Keeping topsoil on the land

Less soil is being lost to creeks and rivers on the southern Tablelands thanks to changed grazing practices and to solutions like rock chutes for eroded gullies.

Seven farming families have been working with not-for-profit environmental organisation Terrain NRM and grazing and soil health specialists for the last seven years on changes that range from dividing paddocks up and rotating cattle differently to building up vegetation coverage where rock chutes and bund walls have been built to stop gullies from eroding any further.

Graziers say the results include better pastures

“What we’re seeing is more feed and better-quality feed,” Woodleigh Station’s Pete Waddell says. “We’ve fenced to cut paddocks up and we’re now running bigger numbers of cattle on smaller areas rather than the reverse, which is the traditional approach. I’ve seen a marked improvement in the condition of country.’’

Preventing 4,500 tonnes of fine sediment from reaching the Reef annually

Terrain NRM’s Duncan Buckle says the combined impact of 10 erosion-control structures, and grazing management changes across six cattle stations, is keeping thousands of tonnes of soil on the land each wet season and stopping an estimated 4,500 tonnes of the really fine soil particles (the equivalent of 225 semi-trailer loads) from becoming sediment on the Great Barrier Reef each year.

“Fine-tuning grazing management practices and making the land more resilient has been a big part of these two projects,’’ he says.

“It’s the key to reducing erosion in the Herbert River catchment. We’ve been working with graziers to improve the health of grassland ecosystems and cattle, and to improve production.

Managing cattle to improve soil health

“We look at ways to manage cattle to promote soil health because improved soil health results in thicker, healthier, more nutritious pastures. And getting more roots in the soil means the soil can absorb water better and hold together better.”

Grazier Curtis Archer says changes on Glen Ruth Station are creating better pastures and making it easier to handle cattle and control weeds like lantana with fire.

Splitting paddocks for a three-paddock rotation system

“We’ve split paddocks in half and gone to a three-paddock rotation system in the river country and another three-paddock system to manage the creek flats,’’ he says.

“It’s making the cattle work the country better, rather than just sitting on creek flats and always hammering them. It’s giving paddocks a more even graze and we’ve seen the dominant species take over – good native grasses. We’ve got three times the volume of grass in these paddocks, which means we can add a few more cattle now. I think there will be more and more benefits over the years.