Smart Farms
Back in 2020 Landcare members were asking – how do you restore native grasslands in degraded, introduced pastures? Landholders were keen to restore native vegetation and realised that the loss of native grassland plants left huge gaps in our local biodiversity.
Four years on, thanks to the efforts of Michael Robinson, Ros Ellinger, Kate Lockhart, Jules Scudamore, Bernie Malone and others, we have heard from many experts, such as Christine Jones, Colin Seis and Grant Sims, and we are still grappling with the answer to this complex question, but we now have many new insights.
We have learnt that the few native grass species which persist in our landscape are the tough, unpalatable ones which have survived grazing pressure from rabbits and livestock and cultivation, and the spread of weeds. The diversity of flora which originally clothed the Bellarine can only be found in little pockets such as McCarthy Reserve in St Leonards.
In acquiring the necessary knowledge to take informed action we’ve heard from a broad range of experts, from grassland ecologists who’ve scalped topsoil and sown native seeds, to farmers and scientists who’ve advocated ways to support healthy soils. All up we’ve had almost 20 presenters involving 500 participants.
While we were impressed with the results of scalping, it is a costly exercise, and removing the topsoil felt counter intuitive.
Case studies provided by Colin Seis, and Kim and Angus Dean demonstrated that attention to soil health had led to spontaneous germination of dormant native grassland seeds.
Soil health is a term which has come increasingly used, and it describes the condition of the soil. “The three key aspects of soil health are the biological, physical and chemical characteristics. A healthy soil will have all aspects functioning well to promote optimal plant growth.” Soil Health fact sheet.
Thus our investigative journey took us to a broader perspective that encompasses native grasslands, understanding the components of soil health, and investigating farming practices which encourage biological diversity in the soil. Grant Sims from Down Under Covers shared his experiences of one of these practices, which was using multispecies annual pastures to activate microbial activity in the soil, along with the use of livestock as an essential component of the process.
We embarked on the next part of our project last year, working with five landholders to apply what we’d learnt in a variety of ways. These projects were assessed and rated competitively, with in-kind contributions from the landholders being significant.
During 2023 the following projects were initiated:
One landholder established trial plots of grassland species, applying a range of additives such as worm juice and bioferments, and strategies such as nutrient stripping.
One landholder sowed native grass seeds mid vines,
Three others sowed multi species crops.
The project areas covered around 22 Ha. We took soil samples from the project sites and a control sample from an adjoining paddock on each property. Neil Wilson from Metagen tested these samples and presented to the landholders in October last year. We were surprised to see the increase in soil health and biological activity between adjoining test sites and project sites, particularly in the sites where the multispecies pastures were sown. These soil tests will be essential in providing baseline data for the project, which we hope will be ongoing.
While the project funding through the Federal Government Smart Farms draws to completion this year, we are determined to find funds to continue working on these landholder projects and to support the investigation into the connections between what’s living above and below the soil.
This project is jointly funded through Bellarine Landcare Group and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program
If you’d like to find out more information about this project please contact me to discuss. More details will be written up on our new website, which we are hoping to have up and running in June.
Sophie Small, BLG Facilitator