Ecologist David Smith with an endangered grass wren. The use of shelterbelts to join isolated areas of natural ecosystems on farms helps conserve species and provides paddocks with shelter.
A forum on soil management and sustainable farming was held at Dookie Agricultural College on Thursday, April 20 as part of a major project on soil health.
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The event was hosted by Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority as part of the soil health project ‘From the Ground Up’, funded by the Federal Government’s National Landcare program.
An audience of 40 people listened to scientists presenting current research into management systems based on soil health.
Areas covered included native habitat restoration, soil carbon and nutrition and benefits of biodiversity.
ANU researcher David Smith spoke about the role that ‘shelterbelts’ played in benefiting farmers by preserving ecosystems.
His Albury-based research group has been researching natural ecology on farms for 23 years.
Shelterbelts are narrow pathways of tree-based ecosystems which join isolated areas of separate ecosystems through natural corridors and which are fenced to keep out livestock.
Mr Smith said there were many threatened species in agricultural areas and research into shelterbelts had shown the benefits of their conservation.
“Shelterbelts can be very effective at conserving biodiversity on farms and have obvious benefits for agriculture as well,” Mr Smith said.
“They are good for sheltering stock, pollination and supporting beneficial insects.
“They perform key roles for biodiversity better than remnant patches of ecosystems.
“A lot of remnant ecosystems that don’t have an under-story and birds, for example, need a suite of vegetation types to inhabit an area.”
Key to the success of shelterbelts is the excluding of grazing animals. Mr Smith said when stock were allowed into the shelterbelts there was a reduction in the mid-story vegetation cover.
“Everything has its own kind of niche, and some birds like to feed in the canopy, some feed on the ground and others like the shrub layer for breeding,” he said.
“We need to conserve those key levels of vegetation across the landscape.”
Mr Smith said there was a range of recommendations that his group made to interested farmers.
“Where you place plantings is important because planting trees in isolation doesn’t tend to support as many bird species as plantings that are either connected to other plantings or other natural assets such as waterway banks, farm dams or rocky outcrops,” he said.
Mr Smith said the involvement of farmers had been positive.
“We’re running many field days and now put research in the hands of farmers,” he said.
“The overall response has been good because it’s not a difficult thing for us to convince people about.”
Vanessa Malandrin from the Hughes Creek Catchment Collaborative spoke about the importance of organic carbon levels in making farming soils more sustainable.
“We need to proof our soils against climate change, make them more productive and more resilient in the face of extreme events,” Mrs Malandrin said.
“The more organic material there is in the soil, the more buffering capacity you have for multiple elements.”
Mrs Malandrin said preserving the carbon content of soils required adopting non-tilling practices and changing grazing methods to rotate animals between pastures.
“There is now a shift towards grazing management,” she said.
Vanessa Malandrin researches organic carbon levels in soil and says that non-tilling farming practices and rotation grazing strategies help make soils more resilient to extreme events. Photo: Andy Wilson
“A lot of farmers in the past have utilised set stocking and then the new generation come along and question the old system and in the same family you’ll have the older farmers saying ‘we’ll keep doing it this way’.
“In set stocking, pasture will be grazed to a level where the plants won’t be able to catch up again.
“It pretty much sounds like common sense because you give the plants rest, and that’s because they need to replenish their resources and their energies.
“It’s the complexity of nature and ecology at play.”
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