Soil constraints to productivity in high rainfall pastures (South West WA)
Case Studies
The Grazing Matcher Program 2018
Two groups of producers, both consisting of six livestock entities, met eight times over a twelve-month period to undertake the Grazing Matcher Program. The program is based on best practice management and was facilitated on participating farms by three local experts in agronomy and livestock production. The key objective...
Lebeckia: Developing a perennial legume for deep sandy soils
Deep sandy soils typically have very poor fertility, low organic matter and are severely water repellent. They can be environmentally hazardous posing a severe erosion risk and creating difficulty in controlling weeds. Further, there are very few viable options for these soils except Tagasaste and Pine trees. The project...
Trial Report: Improving soil health to reduce fruit tree mortality
Balingup orchardist David Giumelli is concerned with tree deaths in his apricot orchard. Believing the root cause of these deaths is poor soil health, he is looking for a long-term solution that promotes soil biology and reduces his dependence on chemicals. He has made several changes to his management...
Agroforestry with native trees: Establishing local species for timber using swales and mulch in two constrasting seasons
Small landholders David Singe and Natalee Kuser love native landscapes. So when they purchased 45 hectares of mostly cleared land on the Blackwood River, traditional farming was not on their minds. “We’re not farmers. This is a lifestyle block,” David said. “We could have simply leased it all out...
Messina pasture – salt and waterlogging tolerant annual legume
Messina is a salt and waterlogging tolerant annual pasture legume released in 2017 that has the potential to change the management of salt-land areas. In 2014, the South West Catchments Council partnered with Evergreen Farming to demonstrate the establishment and growth of messina and compare it to balansa clover...
Trial Report – Incorporation of perennial Australian shrubs into whole-farm management
Trial Report – Incorporation of perennial Australian shrubs into whole-farm management This project supported, for the first time, a whole-farm demonstration of an Enrich farming system, which incorporates native perennial shrubs and mixed pasture species. The grazing system was demonstrated at sufficient scale (about 10% of the farm area)...
Introducing diverse perennial pastures to improve soil health and pasture and potato yield and quality
Historically, many potato farms in the Manjimup-Pemberton area used a five year rotation of potatoes, hay, pasture, pasture, pasture. Pasture species were generally limited to sub clovers and annual ryegrass species. Soil health was declining on many of the farms in the area because potato production practices were and...
Making compost on-farm: 20 years of know-how from an organic farmer
Soil Health Trial – SH2.1.001
Investigating impacts of including pasture in cropping rotations on soil pH and biology
