The ACT Natural Resource Management (ACT NRM) Sustainable Agriculture Program is made possible by support from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program, the Managing Established Pest Animals and Weeds Program and the ACT Government.
The following describes ACT NRM's current flagship sustainable agriculture projects.
The ACT Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator (ACT RALF) Program works with ACT rural landholders to support sustainable land management on ACT farms.
A key theme of the ACT RALF program is groundcover management. Good groundcover management can be achieved through a range of practices including strategic grazing, subdivisional fencing, feed budgeting and understanding seasonal conditions
The ACT RALF program has been operating in the ACT region for over ten years and has enabled the development of a keen understanding of ACT agricultural enterprises and farming community which helps ensure the ACT RALF program is locally relevant and meets the needs of the ACT farming community.
The ACT RALF program supports sustainable land management by:
- providing training and learning opportunities
- bringing farmers, government and industry to work together on issues of common concern
- promoting and supporting landholders to access funding and resources to support their management programs
Current work
- Southern ACT Collaborative Pig Control Project – working with ACT rural landholders and the ACT Government's Biosecurity Unit to reduce the threat from feral pigs on rural lands and other tenures
- Training
- AQF3 chemical use accreditation training
- 2019 Soils Roadshow – enhancing soil knowledge in partnership South East Local Land Services
- Facilitating climate adaptation – trials of Blakely's Red Gum on ACT rural lands to identify provenance and families resilient to dieback and climate change.
- On-ground
- soil testing across ACT farms to inform improved land management.
- Landcare for Singles tree planting events
Tools
The ACT RALF will be training landholders and other land managers in the use of a new groundcover monitoring tool, GEOGLAM.
GEOGLAM provides current and historical data and maps on groundcover. Watch this space for information.
Administration of rural grants and rebates
- ACT Rural Resilience Grants
- National On-Farm Emergency Water Infrastructure Rebate
- ACT Rural Grants – these grants ran from 2013 to 2018 and were funded under National Landcare Program Phase 1
- Expression of Interest - Streambank/gully erosion restoration demonstration site on ACT rural land – closed in 2019
Increasing soil acidity is an issue under ACT and region grazing and cropping systems, constraining farm productivity. The National Landcare Program 2 (NLP2) prioritised addressing soil acidity, declining carbon and groundcover under its 2018-2023 program.
The ACT Government received funding under NLP2, 2018-2023 to establish trials and demonstration sites on ACT farms to demonstrate approaches to addressing soil acidity and hence improving other important soil measures and soil and pasture health.
NLP2 Project goal: By 2023, there is an increase in the awareness and adoption of land management practices that improve and protect the condition of soil, biodiversity and vegetation.
The aim of the Better Land Management program is to:
- Promote understanding and demonstrate the most up-to-date scientific approaches to addressing soil acidity and hence improving other important soil measures and soil and pasture health on ACT farms over time.
- Assist in reversing the soil acidification trajectory on ACT farms by demonstrating, using data coming out of the project, that liming increases soil pH and reduces soil acidity but also impacts positively on other soil nutrients leading over time to improvements in soil and plant health and farm productivity.
- Emphasise the importance of regular farm soil testing on both crops and permanent pasture paddocks to monitor and manage soil pH and other soil attributes both at surface soils (0-5cm and 5-10cm) but also below this depth (to 20-30cm depth) to inform sound farm decision-making and investments on liming.
Trials
As a collaborator and advisor, NSW Department of Primary Industries provided guidance, technical advice and support in establishing and monitoring two trials:
- the liming trial on a Pasture Paddock on an ACT farm
- the liming trial on a Cropped Paddock on an ACT farm
The aim of the trials was to measure the impact of lime spread at different rates, on acidic/low pH soils on a modified native pasture site and a cropped site.
Demonstrations
14 liming demonstrations were established across 12 ACT farms, with a goal of increasing soil pH (CaCl2) at each site to 5.5 at 0-10cm depth, improving the efficacy of lime in increasing soil pH and reducing soil acidity down the soil profile.
Results
The Better Land Management Final Report (2.6 MB) provides background on soil acidity in the ACT, outlines monitoring methods, and presents the results of the liming trials and demonstrations. For soil sampling data from before and after liming on all Demonstration sites, see Appendix B Better Land Management soil sampling results (756.8 KB).
The ACT and region will continue to experience more frequent and longer lasting dry periods, increased frequency and intensity of storms, increasing threats from heatwaves and bushfires and reduced stream flows due to climate change.
From 2019 to 2023 the ACT's Resilient Farms project will support ACT farmers to adapt to significant changes in climate and market information.
Through this project ACT farmers will be:
- connected to the latest science on climate change adaptation in agricultural
- supported to access and use locally relevant weather/climate information
- exposed to tools/technology which support sustainable, adaptive farming
- connected to key agriculture research, industry, marketing and extension organisations
- supported to form groups and networks to enable sharing of knowledge and experiences, collaboration and forward planning
- exposed to sustainability frameworks, market assurance programs or similar programs
As with Better Land Management, this project is taking a participatory approach. Landholders will be actively involved in the design and implementation of this project. Watch this space for news on the project and how to become involved.
The pest animals and weeds project was supported by the Australian Government to build the skills and capabilities of farmers, industry and the community to address established pest animals and weeds through training, trialling practices and improved coordination of activities.
The Australian Government contributed $95,000 over four years which was matched by ACT Government in-kind contributions and support from ACT NRM.
Activities supported to date include:
- Rabbit Control Field Day - Autumn 2017
- Feral Pig Control Field Day - Autumn 2018
- spotlight monitoring of rabbits and other pest animals species on north Canberra Farms - Autumn 2017, Spring 2017, Autumn 2018, Spring 2018, Autumn 2019
- AQF3 Chemical Use accreditation training for more than 45 landholders to enable them to control feral animals and weeds on their properties using agricultural chemicals
- collaborative spread of the most recent variant of calicivirus, RHDV1K5, on rural properties in northern Canberra - Autumn 2018 (also supported by the ACT Rural Grants project)
- Feral Pig Control Field Day - Autumn 2018 (also supported by RALF)
- training in advanced thermal imaging and night scopes for use in deer control
ACT NRM has installed a permanent soil moisture probe in the Tidbinbilla Valley, ACT. It joins a network of more than 20 farm-based probes across the Southern Tablelands, Monaro, South West slopes and the South Coast.
The network is administered by the South East Local Land Services, Tablelands Farming Systems and Monaro Farming Systems and ACT NRM.
Each probe provides information that is accessible to all farmers to assist them to make stock and pasture decisions in their district, even if rainfall or soils across a district are variable.
The Tidbinbilla Soil Moisture Probe records accurate rainfall to the nearest 0.2mm, soil temperature and soil moisture to a depth of 1 metre. The soil moisture data generated by the probe is a relative measure of soil moisture.
In addition to enabling landholders to look at this data across the region and over time, Local Land Services, with help from Phil Graham, former Yass DPI expert, takes the soil moisture and rainfall data and inputs it into the CSIRO Grassgro computer program. This program produces a range of different scenarios for pasture production, in particular in Spring and Autumn in the district in which each soil moisture probe is located. This information is available online and can be used by landholders to manage pastures, groundcover and stock and to plan for the future.
Raw soil moisture, rainfall and temperature data is also available on a separate website. If you would like access to that data please email anna.vandugteren@act.gov.au.