SOME of the innovative ways SA has approached sustainable farming have gained a national audience as federal MPs toured the Barossa Valley region.
Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister Luke Hartsuyker and Member for Barker Tony Pasin viewed three sites in the region to gain some insight into the Landcare and natural resources projects to see the outcomes of federal funding in the region.
The projects included sustainable vineyard management in Keyneton, a trial of soil moisture monitoring to help graziers make early decision about pastures and a watercourse revegetation project at a dairy farm to prevent soil erosion.
“For more than 25 years, the Landcare movement has been protecting, restoring and sustaining Australia’s soils, water and diversity of Australia’s unique plants and animals and its threatened species,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
“These projects are a prime example of the benefits natural resource management can provide to both agricultural industries and the environment.”
The Moculta dairy was part of a three-year trial, initially funded through the 25th Anniversary Landcare grants, to compare ways to deal with soil erosion along watercourses, using different local native plants.
Barossa Improved Grazing Group technical facilitator Georgie Keynes said the three-year project could also work as a demonstration site to compare different plant species and planting techniques.
She said, as well as viewing how the land recovered, there was also monitoring of bird species.
The guests also got insight into how the use of soil monitoring equipment is being used in dryland systems to monitor the impact of soil moisture to enable improved management decisions with stocking rates and more.
BIGG technical facilitator Brett Nietschke said this was a new area for the technology, which was commonly associated with irrigated systems.
Three weather stations, which measure soil moisture to 1 metre at 10 centimetre intervals, temperature, humidity, wind and rainfall, were set up at representative soil types at Keyneton, Koonunga and Flaxmans Valley.
Information from the three sites is sent back to the web server at 15 minute intervals to be accessed by any member of BIGG.
“If we want to manage something, we need to be able to measure it,” Mr Nietschke said.
The tour also included Henschke’s Winery, Keyneton, to demonstrate how native plants grown between vine rows can host a range of beneficial insects to assist the control of pest insects.
Mr Hartsuyker said this was a key area to support.
“Farmers are some of our nation’s best environmental custodians and have most at stake when it comes to protecting our precious soils, water and vegetation,” he said.
“The future of agricultural industries, their continued productivity and strong contribution to our economy relies on a commitment to long term effective natural resource management.”
“It is great to see firsthand the local Landcare and natural resource management projects making a real difference,” Mr Pasin said.
“They support productivity at the farmgate, and help create better environmental outcomes at the same time.
“We have community members, farmers and other landcarers across Australia forming Landcare groups and committing their support to an integrated, productive and sustainable approach to land management.”