Pathways less travelled to forage legume practice change

Abstract

Land condition decline, pasture rundown and dieback are significant issues for beef businesses in central Queensland. Perennial pasture legumes play a role in preventing and remediating these conditions, leading to improved beef production and business profitability. Adoption of perennial legume pastures by beef producers in central Queensland is low; however, there is renewed interest in legume plantings since they have been promoted as an option for greenhouse gas reduction. An extension strategy was developed to use carbon-focused peer-to-peer learning workshops to generate interest in one-on-one support to introduce perennial pasture legumes. Workshops were delivered in three locations in central Queensland in 2023 and were designed with a mixture of group learning activities and presentations. The workshop delivery team included a carbon scientist, carbon project advisor and an experienced extension pasture specialist. Feedback collected from the workshops indicated that 10% of producer respondents intended to make a change on-property involving legume pastures on 3,387 ha. 41% of producer attendees participated in one-on-one action plan support on-property after the workshop, where a total of 16 actions plans for 2,297 ha were documented on 10 properties. In the 11 mo after the initial workshops, producers who participated in the action plan process reported 561 ha of practice change. This change was considered to be incremental towards legume planting and included practices such as soil and seed testing, timber clearing and cultivation. Despite the documented practice changes, the one-on-one support method was labour intensive. Ongoing engagement with producers is continuing into the legume-planting season, such that more data can be collected on practice change. Overall, the strategy of using carbon-focussed events to garner interest in perennial legumes and producer practice change was successful and will be repeated.