Natural Resource Management on Small Areas

January 11, 2010
By Lorraine Kent, Administrative Officer

Working for Liverpool Plains Land Management as the Administrative Officer has taught me how natural resource management on small areas is just as important as it is on large commercial agricultural enterprises.

We only have 2 horses on 15 hectares but after implementing rotational grazing and repairing ground denuded of top soil, the erosion on our property, which has a slope of about 10 to 1, has decreased considerably. I resisted all attempts of persuasion by David and Mark to implement these small measures for many years, questioning how 2 horses on 15 hectares could possibly make a difference, although they assured me that it does. Horses eat out the same areas over and over again, no matter how large the paddock and even though I moved them between 2 large paddocks on an irregular basis and did not allow them at all into one steeper paddock, we still had an erosion problem.

Additional watering points and fencing costs were my excuse for not adopting a rotational grazing system. It was pointed out to me that my husband and I could easily make the changes ourselves by putting up electric fences. We already had three dams and a bore, so it wasn’t difficult to divide the property into four paddocks with star pickets, electric tape, purchasing an extra energiser and using an old bath tub.

We had to cut down a couple of pepper trees that were causing problems so we laid them on the denuded areas so they would slow down any run off, and grasses started to sprout in the silt that was laid down on these areas. Once the grass started growing, more silt was laid down, more grass grew and so it goes on.

We started moving the horses between paddocks in a set pattern every month, so each paddock had one month of grazing followed by three months of rest. The improvement in ground cover has been phenomenal, even though we have been in drought on and off since the beginning of the century.

It has not been difficult at all to do and the benefits have been enormous. We received 170 mm of rain over Christmas & New Year and inflow into the dams, from the rotational grazing paddocks, was steady with clear water indicating that there was very little soil erosion. We have seen a significant drop in weeds, especially galvanised burr (aided by a spraying program), and an improvement in native pasture and other grasses.

So, I am here to tell you, that I am glad I followed Mark and David’s advice, stopped finding excuses not to do what proved to be very simple after all, and started rotational grazing and increasing ground cover. We have plenty of grass, even at the worst of times and no longer have to supplement feed the horses, and we have significantly reduced erosion, which we hope over time, will stop altogether.