James and Libby Gardiner
'Bulgoo'
Cobar NSW
Long-term climate predictions from CSIRO helped prompt a complete shift of management philosophy and a 400% increase in production for the Gardiner's grazing property in the New South Wales rangelands. For over 20 years James and Libby Gardiner have been farming 'Bulgoo' near Cobar. Their 20,000 hectare enterprise, in a 300mm average rainfall area, includes sheep for meat and wool, goats for meat and aquaculture. |  |
Emergency measures, such as removing woody weeds and cropping the country in an effort to eventually reestablish pastures, were unsuccessful.
The long-range (30-year) forecast from the CSIRO's Climate Control Centre gave an indication of what was coming. Although the average rainfall was unchanged, the frequency of rainfall events was dropping drastically.
James and Libby realised they needed to make major changes in their management. They knew there would be water for them to diversify into aquaculture, but they didn't know how they could improve their pastures with the knowledge that significant rainfall events would occur every three months rather than every six weeks.
'About three years ago someone got up and spoke in a landcare meeting' said James. 'He compared grazing to walking up Ayers Rock. He said 365 people walking up Ayres Rock in one day did less damage than one person walking up every day for a year.
'His point was that it was the resting time that was critical for the landscape to recover.'
As well as diversifying, James and Libby decided to shift to a rotational grazing method, based on putting large numbers of stock on a paddock for short periods of time.
'At the end of 1996 we started, at the same time as Ken Hodgkinson from CSIRO started a project called Total Grazing Pressure' said James.
'When we started monitoring for his project there was nothing here that he could read as a pasture. On the ten sites from here to Charleville, we were by far the worst.'
The Gardiners used some of the elements suggested in the Total Grazing Pressure simulation, adapting them to experiment with the best results. James and Libby now believe that pasture rest is critical, coupled with massive stocking.
'Instead of stocking at set rates, our animals are moved when pasture biomass is reduced to a level where rest is required' said James.
'The critical period is when the plant is starting to grow. You graze quickly, in and out, so the growing plant is not damaged.'
Along with all their landcare group members, James and Libby joined an eight-day training in the Alan Savoury method of rangelands grazing, known as Holistic Management. The training taught them more about the benefits of rotational grazing methods.
'We knew from CSIRO's Climate Centre that we were having bigger rains with longer periods in between' said James. 'So how were we going to make use of the large amount of water we were getting to grow grass?
'In Holistic Management we aim to eat one third of the plant, trample one third and leave one third to regenerate. We look at the pasture species that we want to keep and graze those to a specific height and then move on.
'In doing that we've stopped the runoff of water and we're making better use of the water in the ground.'
Libby said 'We are looking at the long-term all the time - if it doesn't rain, how long do we have enough feed for and when we will have to move the sheep?'
'To us, day-to-day rainfall is a minor thing now' said James. 'We don't worry so much, because we know if we get even ten points of rain it's going to be magical. The system is set up so that we make the most of whatever rainfall we get.'
One of the major benefits of applying Holistic Management to 'Bulgoo' has been increased biodiversity.
'The type of feed and diversity of feed has grown. We've got birds and reptiles and all the plants that everybody wants and some that no one's heard anything about' said James.
'Everybody wanted tall oat grass, we've got it growing out here as high as my head. There's windmill grass and kangaroo grass by the mile. It's just magic.
'Our stock used to eat mineral supplements like children eating licorice, but now they shun them.'
'In three years we've gone from a few kilograms per hectare of dry matter to 2½ tonnes per hectare. We say that's a 400% increase in production.'
'What we've got here is increasing biodiversity within a profitable enterprise. Instead of putting diesel in the air we use our stock to do it for us, and while they're doing it for us they're making us money.'
Over the past three years the Gardiner's lambing percentages have improved from 40 percent to 80 percent, wool production is up by 20 percent and other inputs have been reduced. Diversification into goats and yabbies has also improved income variability.
'Our profit hasn't improved because of the downturn in wool prices' said James. 'But if it hadn't been for changing our management so that we could use the water cycle more effectively to grow grass, we may have been in very serious financial trouble.
'In April 1998, at the end of the dry period, everyone was squealing for drought exceptional circumstances and we were still getting grasses growing under our grazing system.
'I asked the Rural Lands Protection Board in here for the definition of drought. None of them knew. We looked at our rainfall records and guess what? For the last two years they were average, plus or minus ten percent.
'We don't call them droughts any more, we say prolonged dry periods.'
James and Libby believe that a changed approach to systems management is essential and that, contrary to some opinions, regenerative grazing is critical to the health of the rangelands.
'Paddocks we locked up for a few years became quite crusted' said Libby. 'Without the action of grazing animals, the water can't penetrate the soil and the seeds have difficulty growing.
'This method increases water penetration. Since we rotated the sheep back in there, biodiversity has improved.'
'Holistic Management is not the be all and end all' said James. 'But we have found it a good basis to go on from.
'It's really about willingness to change. That's the sign of success.'