The environmental and sustainable agricultural benefits of perennials in the Lake Warden Catchment, Western Australia

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The environmental and sustainable agricultural
benefits of perennials in the Lake Warden
Catchment, Western Australia

• Kylie Bishop David Broadhurst
• South Coast NRM Inc.

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Outline

• Set the scene
• Issues
• Whats happening
• The use of perennial pastures
• The bigger picture
• Conclusions

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The South Coast Region
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Esperance has something special
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Lake Warden Wetlands

• Listed as internationally significant under the
  Ramsar convention.
• Eight major waterbodies,
• 90 satellite lakes
• Covers approximately 2,000 ha
• Catchment area of 212,000 ha which is 75
  cleared.

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The issue
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Objective

• To decrease water levels in the Lake Warden
  wetlands through the establishment of perennial
  vegetation in hydrologically responsive
  landscapes.

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Where to start?

• Identify the hydrologically responsive landscapes
• 41,000 ha
• 28,000 ha annual farming systems
• Not as simple as just re-establishing native
  vegetation!

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Improving on annual farming

• Perennial pastures
• Incentives to encourage land managers to trial
  perennials.

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Kikuyu

• Kikuyu
• Deep rooted
• Grows well in poor soil which we have!
• Can be cropped into
• 1067 ha already present prior to 2003
• Trials have recorded gross margins of 231/ha
  for kikuyu based pastures versus 79/ha for
  annual pastures (Evergraze 2008)

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Perennials

• Since 2004 a total of 7,676 ha of perennial
  pastures have been planted.
• Production benefits
• Including out of season feed
• Soil conservation benefits
• Reduction in wind erosion
• Maintenance of ground cover during summer

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The bigger picture

• Part of a range of activities in the catchment
• Including
• Establishing native vegetation
• Engineering gravity fed pipeline
• Bayesian belief networking 60 chance of
  achieving higher water bird numbers

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Conclusions

• Perennial pastures have played a key role in
  meeting both biodiversity and sustainable
  agriculture outcomes
• Need to be managed carefully

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Thank you

• Kepwari the place of moving water