Chapter 12.2 Know your property

At its most basic level, the aims of your business will include utilising your natural and man-made resources, livestock, labour skills and management, and turning these into profit. How you put this combination together to do this is critical. Taking note of the property’s natural features and infrastructure is one part of developing a vision for the property. This process should include discussion and assessment of all aspects of the property and will contribute to the process of developing action plans for the improvement of infrastructure, land condition and other land management aspects.

There are three must-dos in this chapter:

• Develop a property inventory.
• Develop a property plan.
• Perform an audit on your water resources.

Develop a property inventory

A property inventory is a stocktake of what’s there for you to make use of in your business.

Importantly, this process will allow you to identify any critical items which are not there, but which will enhance your business activities and lead to higher production.

This inventory should ideally be updated on an annual basis. This can assist with creating development plans for the property.

Consider both natural features and assets, as well as man-made features and assets, such as plant and equipment. You can also include livestock in this inventory, however it is recommended to undertake a livestock management plan as a separate exercise. Use Tool 12.1 to assist you in developing a property inventory with a comprehensive list of features of your property.

Develop a property plan

An important step in the process of creating a dynamic plan of action for your property and its natural resources is the development of a property plan. Ideally, such a plan is created with the input of all members of the business, including employees.

A property plan is most accurate when developed utilising satellite or aerial imagery. These images can be purchased from government departments that specialise in map products; they may be Google Earth® images or photos taken from an aircraft or drone. These images can be enlarged and laminated, or overlaid with sheets of plastic or utilised in a digital format with software packages which utilise a digitised aerial photo or satellite image. These tools enable you to insert details of different attributes of the property as identified in the property inventory. Include things like land classes, rivers and drainage lines, water points, remnant vegetation and feed types as well as overlays for planned improvements to infrastructure and land use.

Commercially available software packages can be utilised to conduct planning but also assist with day to day management of the business, maintenance of a comprehensive inventory, livestock and other resources on hand.

Contact your local or state-based natural resource management (NRM) organisation for details on local programs and opportunities to undertake planning processes appropriate to your region. Tool 12.2 provides information on getting started in the process of developing a property management plan.

Perform an audit on your water resources

A property’s water supply often comes from a number of different sources. These may be natural sources such as rivers, creeks and channels, or they may be constructed in the form of dams, ground tanks, wells or bores. Whatever the source, the suitability of water you have now and the water you need for the future depends on its quantity, quality and reliability. In the process of knowing your property and developing a operational property plan, it is important to define and understand the water resources on the property. Water quality can vary considerably across properties and can have a significant effect on many elements of pastoral sheep production, including wool, reproductive performance and meat production. Your water audit is an important element of your property plan.

You need to consider the following with regard to your water resources:

• Source (groundwater, rain fed)
• Quantity
• Quality
• Reliability and amount of ongoing monitoring required
• Water requirements of livestock – daily and maximum
• Location and proximity to other sources
• Costs (time and labour) associated with providing it to stock
• Impacts of non-domestic animals on watering points
• Condition of source and its associated infrastructure, and delivery mechanisms
• Risk assessment – consider the likelihood and consequence of various risks such as equipment failure, or blue green algal bloom, or lack of rainfall.

Use Tool 12.3 to undertake a water audit on your property.

SIGNPOSTS

READ

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8371kB WaterSmart Pastoralism Handbook: A practical guide to stock water management in desert Australia

Important considerations for stock water delivery and outlines technologies which can reduce the cost of water delivery and storage.

AgGuide – Farm Water

This book is for anyone who wants the best from their water supplies in a rural area. It gives an introduction to the technical problems involved in domestic and livestock water supplies.

252kB Stock water – a limited resource

Details for performing a water audit on your property by assessing water quantity, quality and reliability.

Best management practices for extensive grazing enterprises

This publication describes, in broad terms, those arid and semi-arid areas of New South Wales commonly referred to as rangelands and the management principles that under lie the sustainable utilisation of these areas by extensive grazing industries.

1185kB Grazing land management – sustainable and productive natural resource management

This booklet helps producers meet their objectives in grazing land management. It provides a simple roadmap to understand and implement sustainable and productive grazing land management.

National Landcare Program

For access to all regional natural resource management NRM authorities across Australia go to the website and click on your region. 

1854kB The ABCD pasture condition guide – Mulga and Mitchell grass

This manual shows how to measure pasture condition more precisely. The improvement comes from making some simple pasture measurements, and using a tool called an ABCD Pasture Chart.

2838kB Betting on rain – Managing seasonal risk in Western NSW

This guide provides both informative insights into the factors that determine regional weather patterns and practical tools that will allow landholders to utilise what predictability does exist to improve management decision making.

1735kB Informing decisions of pastoral woolgrowers for country and profit

Decision support manual is to assist livestock selling decisions that pastoral sheep producers make before drought.

11983kB Pasture degradation and recovery in Australia’s rangelands

Reference material for producers to understand the interaction of climate and rangland management.

579kB Biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands

Well-tested approaches to support planning of biodiversity monitoring systems for measurable and meaningful benchmarking of biodiversity.

895kB Land condition guide: understanding the productivity of grazing lands – Barkly District

Land condition can be described as the ability of land to respond to rainfall and produce useful forage. This pastoral land condition assessment tool has been produced to assist land managers.

ATTEND

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Grazing Land Management EDGE®

Designed for producers to develop a thorough understanding of the grazing land environment in which they operate to strategically manage their grazing business to optimise land condition and productivity in the long-term and begin developing grazing land management plans for their properties.

Grazing Fundamentals EDGE®

A one-day workshop that gives producers a broad understanding of the environment in which they operate and the core principles behind successfully maintaining grazing land condition and long-term productivity.