Gecko CLaN, VIC - Aust. Govt. Innovation in Sustainable Farm Practices Award

gecko clan

After years of drought, and then flood, dozens of farmers in central Victoria's Gecko CLaN are experimenting with a new technique that promises to increase their resilience to climatic extremes.

At its simplest, "pasture cropping" involves direct-drilling crop seed into a pasture paddock, and then allowing pasture and crop to grow together. Depending on the season and the farmer's priorities, a pasture-cropped paddock can be fully grazed throughout the growing season, or the paddock can be locked up mid-season and the crop allowed to produce harvestable grain.

Gecko ClaN's pasture cropping officer, Jacci Campbell, said after the technique was introduced to the network's landholders in 2009, it was anticipated that about 250 hectares across the catchment would be given over to pasture cropping trials.  When the network later surveyed farmers, it found about 4000 ha was under pasture cropping.

The technique offers potentially greater resilience than conventional cropping or grazing programs, because a farmer can decide on either a grain or grazing outcome late in the season, rather than being committed to either result from the outset.  Also, unlike a normal cropping program, where pasture has to be re-sown after a cropping phase, a pasture-cropped paddock retains its pasture after harvest.

Jacci thinks that the flexibility of the method holds great appeal for farmers who have been through a succession of climatic extremes. It is based upon maintaining a mix of enterprises, and being able to switch focus from one to the other as seasons dictate - concepts vital to managing risk.

The Landcare network introduced pasture cropping to its members through workshops conducted by Col Seis, who pioneered pasture cropping; Bruce Maynard, who independently developed a very low-risk technique called no-kill cropping; and Angus Maurice, who teaches both methods. All are from the NSW Central West.

Several indicators including groundcover, soil microbiology and soil carbon are being monitored to assess the environmental performance of the technique. Early indications are that pasture cropping helps to increase groundcover and the diversity of micro-organisms in the soil.  Anecdotal evidence also shows an additional and unexpected effect: weed numbers on pasture-cropped paddocks fall off dramatically.

Jacci believes that this is partly because as crop and pasture grow up together, they leave no room for weeds. Also, careful management of grazing animals is necessary for pasture cropping to show its potential, and that usually results in more groundcover to suppress weed seeds.

Livestock management skills are essential for pasture croppers, because grazing is used to manage growth and groundcover, and to financially capitalise on the additional biomass supplied by the crop.

About 300 farmers, spread from NSW to Tasmania, are now involved in experimenting with pasture cropping under a true "farmers teaching farmers" model.

Even if pasture cropping proves unsuitable for some farms, Jacci notes that it has introduced many farmers to a new way of viewing interactions between soil, plants and animals. That in itself is likely to have positive long-term effects on the Goulburn-Broken catchments.

The Gecko CLaN is one of 88 finalists in the National Landcare Awards to be announced in Sydney on 4th September, 2012. Commencing in 1991, the Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and groups that make a valuable contribution to the land and coast where they live and work.

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