NACC NRMs latest Sustainable Agriculture Project
NACC NRM is excited to announce a new project, being delivered in partnership with the Yuna Farm Improvement Group (YFIG) and Elders Rural Services.
The aim of this project is increasing adoption, awareness and understanding of incorporating sub-sown legumes to the farm system to improve the quantity and quality of year-round cover and provide longer periods of green ground cover. It is anticipated that trials of the practice will also demonstrate decreased erosion risk, reduced moisture loss, reduced soil temperature and increased soil carbon at project sites.
This project will focus on delivering two on-farm demonstrations as well as field days and workshops throughout the life of the project involving our skilled and knowledgeable project partners, to enable NACC NRM to share the best available information with land managers of the Northern Agricultural Region.
The two demonstration sites will focus on two different legumes with both common and separate objectives.
Demonstration 1 is a CTF enterprise that utilises regimented long term crop rotations in order to maximise farm productivity. This demonstration will highlight the benefits of including a non-cash crop (crop with little-to-no seasonal economic return) to reduce erosion, increase soil moisture retention, and reduce the total area of land under a bare earth fallow.
Demonstration site 2 will be incorporated into a traditional mixed farming operation that undertakes cereal cropping and grazing of stock (sheep). This site will show the benefits of improved ground cover (quantity and quality of green cover) on low production land to increase feed security, reduce erosion risk and demonstrate the viability of legumes as a feed source in low rainfall zones.
For more information about this project or any NACC NRM Sustainable Agriculture projects please contact NACC NRM’s Sustainable Agriculture Program Coordinator Callum Love on (E) callum.love@nacc.com.au (P) 9938 0116 or (M) 0438 989 500
This project is funded through Round 3 of the National Landcare Program Smart Farms Small Grants – an Australian Government initiative – and will run from May 2020 until June 2022.