15 June 2007
Craig Forsyth wishes farmers had known the value of biodiversity decades ago. He, for one, would have "done things a bit differently, left far more trees for shelter belts and for wildlife corridors.
"We know now how important biodiversity is in the system and that, if you have no balance in it, eventually you are not sustainable," he says.
By Australian standards, the Forsyth family is still well placed for biodiversity on 3600 hectare Avoca outside Dongara, some 360 kilometres north of Perth, with about a fifth of their country still covered by remnant vegetation.
Predominantly carrying coastal blackbutt, grevilleas and banksia woodland with tussocky undergrowth, the 700 hectares of undisturbed vegetation is home to the rare Arrowsmith's stilt lily.
The endangered Carnaby's white tailed (also long-billed) cockatoo also nests there.
The presence of all this biodiversity, and Mr Forsyth's keen interest in it, explains why Avoca has come to be involved in the national Biodiversity in Grain & Graze program.
Grain & Graze is a collaborative partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Land & Water Australia (LWA).
Avoca is one of more than 40 mixed farms around Australia being monitored in this program, in which researchers are working to quantify the relationships between biodiversity and on-farm production.
While Mr Forsyth's initial links with the Northern Agricultural Region's Grain & Graze researchers came because of his significant inclusion of perennial grasses in a decision to return all Avoca's 2700 hectares of cropping land to pasture for cattle, he was a "natural" for the program's biodiversity component.
He is a member of the committees of the Mingenew Irwin Group - which evolved out of the Landcare groups in those two districts - and of Evergreen Farming, the farmer-driven group committed to achieving sustainable "Green Farms all Year Round" across southern Australia.
He accepts, for instance, that his 700 hectares of remnant vegetation remains in that undisturbed state largely because the soils underneath it are "gutless" and were never worth clearing.
And he's ready to suggest that, ideally, a lot of the 2900 hectares of "arable" land on Avoca should not have been cleared either, but when it was, in the late 1960s and the 1970s, it was possible to get a return on the superphosphate needed on the deep grey sands.
The Forsyths arrived at Dongara in 1978, and ran sheep until that industry's profitability crashed in the 1990s and they turned to cropping.
"We did pretty well too, because input prices then were lower and grain prices relatively better," Mr Forsyth says.
"Up to six years ago we cropped 1400 hectares. We had waterlogging problems in 1998 and 1999 and then serious disease problems in lupins, which are a very important part of the cropping system here, providing nitrogen for the wheat.
"All the arable country is pasture improved to some degree now. We started seriously with the sub-tropical, perennial grasses in 2001, though we had dabbled in them since the early 1990s.
"Then we had no grasp of the rotational grazing they need, but we've planted 800 hectares of them now - Gatton Panic, Fine Cut Rhodes and Signal Grass - and they have a sort of symbiosis with our established annual legumes, blue lupins, sub-clovers and serradella.
"We keep paddock records and can certainly see the benefits of perennial grasses and we think they suit cattle better than sheep."
The Forsyths run a Santa Gertrudis/Droughtmaster breeder herd, backgrounding progeny for feedlots, and have an alliance with pastoral stations in the west Pilbara, taking young cattle to prepare for the live export market.
Extra paddock feed comes from 400 hectares of tagasaste, planted in rows 18 to 20 metres apart. Mr Forsyth says the wind protection provided by the tagasaste is creating an evolving ecosystem, with annual legumes like blue lupins, grasses and what he calls "the three "r's" - ryegrass, radish and rubbish, all highly palatable to cattle.
"We'd been playing around with tagasaste for 25 years, but over the last 10 we have learned how to handle it and cranked the system up," Mr Forsyth says.
For more information about how to become involved in the Biodiversity in Grain & Graze program, contact Philip Barrett-Lennard, Regional Coordinator for the Grain & Graze Northern Agricultural Region on 08 9475 0753; Richard Price, National Coordinator, on 02 6295 6300, mobile
0409 624 297; Gillian Stewart on 02 6263 6042; Lynne Sealie on 02 6263 6021, or visit www.grainandgraze.com.au.
Grain & Graze Regional Coordinators
Avon Region - Linda Leonard - 08 9690 2191
Border Rivers Region - Rachel Charles - 07 4671 7900
Central West/Lachlan Region - Jodie Dean - 02 6895 1015
Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins Region - Cam Nicholson - 03 5258 3860
Eyre Peninsula Region - Alison Frischke - 08 8680 6223
Mallee Region - Zubair Shahzad - 03 5021 9103
Maranoa/Balonne Region - Stephen Ginns - 07 4620 8122
Northern Agricultural Region - Philip Barrett-Lennard - 08 94750753
Murrumbidgee Regional Coordinator - Katrina Sait - 02 6924 4633
