We identified this property as having very good quality soil characteristics. The property was split in to three main cells. The predominantly grassland ecosystem was deteriorated and had several problem areas of material invasive weed infestations. A material weed management program was implemented where three main techniques were adopted, mulching, spraying and some selective clearing with improved pasture seeding closely following.

One of the key initiatives that we implemented with Project Durundur was a planned resting of several large portions of paddocks that had been treated for weed infestations. We tried to optimise these rests with two rounds of grass seed hitting the ground and we are now currently realising these benefits and observing material uplift in biodiversity and dry available feed matter.

Project Durundur development was also complimented with an irrigated forage grazing system. We felt as though this system was able to integrate our resting periods and enabled us to manage an intensive rotational cell systems. These cycles on the irrigated flats have also proven to be sound strategies for improved soil health on what were depleted and heavily compacted paddocks. We opted for deep root forages that assisted us to break up the compaction and thus improve soil health, moisture control and biodiversity.

Our forage blends included Chicory, Rape, Clovers, Radish and Oats.

Another key initiative we adopted with Project Durundur was a laneway system that also incorporated Riparians’, where able. The laneway serves multiple purposes, O,H&S, animal temperament as well as resting the lower lying areas near our waterways to optimise run-off controls. Laneway systems, strategically placed that serve multiple purposes are a key part of our management systems.

Again, we link improvements to our perennial pasture improvement programs, due to the integration back to soil carbon inputs. Perennial pastures have greater carbon inputs than annual pasture species and as such relates greater to our goal of moving the dial in our benchmark assessment matrix for soil health.