Can regenerative sheep grazing systems improve drought resilience? What are the long-term implications of regenerative agriculture for farm business profits?
These are some of the questions being examined in a long-term farm trial in northern Tasmania.
Funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Future Drought Fund, the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) is conducting a long-term sheep grazing trial to examine implications of regenerative grazing on pasture growth and recovery, soil carbon, greenhouse gas emissions and long-term profitability.
TIA Professor Matthew Harrison said the project aims to develop farming systems that increase the capacity of farmers to prepare for and respond to drought, extreme weather events and long-term climate change.
TIA will host a field demonstration this week at Evandale to showcase the grazing trial to Tasmanian farmers and industry.
“The purpose of the trial is to test whether cell grazing improves drought resilience through improvements to pasture recovery and overall productivity,” Professor Harrison said.
“We’re also looking at profitability and whether regenerative practices improve pasture production, impact soil carbon, and impact greenhouse gas emissions.
“The overall question is can we develop a farming system, a grazing management approach, or a cropping system to improve drought resilience and that’s not just in one year but that’s over the long term.”
The field demonstration is designed to highlight alternative grazing systems. It will include an overview of the farming system, key aims and results to date.
“During the field day we’re going to showcase some sheep grazing trials where we’ve been looking at cell grazing which is high intensity grazing for a short period and then you don’t come back and graze that paddock for several months,” Professor Harrison said.
“We compare that with the conventional method where animals are kept in the paddock and the pasture doesn’t get time to recover.
“We’ll also examine how cell grazing will impact labour requirements and whether its practical and feasible to move sheep more regularly.”
This is the first year of a four-year trial and Professor Harrison said preliminary results from the cell grazing method are encouraging.
“I’d encourage people to come along to the field demonstration and see the results for themselves,” he said.
The program is also being supported by the University of Melbourne and Charles Sturt University.
Event details
When: Friday 31 January
Where: 507 Nile Road, Evandale. The farm, ‘Barega’ is located about 20 minutes from Launceston
Time: Field demonstration 10am - 12pm. Lunch 12pm - 1pm
Please register: https://events.humanitix.com/impacts-of-regenerative-agriculture-on-production-profit-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-field-demonstration