Dryland Focus Farm aims to lift profit and natural resources
The feed production cycle on Ian and Marilyn Jennings’ property is analysed monthly, as is its effect on biodiversity and water use
Frost has become the major challenge for Ian Jennings over the recent run of dry years and he has been rethinking his stubble management, along with the need to retain all possible moisture in the soil.
Mr Jennings and his wife Marilyn are the fourth generation of the family on 1600-hectare ‘Raywood’ at Coolamon, north of Wagga Wagga in southern NSW. They run 2000 Merino ewes on ‘Raywood’, with the top half of the flock going to Merino rams and the others to White Suffolks for prime lamb production.
Settled in 1879, ‘Raywood’ is a typical Murrumbidgee run of undulating, loamy, red soils, with some low country where frost can cause problems. The country is still lightly timbered and Mr Jennings is well into a program of fencing off native trees and grasses and planting tree lines for the purposes of wildlife protection and windbreaks. The aim is to have all paddocks about 80 hectares in area, each with a tree line.
"Traditionally ‘Raywood’ ran a 50:50 mix of stock and cropping,” Mr Jennings says. “Over the past decade, cropping crept out to 60, even 70, per cent of the area and now we are moving back to the 50:50 balance."
Over the past 15 to 20 years, the property has moved gradually from the traditional clover-dominant pastures to a lucerne/clover mix, as Mr Jennings believes lucerne is better than clover at taking advantage of rain whenever it falls.
‘Raywood’ is one of five ‘Focus Farms’ being studied in a joint initiative between Murrumbidgee Grain & Graze and the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ ‘Best Management Practices for Dryland Cropping’ project.
Grain & Graze is a collaborative partnership between AWI, Meat and Livestock Australia, the Grains Research and Development Corporation and Land and Water Australia. Its aim is to lift the profitability of livestock and cropping operations on mixed farms across Australia, while simultaneously improving natural resource management, including soils.
The Focus Farm initiative is funded by the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality through the Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authority. Monthly monitoring of the Focus Farms provides an overview of the feed production cycle on a whole-farm basis, and how this affects environmental indicators such as water use, ground cover and biodiversity.
Five paddocks on each farm – representing typical mixed-farming components of annual pasture, perennial pasture with lucerne, native pasture/remnant vegetation, grazing cereal and grain-only cereal – are monitored.
Mr Jennings says the grazing wheats make a major contribution to filling the usual winter feedgap, as they are capable of being grazed six to eight weeks after they germinate and provide a big lift in stocking rates, at least double that of lucerne/clover pastures. They also allow lucerne pastures to be spelled from early winter onwards, and pastures to be cleaned of broadleaf weeds by the time the ewes lamb at the start of August.
Monitoring of soil moisture and biota as part of the Grain & Graze project has helped Mr Jennings to consider retaining standing stubble rather than mulching it, which can cause seeding problems after a heavy crop.
“Maybe we won’t get so much stubble if the dry years continue, but I have started to think the way to go is to leave the stubble standing and perhaps sow between the rows, because standing stubble definitely provides more wind protection,” he says. “I am on 10-inch (25-centimetre) spacings and thinking about going to 12 inches (30cm), to provide a bit more room for sowing between the rows.”
Mr Jennings is keen to get a perennial grass such as phalaris into the ‘Raywood’ farming system, for the contribution it would make to soil organic matter and for ground cover in pasture paddocks over summer. Like everything else related to the weather, success with phalaris has not been easy in recent years, but patience is the key.
More information: Richard Price, Grain & Graze national operations coordinator, 02 6295 6300, 0409 624 297; www.grainandgraze.com.au
See also: Get involved, get the Grain & Graze guide
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