Five new soil carbon trials

Five Eyre Peninsula farmers are preparing to trial treatments and planting options, which will test out regenerative agriculture practices for improving soil carbon thanks to our grants program.

“The Eyre Peninsula has large areas of agricultural land that is subject to acidification; as well as having a significant proportion of soils at moderate to severe risk of wind erosion and soils with low organic carbon - our Regenerative Agriculture Program grants focus on giving farmers an opportunity to trial methods that can help address these issues,” says AIR EP Executive Officer, Naomi Scholz.

“We look forward to supporting local farmers with these five new grants and seeing the results that they achieve.”

The five new grants will see demonstrations set up on five farms with support from Tumby Bay based agronomist with Nutrien Ag Solutions, Richard Norris. The demonstrations will be based at properties near Louth Bay, Port Neill, Miltalie and Koppio.

“These grants are a great initiative to start doing some work to address soil issues in these areas,” says Richard Norris. “Land is becoming hard to come by and expensive, so it is important to improve what we do have.

“There has been a focus on trying to improve the bridge between low and high yield to increase averages. This is where we need to identify what constraints we’re dealing with.

“It can be difficult to diagnose the best solution to the problem but the solution needs to be profitable and have a positive impact on soil health.

“These grants will give us local examples of soil carbon improvement opportunities, and narrow down the best treatments for specific issues that we’re facing in this region, while easing the expenses associated with these amelioration treatments.”

Read more…

Repairing water sources after storms

In the aftermath of significant rain events across the Eyre Peninsula, the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board is offering support and guidance to those who need to repair waterways or water sources.

Under the Landscape Act South Australia 2019, permits are required for water affecting activities such as construction or modifications to waterways, dams and crossings, however there are some exemptions for emergency repairs. In the local Water Affecting Activity Control Policy there are permit exemptions for emergency repairs to a culvert or causeway as a result of a flood event, as long as standards are met, the work is undertaken within 12 months and the Board is notified of the works.

If you would like advice on repairing or modifying waterways and water related infrastructure, please see our Water Affecting Activities web page for a range of resources or call the Board’s Water Resources Officer on 0428 815 487.

In addition to water source issues, the Board is aware that the emergence of declared weeds and the need for priority control activities will arise; along with soil and water erosion impacting farming land.

If there’s a water source, weed or agriculture issue you’d like to talk to us about, please contact Tim Breuer who is leading the Board's severe weather response team. Tim can be contacted via email timothy.breuer@sa.gov.au or on 0488 000 481.

More information...

Upcoming events for landholders

Multi-species cover cropping on western EP

Details: A free half day workshop will be held at Streaky Bay on 18 March to discuss multi-species cover cropping with local and interstate farmers. There will be opportunities to ask questions and work out how such an approach might work for farmland on western EP.

Are you interested in the role of multi-species cover cropping, but find it confusing? Would you like to hear how some farmers are using multi-species pastures to both improve their livestock production, but also have better soil cover? Are you wanting to know more about the kinds of species that might work, and the cost involved? Come along to this workshop to find out more.

Regenerative Agriculture Forum

Details: We are hosting a Regenerative Agriculture Forum on 31 March in Port Lincoln.

The forum will feature presentations and discussion from:

• CSIRO’s Dr Mark Farrell about recent multi-species cover crop research including soil microbial investigations, and
• Dr Amanda Schapel (SARDI) who will present about soil amelioration and soil carbon.

There will also be presentations by local farming practitioners and an extended panel discussion.

The forum is targeted towards growers, advisors and researchers, and all those interested in the interplay between cover crops, soil modification, soil biology, soil carbon and sustainable agriculture systems.

For further information about these two events or to RSVP, contact Josh Telfer 0460 000 290 or susag@airep.com.au.

Mallee seeps technical workshop

Details: A hands-on training workshop will be held on March 9 for landholders who want to know more about identifying and managing Mallee seeps, held at Rudall Sports Club.

The workshop will include site visits. The aim is to help landholders return their seep-affected land back into profitable production. The workshop will also cover options to assess and manage threatened areas after the big wet.

Workshop participants will be encouraged to submit photos and GPS points of their suspected or identified seeps / scalds, prior to the workshop. Register by February 28.

For more information about the Mallee seeps workshop, contact Amy Wright on 0467 004 555.

Fox bait distribution

On typical EP farming land, there's estimated to be up to 1,200 foxes in any 10km radius. To help landholders control foxes, free meat fox baits will be distributed by the Board across the Eyre Peninsula from February 23 to March 15. Find locations closest to you.

Seasonal conditions up to end of December

The review of the seasonal conditions and erosion risk for the October to December 2021 quarter by the Department of Environment and Water (DEW), has again shown the generally positive trend from the previous quarter with generally above average trend in the Plant Growth Index. This was helped by good rainfall across upper EP in November (right in the middle of harvest!) which helped maintain cover levels.

This is not the case elsewhere in parts of South Australia, which continued to have challenges maintaining cover levels over the summer. Having good cover helps with both wind and water erosion prevention, with the latter recently being more significant on EP given the extremely high rainfall totals around the end of January.

It was disappointing to see crop weather damage occurring following the burst of rain in November. However, this did take the pressure off the land cover level. The year 2021 ended up being a much-improved cover year than when it started.

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Acknowledgement

This Regenerative Agriculture Project is supported by the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

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