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Grain & Graze - About
Grain and Graze is a revolutionary Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, and Land and Water Australia funded project. It is a 5 year project that started in 2003 and will finish in 2008. The aim is to help the mixed farmers of Australia increase their profitability whilst looking after the natural environment.
There are 9 pilot regions across Australia in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland with each region addressing local issues.
In WA there are 2 pilot regions – Avon and the Northern Agricultural Region (NAR). NAR is managed by Phil Barrett-Lennard (Evergreen Farming Group) with project officers Alison Cooke (Evergreen Farming Group), Brianna Peake (Leibe Group), Georgina Gardner (Victoria Plains Landcare Group) and Sarah Knight (Mingenew-Irwin Group).
Through this project we are looking at 3 specific objectives
- Maximise farming system profitablity by introducing perennial pastures into the farming system,
- Stimulate change in the Northern Agricultural region farming systems so that the natural resource base is significantly improved whilst at the same time increasing production and
- Increase the capacity of producers and service industry staff to successfully incoporate perennial pastures into farming systems.
What we aim to do is
- Increase sowing of sub-tropical perennial grasses,
- Increase sowing of grazing cereals and
- Better match of feed supply and demand, and species to soil type, to increase profitability
For the ojectives and regional successes to be met, there are 20 demonstration farms in the NAR with each group having 5 farms. Grazing data is being collected and entered into a farming software package. Analysis is then carried out on each farm to see how each pasture type (eg volunteer annuals, perennial grasses, stubble and tagasaste) is performing.
Grain and Graze NAR is also looking at water use by perennial pastures and the environmental benefits they have in a mixed farming enterprise. Water use is looking at the effects perennial pastures have on erosion and leaching compared with their annual counterparts at 8 different sites. Environmental benefits (BiGG – Biodiversity in Grain and Graze) is looking at vegetation, insects, birds, soil microbial activity at 7 sites across the NAR. This part of the project will also take into the consideration of perennials especially grasses becoming a weed.
Grain and Graze the Project
For more information about Grain and Graze you can visit the national website www.grainandgraze.com.au |
