Research findings underpin wool's environmental credentials

New management options for up to half of the 2.5 million hectares of salt-affected agricultural land in Australia are among the key achievements of the biggest environmental management program ever undertaken by the wool industry.

The five-year, $40-million research program Land, Water & Wool has commenced the roll-out of key findings. It is a research collaboration between Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI), Land & Water Australia and other research investors, which is entering its final year.

Identification of more sustainable and profitable management options for native pastures and bushland on wool properties; cost-effective ways to reduce gully erosion to improve the health of waterways and more sophisticated seasonal climate risk forecasts developed specifically for woolgrowers in the rangelands have also been revealed.

A snapshot of the research program’s emerging results was released this week during a tour of national research sites and commercial wool properties involved with Land, Water & Wool in Western Victoria.

The Shaping the Future summary outlines Land, Water & Wool’s key findings in the areas of six Sub-programmes: Sustainable Grazing on Saline Lands, Native Vegetation and Biodiversity, Rivers and Water Quality, Managing Pastoral Country, Managing Climate Variability and Future Woolscapes.

AWI Limited Chief Executive Officer Dr Len Stephens said the emerging results strengthened woolgrowers’ knowledge of the interaction between wool production and the natural environment and bolstered the range of management options for the land and water resources that underpinned the wool industry.

“With some 35,000 woolgrowers producing 475,000 million kilograms of wool annually from one quarter of the Australian continent, the wool industry is taking a leadership position in improved environmental management and in ensuring the ‘clean-green’ reputation of wool in the international marketplace,” he said.

“As indicated in the Shaping the Future summary, the Land, Water & Wool findings will enable woolgrowers to cost-effectively improve the balance, resilience and productivity of their businesses.”

Land & Water Australia Executive Director Andrew Campbell said woolgrowers are conscious of the fact that they are in the natural resource management business and that the environment in which they operate in is tough and often unforgiving.

“Through Land, Water & Wool, woolgrowers involved in the program are reaping the rewards from improved management of natural resources on their farms – they are working toward having healthier rivers, richer native bushland and more productive soils and pastures,” he said.

“They utilise more sophisticated seasonal climate risk assessment tools for better drought preparedness and have gained new confidence in productively managing saline land.”

Other emerging findings from Land, Water & Wool include:

• Grazing trials in the Mid-North of South Australia found that strategic rotational grazing according to plant growth rates promotes healthier perennial plants, reduces bare ground and improves water infiltration while at the same time allowing stocking rates to double from 2.5 dry sheep equivalents (DSE) per hectare to 5 DSE/ha on some sites.

• Sustainable management of native vegetation on-farm is essential as many ecological communities and species in southern and eastern Australia are now very restricted and often highly dependent on private land managers such as woolgrowers for their existence.

• Research in Tasmania’s Midlands region shows that sheep can graze on native pastures while maintaining a high native plant species diversity on-property, including threatened and declining species.

• ‘Mid-range’ salinity sites are the best place for woolgrowers and mixed farmers to make a start on saltland management. Less salty or waterlogged sites are easier to manage, but have a higher opportunity cost as farmers can still grow profitable barley crops (the most tolerant of the cereal crops) on such land. New ways of reducing failure rates for saltland pasture establishment – previously a major barrier to adoption – are also being identified.

• Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) based seasonal climate forecasts are only reliable at certain times of the year and this varies from region-to-region across the low-rainfall pastoral zone. The program has identified the level of reliability of such forecasts for different regions.

• River management guidelines and a tool to help assess the condition of riparian areas and to monitor changes over time are now available for woolgrowers.

The program has also taken an unprecedented look at what the future might hold through the Future Woolscapes initiative, which used a scenario planning process to provide an insight into the challenges, threats and opportunities that lie ahead in 20 to 30 year’s time.

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2005. Research findings underpin wool's environmental credentials. [Online] (Updated November 19th, 2007)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/45 [Accessed Thursday 28th of April 2011 08:12:45 AM ].