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MMFS Manual

Chapter 5.3 Devise and implement your action plan

Background information

Better management of your farm’s natural assets is about environmental as well as production and financial benefits. Farms are operating ecosystems, with everything interconnected. The healthier the natural assets, the better the production outcomes, the more sustainable the farming system, and the more enjoyable it is to live and work on the farm.

Now that you have an inventory of your farm’s natural assets (Chapter 5.1), make your farm a more attractive place to live and work by managing your farm’s natural assets for multiple benefits. Look for multiple benefits from any action, for example perennial pastures sown to meet animal feed demand (see Chapter 8.2 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product) can also reduce salinity and soil erosion when sown in the right spot.

Funding assistance is often available to fund environmental outcomes for protection of high value assets that benefit both your grazing enterprise and the community.

At a glance

  • Devise an action plan with explicit targets and descriptions based on your vision for the resource base.
  • Implement management practices that avoid erosion, not just repair erosion after the event.
  • Manage stock access to dams and waterways to improve water quality.
  • Apply the 3Rs of vegetation management - Retain before Restore before Revegetate.
  • Use integrated pest and weed management methods.
  • Adopt management practices that help reduce the impact of climate change on your farm.

Prevent soil erosion

Prevent sheetwash and gully erosion by slowing water movement down, letting vegetation regenerate and building groundcover. Re-establish riparian vegetation to filter and trap dissolved nutrients and slow water movement. Maintain existing structural works to slow or divert flows where riparian vegetation is in poor condition.

Aim for 70% groundcover in flatter areas and 90% to 100% on slopes (see Tool 6.2 in MMFS Module 6 Healthy Soils).

This requires management of how hard and long stock are allowed to graze areas. Feed budgeting (see Tool 8.4 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product) is a key tool to ensure sufficient pasture is available for livestock production, to determine the number of stock that should be placed in a paddock, and how long they can stay there before minimum pasture mass targets are reached or groundcover is compromised. The signpost section at the end of this chapter contains resources to help you achieve this.

To manage wind erosion, implement management practices that avoid erosion, not just repair erosion after the event. Maintain vegetation cover over more than 50% of the soil surface (see Tool 6.2 in MMFS Module 6 Healthy Soils) to:

  • Act as a blanket that prevents the wind from picking up any soil particles
  • Absorb the force of the wind and reduce the wind speed at ground level
  • Trap eroded soil particles and reduce the bombardment of the soil surface.

Stubble, plants, grass butts or small shrubs (higher than 10 cm) that sit up into the air offer even more protection, so you will require slightly less cover. Shrubs and tussock grasses protect the soil when the spacing between the plants is less than three times their height, and when they are evenly distributed across the paddock.

The signposts following contain several useful resources on managing grazing and cropping paddocks in areas prone to wind erosion.

Set targets for what priority areas will look like when you prevent erosion. An example target may be ‘maintain 1,000 kg DM/ha all year round’; or ‘gully walls stabilised’.

Devise an action plan to achieve the targets for each area. Set a date for achieving these targets. Remember it is much easier to break a big issue into smaller, manageable chunks or individual steps.

Commit to monitoring the change (see Chapter 5.4).

Control salinity with best practice

There are two aspects of best practice for salinity management:

  • Reduce recharge, then
  • Manage saline areas for production and to prevent further environmental decline.

Reducing recharge is a regional approach, as often groundwater systems cover expansive areas but localised actions (such as tree plantings on break of slope above salt patches or surrounding discharge sites) can help reduce on-farm salinity discharge sites.

Reduce groundwater recharge with perennial pastures

A CSIRO report summarised the potential of perennial pastures to reduce leakage:

  • High rainfall zone (more than 600 mm/year): near Rutherglen in Victoria, leakage under perennial grasses was estimated to range from 50–120 mm/year depending on grazing management and plant nutrition. Researchers concluded a high proportion of trees would need to be incorporated into the landscape to achieve a significant reduction in recharge.
  • Medium rainfall zone (400–600 mm/year): perennial systems can reduce leakage by 20–50% when compared with annuals, but leakage remains 2-3 times greater than leakage under the original woodland. However, lucerne grown continuously can reduce leakage by up to 90%.
  • Low rainfall zone (less than 400 mm/year): in the Upper South East of SA, lucerne reduced leakage to the level of natural Mallee vegetation (<1 year). In western NSW, there appeared to be no increase in leakage on heavier soils when trees were replaced by well-managed grazing systems. 

If large scale replanting of catchments to trees is not possible, to improve water use by pastures and reduce water table recharge rates, use pasture plants which grow longer into the season and explore a greater volume of soil (deeper root systems). Provide the right soil conditions for growth (see chapter 7.1 in MMFS Module 7 Grow More Pasture) to improve water use efficiency.

Perennial pasture establishment can be expensive. However, perennial pastures on recharge areas can deliver multiple benefits to your farm by reducing additions to the water table and increasing pasture productivity.

Set targets for what the outcome of preventing or addressing salinity would look like for the priority areas identified in your inventory (chapter 5.2). Example targets may be ‘plant perennial pasture (or trees) on the mid-slopes’ or ‘implement a simple four-paddock rotational grazing system’.

Devise an action plan to achieve the targets for the priority areas. Set a date for achieving these targets. Remember, it is much easier to break a big issue into smaller manageable steps.

Commit to monitoring the change (see Chapter 5.4).

Manage discharge

Saline soils are one of the ‘problem issues’ included in Chapter 6.4 in MMFS Module 6 Healthy Soils. Saline soils are included here because saline discharge sites are often associated with water quality problems, e.g., salt wash-off into streams and increased erosion and the decline and death of native vegetation.

Apply the guidelines in Tool 5.5 to better manage any saline sites you identified on the farm.

Manage native vegetation

When managing native vegetation, there are two elements of overriding importance – extent (amount and degree of connection between patches) and condition. Now that you have assessed the condition of your native vegetation (see Chapter 5.2), manage the vegetation according to its condition to achieve your vision for your grazing enterprise (see signposts in Chapter 5.1).

The following general principles for native pasture management can give both production and environmental benefits:

  • Avoid overgrazing: regrowth is slow when pastures have been overgrazed (negative for production) and the diversity of native species will decline (negative for conservation).
  • Rotationally graze perennial species: rotational grazing (rather than set stocking) favours perennial plants (native and exotic) over annuals (see Chapter 8.3 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product).
  • Bare ground benefits many weeds: manage grazing to minimise bare ground but remember that the forbs and other small non-grass plants that contribute to the diversity in native pastures rely on some bare ground between grass plants and tussocks.

Apply the “3Rs” – Retain then Restore then Revegetate – when managing, protecting and enhancing native vegetation and biodiversity on your property. Cost and degree of difficulty increase as you move from:

  • Retain: areas of native vegetation that are in good condition are extremely valuable and retaining them in that condition should be the focus.
  • Restore: the majority of remnant vegetation on sheep properties has been altered, reducing its conservation value. Restoration of ‘somewhat degraded’ native vegetation (through changes in grazing management, weed eradication, natural regeneration, or enhancement planting) is much easier than starting from scratch.
  • Revegetate: while ‘revegetation’ is nominally the last resort, the reality on many properties is there is insufficient native vegetation to underpin a healthy farm ecosystem. Revegetation is most effective if it is used to enhance, enlarge or link existing patches of native vegetation. Natural regeneration is the cheapest and most effective if there is a bank of seed of the key species still in the soil. Seed banks will be very low on properties that have been extensively cleared for many years, slowing the pace of natural regeneration.

Set targets for priority areas of native vegetation that describe your desired changes. Example targets may be ‘increase remnant areas by 10 ha each year up to 10% of the farm’; ‘manage native pastures to increase their perennial content from 40% to 70%’; or ‘fence a 1 ha area around individual paddock trees to encourage revegetation’.

Devise an action plan to achieve the targets for your priority areas. Set a date for achieving these targets. Remember, it is much easier to break a big issue into smaller manageable steps.

Design for birds

Apply some or all of the guidelines for attracting birds to your farm while improving the natural assets on which your grazing enterprise depends:

  • Local native vegetation (including native pastures) should cover at least 30% of the total farm area
  • Re-create local conditions
  • Exclude high-impact land uses (e.g., cropping or intensive grazing) from at least 30% of the farm area
  • Maintain native pastures and avoid heavy grazing
  • Native vegetation cover should be in patches of at least 10ha and linked by strips at least 50 m wide
  • Manage at least 10% of the farm area for wildlife
  • Maintain a range of tree ages
  • Leave fallen trees to break down naturally (hollows provide nesting sites for birds)
  • Maintain shrub cover or underplant native grasses or shrubs over at least one-third of the area within a patch of remnant farm trees
  • Dams in areas with an open flight path are most likely to be visited by ducks and other water birds (i.e. don’t plant trees around all sides of the dam)
  • Maintain native vegetation around water.

While it is preferable to follow the suggestions about size, shape, structure and connectivity of vegetation, even small, isolated patches of revegetation provide habitat for some native birds and lay a foundation for future bird scaping endeavours. Some model bird havens started out as barren and degraded landscapes. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Use a diversity of approaches to manage weeds

To successfully manage weeds, choose a diverse combination of weed control activities, targeting the weak points in weed lifecycles. The Diversity table in Tool 5.3 will help you scope a range of methods for weed control, then choose the tools you can apply to manage the weeds to achieve the goals you identified using the Deliberation table (Tool 5.3). Use the Diligence table in Tool 5.3 to keep your weed management plan on track, and make sure you “do it on time, every time”.

The CRC for Weed Management has described five ‘tactic’ groups of interventions (see Tool 5.4), where you aim the particular intervention to the weak points in the weed’s armour. Tool 5.4 specifically focuses on weeds in native vegetation, but the principles stated have relevance to pasture weeds in general.

Set targets that describe success in weed management for priority areas. Example targets may be ‘thistles occupy less than 10% of the paddock within five years’ or ‘weed spraying costs will be 30% lower within five years.’

Devise an action plan to achieve the targets for the priority areas. Set a date for achieving these targets. Remember, it is much easier to break a big issue into smaller manageable steps.

Integrated management of insect pests

Integrated pest management (IPM) is recommended for managing insect pests by monitoring populations, replacing broad-spectrum insecticides that kill pests and beneficial insects alike with more selective insecticides and strategies like baiting and seed dressings and control through heavy grazing.

Farmers who have tested an IPM approach have reduced their reliance on broad acre spraying with direct savings of between $5/ha and $30/ha (see signposts).

Time spent spraying is often replaced with regular monitoring of paddocks. A new level of skill is required to identify the beneficial insects as well as the pests and to know the appropriate strategies to apply. Farmers who have tried an IPM approach say holding your nerve and waiting for the beneficial insects to do their job is the most difficult part.

IPM results are confirming what many have suspected for years – well balanced farms, with a good range of more ‘native’ areas have fewer problems with insect pests in crops and pastures. Implement IPM by:

  • Increasing the number and diversity of birds on your property – birds are natural predators of many insect pests.
  • Establishing windbreaks for animal shelter, NRM benefits, and, with a complex understorey, harbour for predatory invertebrates that prey on insect pests in the adjacent pastures.
  • Sowing tolerant plant varieties – plant varieties and cultivars can vary significantly in their tolerance to invertebrate pests, e.g., some sub clover cultivars have been bred with more resistance to redlegged earth mite (RLEM) attack, while gland clover has increased tolerance to RLEM. Sow pasture species with increased tolerance to invertebrate pests to decrease pesticide use.
  • Applying pesticides at the appropriate time and location. For RLEM, TIMERITE® predicts the optimal date for spraying in spring to minimise insecticide use and to maximise effectiveness.

Manage vertebrate pests

Vertebrate pest management plans should be built into annual, on-farm work programs (particularly coordinated baiting or aerial shooting programs). Where possible, small amounts of ongoing control can be built into daily and weekly on-farm management duties. Baits and traps, for instance, can be checked while doing water or fence maintenance runs. Small amounts of very targeted control (for example, baits for foxes/wild dogs or pig traps) can yield long-term benefits in reducing impacts on natural resources and livestock production.

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Source: Neil Schultz via Centre for Invasive Species Solutions

Persist with ongoing management of rabbit populations

A range of control techniques are available for rabbit management including physical harbour destruction, poisoning and more recently biological control. No one technique will provide full control of rabbit populations and even if your rabbits disappear, a failure to destroy warrens and harbour may encourage re-population from rabbits on other properties. Ideally, management actions need to be planned with targets set for effective control. Control activities should target periods when rabbits are at their lowest densities either ecologically (i.e., outside of breeding season) or due to the deliberate or natural spread of biological control.

Warren ripping and harbour destruction when population are at their lowest or non-existent will limit or delay any chance of populations rebuilding or establishing on the property. Research has shown that it takes a significant period of time for rabbits to establish burrows and warren systems so by removing harbour and ripping warrens any remaining rabbits are exposed to the elements and predation by native and introduced carnivores. The delivery of additional management options, such as poisoning, trapping and shooting, has the potential to further remove any remaining rabbits that have eluded the biocontrol and harbour destruction. Review the rabbit control measures analysed in Tool 5.6 and use a combination of these – with rabbits, it’s a matter of persistence.

Set targets for rabbit management. Example targets may be ‘rabbit density will be 60% lower in five years’; or ‘50% of the farm’s warrens are ripped in two years.’

Devise an action plan to achieve the rabbit control targets in priority areas. Set a date for achieving these targets. Remember, it is much easier to break a big issue into smaller ‘manageable chunks’, or individual steps.

Target weak points in the fox lifecycle

There are a range of control measures for foxes (see Tool 5.7), and as for rabbit control, it is often best to use a combination. Foxes are highly mobile so without a coordinated effort with your neighbours, control programs are unlikely to have a lasting impact. However, there are a range of best practice methods and strategies that can delivered at a property scale to manage fox populations, including the use of annual control programs using Canid Pest Ejectors (CPE) or replacement baiting strategies (using a small number of baits at known locations throughout the year). These baiting strategies can be found in the PestSmart Toolkit Glovebox Guide for Managing Foxes (see signposts) and need to be considered when developing a management plan.

Concentrate fox baiting efforts in March/April and August/September each year for population management by targeting young and immature foxes. Around August/September is when mating season has finished and vixens are actively seeking additional food prior to whelping and the fox population is at its lowest. In March, juvenile foxes disperse to find their own territory, displacing older foxes. Well-placed baits will be readily taken in March. This concentrated, twice-yearly baiting slows the recovery of the fox population, as foxes only breed once a year. When used in conjunction with other control techniques baiting is extremely effective.

In some production systems, foxes are highly dependent on rabbits for prey but they rarely kill enough to provide any genuine control of rabbit populations. However, when rabbit numbers are decimated through other control actions (such as baiting or biological control) this provides an excellent opportunity to control foxes with baits as they desperately scavenge for food in the absence of rabbits to hunt. While this may be outside of lambing or the regular breeding periods for foxes, there is no better time to bait than when food availability is scarce, so factor this into your management planning and take advantage of this when the opportunity occurs.

Consider using Canid Pest Ejectors (CPE) – mechanical devices designed to deliver a measured dose of toxin (1080 or PAPP) directly into the mouth of foxes or wild dogs. The device is activated when a fox or dog pulls firmly (with a force greater than 1.6 kg) in an upward motion on the lure head (see signposts). This motion triggers the deice and a spring-loaded piston ejects the contents of the capsule into the animal’s mouth. The device cannot be shifted, and it is extremely target-specific due to the amount of vertical force require to activate the device. They can be easily deactivated and removed prior to using working dogs so provide a good option for those foxes that frequent yards and buildings. CPEs are a good option for use in and around areas where domestic dogs might be at risk.

In terms of protecting lambs, additional asset-based baiting and control programs can be delivered to manage for migration of foxes from adjoining properties leading up to lambing season. These strategies are discussed in more detail in MMFS Module 10 Wean More Lambs.

Monitor feral pigs and respond when active

Feral pig activity (rooting and digging up the ground) is easily visible and should be monitored throughout the year. In a good season feral pigs can breed throughout the year, so control needs to be delivered in response to activity, but particularly prior to lambing.

Feral pigs are heavily dependent on water (can cause fouling of waterholes and troughs) which provides a focal point for control, particularly in arid and semi-arid pastoral country. A range of integrated techniques including trapping, baiting and shooting (both ground and aerial) can effectively remodel pig populations.

Baiting feral pigs can be extremely effective in various production settings and while sodium fluoroacetate (1080) is the most widely used toxin, the newly developed HOGGONE® bait (sodium nitrite) has been found to be extremely effective and has less non-target risk due to the bait delivery system (see signposts).

Seek local advice on managing native browsers

Many farms with or near large areas of bushland face significant grazing competition from native animals, especially kangaroos and wallabies. In most cases, these are native animals that have benefited considerably from the creation of extensive grasslands and watering points for sheep and cattle and are often present in greatly increased numbers.

Control of native animals often faces strong community resistance. It is not possible to provide best practice guidelines here because what is appropriate in one jurisdiction can be illegal in another.

In most states, sheep producers can obtain permits to cull if certain native animals are causing damage or economic hardship. In extensive grazing areas, culling is the only viable control method. In more intensive grazing areas where competition from native browsers is high, exclusion fencing can be viable. Local advice is essential, as the type of fencing required varies depending on the animals to be excluded.

Manage stock access to water supplies

There are many good reasons for excluding stock from waterways, including the:

  • Damage they can cause to vegetation and stream banks
  • Decline in water quality they cause through pugging and fouling
  • Damage they can do to favourite fishing, yabbying or picnic spots
  • Risk of stock losses or stock straying into neighbouring properties.

Many management options are available to minimise the downsides of direct stock access to water bodies. These actions involve the careful design and construction of:

  • Crossing points that allow stock (and vehicles) to cross creeks or other water bodies. These are best located where the slope of the banks is not steep, where the stream bed is firm and, if possible, across a narrow section
  • Water access points that restrict stock to a limited number of sites and can involve ‘strengthening’ the access point with concrete, gravel or logs to minimise pugging. The best water access points have the same basic features as crossing points, but they also have minimal shade or shelter to discourage stock from remaining in the area other than to drink.

Consider reticulated water supplies

Carefully designed reticulated stock watering systems will require more maintenance than other stock water supplies such as dams. However, solar-powered watering systems and remote management of water levels is making management easier. Reticulated systems can provide multiple benefits for production and the environment. Some simple principles include:

  • Single watering points in large paddocks lead to uneven grazing. Minimise uneven grazing by locating the trough near the centre of the paddock or consider multiple watering points in each paddock. In cropping paddocks, troughs are best placed close to fences but away from gateways.
  • Troughs are best located away from:
    • Stock camping areas: to minimise dung and dust contamination and algal growth
    • Trees: sheep will lie down around the trough and prevent timid animals from accessing the water
    • Remnant vegetation: overgrazing and nutrient build up in the vicinity of the trough will escalate the degradation of the remnant vegetation
    • Steep or erosion prone areas: where the constant trampling will exacerbate any problems
  • A shade structure over troughs will limit algal growth, reduce evaporation and keep the water cool, but must be kept to a minimum size to discourage camping.

Multiple benefits from farm water storages

Some farm dams are ideal candidates for the concept of multiple benefits. Good design and management of farm dams and the surrounding vegetation can protect your farm dam, improve water quality and water yield and increase the value of the dam and surrounds for wildlife habitat. Most farms have one or two dams that can provide excellent habitat for a range of wildlife like birds, frogs, mammals and fish.

Restrict stock access to let vegetation establish around the dam. Consider limiting stock to a controlled watering area or providing a reticulated supply. Stock access to some parts of the dam will benefit birds (like swans and ducks) that prefer open space beside water.

Good groundcover in the dam catchment will improve water quality by reducing soil, nutrient and faecal contamination and sedimentation. Shelterbelts provide shade and can reduce evaporation from the dam’s surface. Reduce wave action with strategic placement of islands and surrounding vegetation and allow taller reeds and sedges in parts of the dam.

Another simple (but potentially expensive) way to increase wildlife habitat is to construct a dam island. Add vegetation or tree logs to provide nesting and roosting sites for waterbirds on the island. Next time a dam has to be cleaned out, include an island or a vegetated buffer zone in the new design.

Reduce the impact of climate change

Review the range of options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from your farm using an emissions calculator (see signposts in Chapter 5.2).

A sheep enterprise can:

  • Reduce emissions from livestock; and
  • Offset livestock emissions by storing more carbon in the landscape.

Reduce emissions from sheep

Currently, the key to reducing livestock emissions is to maximise their growth rates and convert as much of their energy intake as possible into progeny, meat and fibre (increase productivity).

Feed options, commercialisation of supplements, and methane production traits for ASBVs are being investigated for potential to reduce methane emissions and improve feed efficiency and growth rates.

Selective breeding (see Chapter 9.1  in MMFS Module 9 Gain from Genetics), improved feed management (see Chapter 8.2 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product), maximising animal health (see Chapter 11.2 in MMFS Module 11 Healthy and Contented Sheep) and improving livestock genetics (see Chapter 9.2 in MMFS Module 9 Gain from Genetics) are essential to the future profitability and sustainability of the livestock industry and the environment.

Store carbon in the landscape 

Soil organic carbon is a potential significant carbon sink, and work is underway to determine the potential to build soil carbon in Australia in response to grazing management practices that include multi-species perennials, legumes, time-controlled grazing and fertiliser regimes.

Soil can store around 50-300 tonnes carbon (C) per ha, equivalent to 180-1100 t CO2.

Pastures and crops store 2-20 tonnes C per ha, while plantation forests can store up to 250 tonnes C per ha.

Maintain groundcover (see Chapter 6.2 in MMFS Module 6 Healthy Soils) to minimise erosion losses and maximise organic input to soil by maximising plant growth (see Chapter 7.1, Chapter 7.2 and Chapter 7.3 in MMFS Module 7 Grow More Pasture).

Inclusion of soil carbon management in carbon reduction schemes will rely on the development of cost-effective methods for estimating soil C change under changed land management practices.