perennial pastures, their likely levels of production, impact on water use, nutrient loss and soil erosion.
  • Risk that perennial pastures could become environmental weeds
Maranoa Balonne (southern Qld) 
  • Matching land use to land capability
  • Improved management of pasture and fodder crop phases
  • Capacity building amongst the community

The regional projects are supported by three National projects looking across the regions at the following areas;

  • social dimensions of mixed farming (i.e. understanding the trade-offs which influence decisions) (social)
  • the relationship between resilience of farming businesses and enterprise mix (economics)
  • whole farm feed distribution and utilisation to reduce risk and maximise the sustainability of mixed farming systems (feedbase)

Grain and Graze is a collaborative partnership between Australian Wool Innovation, Meat and Livestock Australia, Land and Water Australia and Grains Research and Development Corporation.

For more information visit www.grainandgraze.com.au

Contact:

Richard Price, National Operations Co-ordinator, Grain & Graze, 02 6295 6300
Renelle Jeffrey, Senior Project Officer, Sustainable Production Systems, 02 9299 5155

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