Wambiana : Grazing strategies and tools to improve profitability and land condition

Abstract

The Wambiana grazing trial was established near Charters Towers in 1997 to test and develop evidence-based management strategies to manage for rainfall variability. This fourth phase (20182022) of the project focussed on developing and demonstrating adaptive strategies and decision tools to help producers sustainably manage for climate variability. Trial conditions were challenging with extended drought years. Pasture condition declined to very low levels under heavy stocking, but in contrast to previous years, also declined to varying extents in the other strategies. Importantly, the results show that simply stocking at long-term carrying capacity (LTCC) inevitably leads to land condition decline, unless stocking rates are adjusted downwards in lower rainfall years. The key recommendation is thus to stock at close to LTCC in better seasons, but promptly reduce stocking rates with approaching drought. This long-term strategy allows producers to maintain viability in dry years, minimise land degradation and maximise the potential for post drought recovery. Results indicate that for a 20,000 ha property, adopting such a strategy would give an extra $3 million over 24 years in accumulated gross margin compared to heavy stocking. The long term trial data was also used to develop tools to predict paddock forage quality, further improve tools to estimate forage availability, and increase the ability of the GRASP model to simulate the performance of different management strategies. A major extension effort was conducted at the Wambiana site with ongoing input from the Grazier Advisory Committee. Two large field days were held (total area managed 1.41 million ha), there were site visits by a total of 657 visitors and additional presentations elsewhere e.g. at NGD sites to an additional audience of 328. Four on property sites in different catchments demonstrated the principles of good management to a large number of producers and identified a range of ways to implement these principles on property. These included improving reproductive efficiency, developing trigger points and action plans to manage drought and strategic use of improved pastures. An independent survey showed that the project is delivering relevant, practical information and support for industry with a very high percentage of producers implementing practice improvements. Producers rated the project as very relevant with strong (100 %) support for its continuation.