"We have always been very open to people coming through the place to have a look. Exchange of information is just so critical." Ararat woolgrowers Debbie and Rob Shea have always made it a priority to match production capacity with land use and look after the environment on their farm. Over the past 20 years the Sheas - who run about 8300 Merinos, including a fine wool Merino stud, in Ararat - have continually worked to improve soil conservation, grazing techniques and native vegetation on their 967ha grazing property.

"A lot of this work has only been possible with the support local farming and resource groups," Debbie said. "That's why we have always been very open to people coming through the place to have a look. Exchange of information is just so critical."

This belief explains Debbie's active involvement with various groups in her region. She's involved in the Grassland Society of Southern Australia and is a community member of the Glenelg/Hopkins Catchment Management Authority (CMA). More recently she's become the CMA representative on the steering committee for Grain & Graze in the Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins region and late last year she became chair of that committee.

Grain & Graze is a four-year research and development program involving farmer groups, catchment groups and major RDCs working to build natural, financial and social capital for producers and their rural communities. Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins is one of eight regions in the grain/sheep/beef zone of southern Australia participating in Grain & Graze.

Debbie recently returned from a Grain & Graze National Forum in Western Australia, where she toured around local farms with other Grain & Graze members from across Australia.

"It's great to hear and see what the other regions are up to," Debbie said. "While they may be facing slightly different problems to us, we are all progressing toward that same goal: to do something about productivity and our environment."

The Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins region is working on about five projects to help local farmers lift profits and improve their environment.

One of those projects of particular interest to Debbie is utilising the region's native vegetation - a big proportion of which she said existed on private land. "We need to be looking after these resources for generations to come," she said.

Debbie and her husband have been working with native vegetation on her property for a few years now. She said they had retained a significant proportion of native grasses in the pastures on their hills. "There's a huge value in having [the native grasses] there for habitat," she said. "That value needs to be promoted more."

Preliminary Grain & Graze results in the Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins region are showing native grasslands play a valuable role in building up populations of predators of common crop and pasture pests. It is hoped that if Grain & Graze can show a link between grassland habitat and the productivity benefits of pest management, then farmers will have more reason to preserve these areas on their farms.

Being a woolgrower, Debbie said she was interested to see if it was possible to control blowflies in sheep through natural pest management. "Like crop and pasture bugs, if we have the right habitat for the predators of the blowfly, then maybe we could control the blowfly population on our farms."

Grain & Graze is a first for Australian agriculture as four of the country's major RDCs - Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation Limited, Grains Research & Development Corporation and Land & Water Australia - are working together, with regional and local groups, to deliver practical research.

"As a levy-payer I'm very happy to see the different RDCs working together," Debbie said. "We need more of this; to share ideas and resources instead of re-inventing the wheel each time."


For more information about Grain & Graze in the Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins region contact Cam Nicholson .