The value of planned grazing in helping farmers manage for climate change was the focus of a workshop held in Yarck in early March.
The workshop, run by Brian Wehlburg from Inside Outside Management, was the first in a series of four Holistic Management workshops focussing on planned grazing organised by the Upper Goulburn Landcare Network. The Goulburn Murray Landcare Network is due to host a similar course in the north of the catchment in July.
Planned grazing deals with the complexity of integrating livestock production with pasture growth and recovery whilst regenerating land, animal health and profitability.
Key principles include high stock density, long plant recovery and regular monitoring.
“Planned grazing helps farmers build and repair the soil base, including soil carbon, and lower cost of production,” Goulburn Broken CMA’s Rhiannon Sandford said.
“It is an effective tool in managing climate change as well as it links rainfall and growth events and allows forward assessment of feed quantity, decreasing seasonal risk.”
“Holistic management is fundamentally about working with our land – supporting and nurturing our soils, protecting our water and vegetation, and enabling participants to make economically, socially and environmentally sound decisions on this basis,” Upper Goulburn Landcare Facilitator Cat Thomas said.
The workshops are part of the From the Ground Up project supported by the Upper Goulburn and Goulburn Murray Landcare networks and Goulburn Broken CMA through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program. For more information on future workshops contact reception@gbcma.vic.gov.au