Do your hills look like this in Summer

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Do your hills look like this in Summer?
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Do they look like this from Spring to Summer?
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Geology in a Nutshell

• Australia is an old, stable continent
• Our soils are inherently thin, old and nutrient
  poor
• Soils take centuries to develop through
  geological time.

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The Process of Degradation

• Large paddocks
• Often a history of sheep
• Overgrazing on northern and western slopes
• Bare soils/ stock camps
• Annual grasses and Capeweed are early Autumn
  colonisers, but are dying off in December
• Summer storms mean loss of top soil, gully
  erosion and loss of water quality

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Paddock Trees

• In such a system, paddock trees are often
  ringbarked if they have fibrous bark
• Suffer from mistletoe
• Are vulnerable to attack by insects
• Are experiencing dieback at a rate of 3 per
  annum. Farm trees in the North east have
  declined by 47 in the past 29 years.

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What to Do?

• Register your interest with DPI for a farm visit.
• We can provide advice, mapping assistance, and
  discuss options for funding. Projects can be
  staged over a number of years to suit individual
  budgets.

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Land Class Fencing

• Land class fencing divides your paddock into
  similar areas of slope and aspect to assist with
  management.
• Lower slopes are fenced from upper slopes
• North and westerly aspects from southerly and
  easterly aspects
• Providing water to paddocks can prove a challenge

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Rest the site from grazing

• Complete removal of stock from bare areas for a
  few years so the perennial grasses recover.
• Some sites may not recover.

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Annual vs Perennial Grasses

• Annual Grasses
• Opportunists
• Grow, flower and die within the same year
• Respond rapidly to suitable conditions
• Roots are short and shallow
• Produce large amounts of seed each year
• Most seed will germinate in the following year
• Grow best in bare and disturbed ground where
  there are no competitors

• Perennial Grasses
• Competitors
• May live for many years
• Slower growing, put more energy into establishing
  a long-lived, deep rooted plant
• Roots are longer and deeper
• Some of the shoots will flower and some will not
• Produce small amounts of seed each year
• Grow best where they can build up reserves in
  their root systems. Reserves allow the plant to
  recover after disturbance such as grazing.
  Excessive, prolonged grazing will deplete root
  systems.

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Native Grasses

• The positives
• Most native grasses are perennial,
• native grasses can persist without the addition
  of lime and fertiliser and therefore offer a
  lower cost pasture,
• most native grasses are drought tolerant.

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Native Grasses

• The negatives
• Native grasses are generally less productive than
  introduced grasses
• Some native grass species tend to have lower
  herbage quality
• The low cost of maintaining native pastures on
  hill country can more than offset their lower
  productivity

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Native Grass Management

• Rotational grazing is an important step in the
  management of native pastures.
• Under this regime, native grasses can be grazed
  strategically, including giving them periods of
  rest which are important to ensure their
  productivity and persistence.

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Native Grass Management

• Weeping Grass and Wallaby Grasses
• Graze through Spring to 4 cm to reduce annual
  weeds
• Defer grazing from late Spring to mid Summer to
  allow seed set of grasses and reduce the risk of
  erosion from Summer storms
• Allow a rest after late Summer grazing to allow
  grasses to start growing to compete with annual
  grasses.
• Rotationally graze to 4 cm through Autumn and
  Winter

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Capeweed

• Sheep camps and Capeweed
• Spraying or grazing?