University of Ballarat
Project Name: Banongil Pastoral Company
Location: Skipton, Victoria
Theme(s): Planting for the environment

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 Department of the Environment and Heritage

Banongil Pastoral Company

Holistic Management through a Whole Farm
Plan and Cell Grazing

 
Farming of sheep, cattle and crops began in Australia from the moment Europeans arrived in the late 1700's. They brought with them their European farming practices, suitable to a high rainfall and stable climate. After some time, farmers and pastoralists realised that these practices were not suited to Australia's changeable climate. They were unsustainable both economically and environmentally.
   
                                                             
Today, conventional farming practices can be seen to deal with and react to the symptoms of environmental and economic change. “Holistic management” through “cell grazing” takes farming one step further by predicting the environmental conditions and adjusting management before problems arise. According to Jonathan Tischler, farm manager of Banongil Pastoral Company, holistic management involves a relationship between the land, economics and human relations.
             

Contents

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In the beginning…

Look at all those rabbits!
       

Farming practices at Banongil Station have come a long way in the past 5 years. The Lempriere family purchased Banongil in 1977 as a run down property with many problems, a rabbit infestation being perhaps the greatest of these. Over the next few years, the owners attempted to improve the productivity of the land but the rabbit problem demanded expensive control measures, which had limited results. Just prior to the outbreak of the Rabbit Calicivirus in April 1996, a spot-lighter was shooting 400 rabbits every night.

                 

The rabbit infestation resulted in the country being overgrazed, particularly on the higher sweeter areas of red soil. There were bare patches throughout the farm, thistle infestations around the warrens, extreme soil erosion from both wind and water, and stock required huge supplementary feeding to maintain them. The rabbits were essentially an uncontrolled grazing influence, prohibiting any improved grazing techniques or cropping.

The release of the Calicivirus was a welcome relief. However, further control was needed on a localised level. Control came with aerial baiting of 1080. Two thousand hectares were blanketed, where the grass was knocked down to remove food from the rabbits. The area was sprinkled with 8-12 kg of chopped carrots three times over a 10 day period. The first two applications of carrots were “free feeds”, with no poison to train rabbits to eat the carrot. The third was baited with 1080, poison commonly used to reduce rabbit populations on farms. The baited areas could not be grazed for three months, so the sheep were temporarily relocated to other areas on the farm. This result in many areas being overgrazed.

It was as a result of the aerial baiting followed by no grazing between June and August that Jonathan noticed that the land responded positively to extended rest periods, despite the conventional belief that grass does not grow during this time.

Management efforts until this point were “reactive measures”, such as trying to maintain stock numbers, upgrading the aging facilities and equipment, and using available resources to deal with the rabbit plague. This amounted to a high cost of wool and beef production, with little freedom to adopt “proactive approaches”. This resulted in:
  • poorly performing stock;
  • degraded pastures;
  • continued erosion;
  • no significant tree planting;
  • inadequate water supply for stock; and
  • fertiliser applications which aided the rabbits as much as the sheep, while exacerbating the existing soil acidity.
    
                                                             
                                 

The Move into Holistic Management

            

In 1993 Jonathan Tischler arrived as Farm Manager. Jonathan had some knowledge of cell grazing, but was encouraged in this direction by the owner's interests in the effective use of cell grazing in NSW.

In 1999, Jonathan completed an “Holistic Management” course provided by the Resource Consulting Service (RSC), private land management advisers. Holistic Management can refer to many aspects of management, such as forestry and farming. For Banongil, it provided a framework for decision making where the long term goals of the business (as presented in a “Business Plan”) starts with the human requirements for clean and healthy land, food and water. Financial success is created in the process of achieving these requirements.

Farming is a complicated enterprise; it has the benefits of land, health and wealth.

(Jonathan Tischler, Manager, Banongil Pastoral Station)

Sustainable farming practices through a Whole Farm Plan and Cell Grazing

“Whole Farm Plan”
Management at Banongil follows a “Whole Farm Plan” that relies on closely monitoring the environment. Farming practices can be adjusted to work within the environmental constraints rather than attempting to work against nature. Basically, the whole system depends on understanding the relationship between rainfall and stocking rates. Three “variables” are measured: rainfall, temperature and stock numbers.
Rainfall (or precipitation) is measured and recorded every week. This data is used to maintain a “moving rainfall total” where all of the rainfall for the previous 12 months is totalled. The amount of rainfall directly affects pastoral growth, so when the moving rainfall total shows an improvement in rainfall, stocking rates are increased. Typically the highest rainfall occurs during Spring and the lowest in Autumn. A farmer must understand how the pattern of rainfall throughout the year affects the growth of pasture, which in turn, affects the growth of stock and when to lamb.
           
                                                     
 

Every 30 days stock numbers are counted and recorded as Dry Sheep Equivalents (DSE). DSE is based on an estimate of the average feed requirements of animals. For example, in Australia, DSE is determined by the amount of feed required by a 2 year old, 45 kg merino sheep to maintain its weight.
           
                 
   

Monitoring temperature is important as temperature affects pastoral growth. The temperature of the soil determines how well the grass is able to take up the nutrients in the soil.

                                                 

The farmer reacts to the trend in rainfall and temperature by reducing or increasing stock numbers. For example, when there is lower rainfall a farmer may sell stock.

                                                               
 
“Cell Grazing”
No, they are not farming cells! Cell farming refers to how the farm is divided for land use. Prior to cell grazing, there were 100 paddocks ranging in size from 10ha to 300ha at banongil. A 300 ha paddock is being broken up into a “mini” farm, called a cell.
                                 
      Text Box: This is a plan view of Banongill Station. At present there are six celled areas.
                                 
                                                                 
               

This rectangular area was one 300ha paddock. The black lines denote fencing used to divide the paddock into a number of smaller paddocks. A series of paddocks in a designated rotation is called a cell, with a cell consisting of anywhere from 4 to 20 separate smaller paddocks. The greater the number of paddocks, the longer the rest, the better the biological improvement to land and pasture.

Sheep are constantly moving between these cells. Moving sheep so frequently may seem costly and time consuming. An advantage is that farmers are roving amongst the sheep every day so they can react quickly to any troubles. For example, at farms using “set stocking” where the sheep remain in the one paddock for an extended period of time, the sheep may be left for weeks or months, so the farmer cannot react in an informed way. For example, they may not notice the stock losing weight as quickly as the farmer who is constantly moving amongst the stock.
A common criticism of cell farming is that more paddocks require more fencing, which in turn costs big bucks! At Banongil, 20-30 kilometres of fencing has been added. To make the change economic, light electric fences have been suitable. Jonathan has designed temporary gateways (liftup gates) to assist movement of sheep between paddocks within a cell.
     
     
                         
As Banongil makes the change from traditional set-stocking to cell farming, they are beginning to understand that each cell needs to be managed separately, depending on the supply and availability of water, managing according to soil types, and principles underlying spelling of pastures for pasture growth.
1. Supplying water
The small water troughs have been replaced with larger outlets. Water travels to these outlets through a series of plastic pipes from the tank and windmill to make the water more available. This outlet services a number of paddocks. Removing the gate to these water points allows the stock to access the water.
 
ABOVE: A small trough that is inadequate for supplying water to large mobs of sheep. LEFT: Cell arrangement with water outlet accessible to all paddocks when needed. BELOW: The water source is available to two of the six paddocks in this cell.
2. Managing according to soil types

The soil types at Banongil vary across the farm. There are:

  • volcanic basalt country with red soils and the occasional rocky outcrops called “stony rises”;
  • arable well drained improved country; and
  • heavy clay flats.

Pasture grows differently depending on the soil type. For example, grass on the stony rises is sweeter than the grass on the low lying arable soil. Sheep prefer eating the sweeter grass, so often the grass on the higher red soil is easily overgrazed, while the heavy clay flats tend to be more bitter, and consequently, only lightly grazed. This leads to poor pasture utilisation.

 
                 

This is called “selective grazing”. Cell grazing eliminates this as sheep will generally move through the paddock like a lawn mower, rather than feed more heavily n only the sweet grasses.

The soil types are used as natural borders. The stony rises can be fenced off from the low lying land to take the selectivity out of the sheep's grazing. This prevents overgrazing and gets maximum use out of every inch of the land.

3. Principles underlying spelling of pastures for growth
A healthy pasture is important for healthy stock. But just any type of grass is not necessarily suitable. Some paddocks have recently been stripped of their old pasture and will be sown with Phalaris, Cocksfoot, Lucerne, Subterranean Clover. With the correct management, the health of the pasture will be maintained and there will be no need to re-sow.

Correct management means being aware of when to graze and when not to graze. The grass needs to be at the right stage of growth. There are three definable stages of growth:

  • immature where the plant is vulnerable to being damaged if grazed at this stage;
  • mature, which is preferred by the sheep and if grazed will not damage the plant but promote further growth; and
  • close to senescence (or dying) where the plant is growing flowers.
Overgrazing, or flogging, occurs when the grass is grazed to the lower more vulnerable level and the grass dies. Cell farming allows time for the grass to grow to the preferred mature stage before the sheep return to that paddock. Sheep are removed from a paddock before flogging occurs.

Outcomes of sustainable farming through cell grazing

In 5 years, better pasture management and removing a rabbit problem at Banongil Station has increased stock numbers by around 25% despite a reduction in rainfall during this period.

Being open to a different way of managing the land provides the opportunity to learn something new. At Banongil, cell grazing has demonstrated that growing pasture during times of the year normally considered to be difficult is possible, and results in a much higher production of paddock feed. Cell grazing has reduced the need to use hundreds of tonnes of summer grain feeding as cell grazing allows land to rehabilitate without taking it out of production.
Ultimately, the whole process is about:
                                                                   
Increased agricultural production,
   
With more effective utilisation of inputs (fertilisers, water and labour),
 
     
Nurturing the soil health by understanding the effects of our inputs on soil biology,
         
Using biologically friendly inputs where possible,
 

So that the income producing capacity, the environmental health and the value of the land are enhanced.

Useful Resources and Contacts

  • Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage: www.deh.gov.au
  • Department of Primary Industries: www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi
  • Savory, A. (1999). Holistic management: A new framework for decision making. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
  • Resource Consulting Service: rcs.au.com
  • Jonathan Tischler, Farm Manager, Banongil Pastoral Company

Acknowledgements

Jonathan Tischler, Farm Manager, Banongil Pastoral Company

Content coordinated by Ben Quinney, University of Ballarat. | CRISCOS Provider No 00103D| Disclaimers | Guestbook
Date researched: September 2003| Case study initially prepared: January 2004