eNews #1

Farmers who are members of the nine coaching groups of the Drought Resilient Pasture Landscapes project, have spent some time during their third round of coaching sessions looking at their predicted pastureavailability for the coming spring.

Aside from calibrating their eye for estimating pasture availability (also called herbage mass) and the green (quality) content of the pasture, these members have customised their Ag360 accounts with paddock and animal details for their property.

The time spent doing this using the online tool Ag360 (www.ag360.com.au) has paid off for these farmers, allowing them to access 6-month forecasts of rainfall, soil moisture, and pasture availability.

“It’s one thing to know your current livestock feed position, but it’s another to see the forecasts that go hand in hand with farmer experience, to help make decisions about stock numbers and grazing management” said Mrs Jaimi-lee Edwards, a pasture coach at UNE with the project.

She said “We are also pleased to have UNE complete the establishment of seven water quality monitoring sites on various waterways in the Northern Tablelands, and look forward to seeing how our decisions with pasture management improve water quality in our waterways".

The fourth round of coaching sessions start next month, during which we’ll keep an eye on likely spring pasture availability” said Jaimi-lee.

For more information on the Drought Resilient Pasture Landscapes contact and upcoming workshops, please visit https://snelandcare.org.au/.

 *This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

 Article by Professor Lewis Kahn, UNE

Resilient, healthy and productive grazing landscapes will be the focus of a free workshop series for farmers in the Guyra and Walcha districts over the coming months.

The first Reboot Your Grazing workshops are designed to increase farmers understanding of soil types and soil health.

‘The workshops are designed to give farmers a holistic overview to landscape management’, said David Hardwick, Agroecologist from Soil Land Food.

He said, ‘We use a systems approach through managing farm ecology, regenerating landscapes and helping farmers with good decision making on a whole property scale’.

‘The first two workshops on soil extension are to help landholders build practical confidence by understanding soils and soil constraints’, said David.

The first workshop will be held in July, at Guyra on the 24th and Walcha on the 25th, with Kristy Youman, a Farming Systems Extension Specialist from Soil Land Food.The initial workshop will cover all your essential knowledge on soils from understanding your topsoil, soil types, soil health and soil fertility and the 4 steps to soil success.

‘If you would like to develop your practical knowledge and skills to make good management decisions and increase your drought resilience, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity’, says Elizabeth Rosser, Project Officer – Sustainable Agriculture, with Southern New England Landcare.

‘I am really excited to facilitate this opportunity to learn from David and the team at Soil Land Food on how to build soil health and optimise a planned grazing approach’, she said.This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the Armidale Regional Council.

Bookings essential:
Guyra 24 July: https://www.stickytickets.com.au/AWSFN
Walcha 25 July: https://www.stickytickets.com.au/NW60D

Download Guyra Flyer

Download Walcha Flyer

For more information, visit Southern New England Landcare https://snelandcare.org.au/group-events.html
or contact Elizabeth Rosser on 02 6772 9123 or email elizabeth.rosser@snelandcare.org.au

Southern New England Landcare is pleased to welcome Elizabeth Rosser to the team as the new Project Officer - Sustainable Agriculture.

Elizabeth grew up in South Western Queensland, having spent her early childhood in Quilpie and then primary school years at Goodooga before moving to Brisbane to complete her schooling.
After finishing school, Elizabeth studied a Bachelor of Nursing at the University of Southern Queensland before the call to go west took her to Cunnamulla as a Governess. From there, she returned to her studies but to a dual degree in Agribusiness and Applied Science (Production Animals) at the University of Queensland.

Since then, Elizabeth has worked across Southern Australia in a variety of industries from rural consultancy, feedlots, beef cattle, free range egg production and a very short stint in a dairy. Her favourite role to date has been as a Project Officer for Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania on King Island. This is where she discovered a love of project management and facilitation while working closely alongside community.

In 2021, Elizabeth moved to the New England, with her husband and young family, to manage a beef cattle trading enterprise near Ben Lomond. Elizabeth and her husband run the property using regenerative principals and have a deep love of learning, people and community. Elizabeth is enthusiastic about her new role as the Sustainable Agriculture- Project Officer with SNEL as this allows her to stretch her wings and apply learning from on farm to work and back again.

Elizabeth's current projects are 2022-2024 UNE Drought Resilience Pasture Landscapes Project funded by Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and Malpas Catchment Project funded by Armidale Regional Council.

Southern New England Landcare welcomes our new Receptionist, Janet Hodge. Janet grew up in Cootamundra, NSW and has a rural background.

Her career has taken many turns from health and electoral office positions to a 10-year office position within the NSW Public Works Regional Office in Cootamundra until the Regional Office was relocated to Bathurst. After a stint at Harden Shire Council, Janet embarked on a 3-month adventure travelling on horseback from a Harden property in NSW to Licola in Victoria and then settling with job at a Horse-Riding Tour Business. For the next 12 months, she enjoyed the company of tourists and their horses taking them across the ranges of the Bennison Plains in the Victorian High Country.

Due to an injury, Janet moved to Sale also in Victoria, where she mended and then set off again to employment on Legune Cattle Station in the Northern Territory for the 9 month season enjoying the station life, work and barramundi fishing.

In the following year, Janet gained employment at Walla Downs Cattle Station above Port Kembla for a short mustering season of 5 months which then lead to employment at Landsdowne Cattle Station, in the Kimberley WA where she met her now partner of 23 years. They returned to his hometown of Girgarre, Vic and settling down to raise a family and run a small dairy farm for 20 years.

The decision came to finish up their dairy life and start afresh seeking a northern NSW property where they purchased a farm in 2021 on the Moredun Creek at New Valley northwest of Guyra and now run a small mob of Australian Whites and Wagyu Cattle.

SNEL is delighted that Janet has joined our office team.

Join Dr Sue Jaggar, ATG's new Environmental Services Coordinator, for a discussion about native pollinators and their amazing life stories.

When: Thursday, 13 July, 2023
Time: 5pm
Where: Armidale Tree Group, 80 Mann Street, Armidale
Cost: $10

Please ensure you RSVP for their catering order.
Either email Sue es@armidaletreegroup.org.au or phone 0436 017 878

Click here for a copy of this flyer BEEFLYER.pdf. Feel free to share with a friend. 

To view Sue's links - click here: photos and observations

Invitation - Australian Plant Society Armidale and District Group Forum Meeting

15th July at 2.00 pm, ASCA House, Cnr of Barney and Markham Streets, Armidale.

David Carr, Director and Chief Ecologist of Stringybark Ecological, is the Guest Speaker.

His talk,  "Chasing Fairy Bells" is about this endangered shrub and his documenting of the associated vegetation  communities  and  monitoring changes following bushfires.

 After the talk you can enjoy a display of flowering native plants from the members' gardens and join in the raffle of native plants.

The talk will start promptly at 2.15pm.

All are welcome to stay for afternoon tea and a chat. For catering purposes contact: apsarmidale@gmail.com 

Download flyer here

Australian Plant Society Armidale and District Group