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Land, Water and Wool Projects

Biodiversity conservation integrated into sustainable grazing systems (Tasmania)

The Midlands is well known for producing some of the world’s most prestigious wool. Not so well known is the fact that the wool-producing enterprises in the region are substantially based on native vegetation that can be of high conservation significance. The Tasmanian regional project, Biodiversity conservation integrated into sustainable grazing systems, looked at how woolgrowers currently manage their native vegetation for production purposes on-farm. The project aimed to take a (more)...

Delivering a land condition framework for grazing land management education

Rangelands ecosystems, on which pastoral enterprises are based, are relatively sensitive and damage through poor management can be very slow to reverse. Effective monitoring of land condition offers the hope that decline in land condition can be spotted and corrected at an early stage. As land managers come under increasing scrutiny from outside, monitoring can also offer a means of ‘proving’ good land management. However, monitoring is complex and time consuming. In this project, Dr (more)...

Development of Wool Industry River Management Guides for the High Rainfall and Sheep and Wheat zones of Australia

This project has resulted in the two Land, Water & Wool River Management guides – one for woolgrowers in the high rainfall zone and the other for those in the sheep wheat zone. They were developed as a resource to assist the wool industry and woolgrowers improve the productive use and environmental management of creeks, streams and associated riparian lands. The first step to developing the guides was to work with woolgrowers to identify the management issues (more)...

Farm businesses, wool production and biodiversity

A survey of 1500 woolgrowers commissioned by Land, Water & Wool, found that more than half of Victoria’s woolgrowers have remnant native vegetation on their land. Many Victorian woolgrowers already manage their native pastures and vegetation to provide shelter and shade for stock, retain ground cover and reduce erosion, and improve the general health of their land.

Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in Australia’s Pastoral Zone

Much of Australia’s rangelands are characterised by extreme climate variability which represents a major challenge for woolgrowers. In order to maintain or increase productivity while minimising negative environmental impacts on the land, producers need access to reliable seasonal climate forecast (SCF) information at critical times for key management decisions.

Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in the SA Pastoral Zone

The average rainfall for the 40 woolgrower families in the area stretching from north of Port Augusta to east of Burra is less than 350 millimetres and rainfall distribution is highly variable.

The aim of Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in the SA Pastoral Zone was to help growers more effectively use climate forecasts when making grazing management decisions for the season ahead.

Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in the WA Southern Pastoral Zone

With 70 per cent of woolgrowers’ income made in 30 per cent of years (averaged over 10 years), woolgrowers need access to tailored, good quality, timely information that will better enable them to manage for climactic variability.

Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in the Western Zone (QLD)

Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in the Western Zone aimed to deliver accurate, region-specific seasonal forecasts to these growers up to six months ahead, enabling them to make productive and environmentally-sound management decisions based on potential rainfall. Initially the project team tested the skill of three forecast systems, Average SOI, SOI Phases and 9-Phase SST, to predict rainfall or pasture growth (more)...

Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in Western NSW

The western pastoral zone of NSW covers the area bound by Walgett in the north, Balranald in the south, Broken Hill in the west and Nyngan in the east. Since 1879, five extended droughts have caught many graziers in the region unprepared, resulting in major stock losses and sometimes irreparable land degradation. But through Improved Seasonal Forecasts for Wool Producers in Western NSW, some 330 woolgrowers were introduced to seasonal climate forecasts (more)...

Informing the decisions of pastoral woolgrowers for country and profit

Drought and the lead-up to drought are crucial times for making stocking rate decisions in the rangelands. Poor decisions at these times, more so than at any others, can lead to irreversible decline of the soil and pasture base. However, decision-making at these times is fraught with emotional and psychological considerations that can distract pastoralists. Dr Alec Holm and colleagues worked with pastoralists Rob and Kathryn Mitchell from Yalgoo in Western Australia’s southern rangelands (more)...