Last issue of Small Talk!

It’s the end of an era! This will be the last Small Talk newsletter after more than 20 years of bringing seasonal articles and information to Hills and Fleurieu landholders.

The newsletter started life as a hard copy that was posted out to more than 30,000 recipients, before making it into the digital world in its current form. Some of the first editors were current Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board staff members Nicole Bennett and Jodie Pain.

But all is not lost! We will be rolling the Small Talk seasonal content into our monthly Regional Landcare Newsletters. If you haven’t already subscribed to Regional Landcare News, you can do so here.

Be sure to look out for our NEW Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board newsletter being introduced next month, which will include stories from across the board’s five priority areas of land, water, nature, climate and community. To make sure you see the first edition as soon as it’s released, be sure to join the subscriber list here.

Agricultural Bureau of South Australia (Ag Bureau) - 2022 Spirit of Excellence Awards

Applications are now open for the @agbureausa 2022 Spirit of Excellence in Agriculture Awards.

These awards provide a unique opportunity, including valuable financial support, to motivated individuals who are keen to contribute and strengthen their communities.

The Sustainable Agriculture Scholarship for Farmers sponsored by Department of Environment and Water (DEW) Environment SA News is a $10,000 grant for a farmer aged 18-40.

The Rural Youth Bursary sponsored by Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) is a $5,000 grant for rural young people aged 18-30 working in a rural community.

For more information and to apply, click here.

Cape Tulip season fast approaching!

This is a friendly reminder that Cape Tulip will be popping up any time now!

We recommend that you start planning for the control season, and review the strategies and options available.Timing is crucial for controlling Cape Tulip. Check out the guide here.

For the best results, herbicide-based control should be conducted in June to August before flower buds emerge.

This is because:
• By the time the plant has flowered (September-October), it has produced a new corm underground, which will not be susceptible to herbicide
• Herbicide can take 6-8 weeks to kill the plant, so it needs to be applied early to prevent flowering and the development of the new corm

Annual monitoring and control of Cape Tulip is fundamental to the success of your program, because the underground corms have a high level of dormancy.

Not all corms will germinate each year, so it is important to revisit previously treated areas.

Cape Tulip is highly toxic to grazing animals, and can have a serious impact on the productivity of agricultural enterprises.

For more information, contact your local Landscape Officer at Mt Barker or Willunga.

BIGG Conference - 7 July, Angaston

Registrations are NOW OPEN for the Barossa Improved Grazing Group 2022 Conference - 'Landscapes Across 2022. The Land. The Livestock.The People.'

Our main aim for this conference is for producers to walk out with a list of actions which they can implement on their farm to help build resilience into the future.

We have a fantastic line-up of speakers, ready to inspire you:

• Livestock markets, and industry update- Brenton Geary JBS
• Beneficial insects- Michael Nash
• Best feed management and drought resilience- Prof. Matthew Denton
• Water security cost benefit and case studies- Brian Hughes
• Herd of hope- Megan McGloughlin
• Community connection and wellbeing- James Wagner
• Plus more......still being finalised!!

Registration includes presentations, sponsors trade display, morning tea and lunch

To register, click here.

Australian government representatives visit Hills and Fleurieu farming projects

The Sustainable Agriculture team were proud to show representatives from the Australian Government two examples of local farm projects in the Hills and Fleurieu region.

Now in its third year, a trial of different soil treatments is starting to show varying impacts on soil acidity at a cropping farm in Mallala. Sustainable Agriculture Officer Rebecca Tonkin demonstrated the visible difference with pH testing.

At Macclesfield, Tumbelin Farm has been assisted in their regenerative agriculture journey by connecting with other local farmers through the Hills and Fleurieu Regenerative Agriculture Network, which is coordinated by the Hills and Fleurieu Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator.

These projects are supported by the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board through funding from the Australian Government.

Future Farmers field day: Regenerative Agriculture – a viticulture perspective

A recent farm walk hosted by the Future Farmers / Upper Fleurieu regenerative agriculture group at Richard Leask’s property in McLaren Vale created a great deal of interest and discussion amongst attendees.Richard spoke about his Nuffield Scholarship and how he uses regenerative agriculture principles in his vineyards. His practices include integrating grazing in the vineyard, with sheep and cattle grazing between rows of vines to manage weeds and increase soil carbon. An opportunity for informal networking was provided for those who stayed on for lunch and a glass of wine.

If you would like to join this group, contact Jim Mead at jim.mead@sa.gov.au

Southern Fleurieu regenerative agriculture group going strong

The Southern Fleurieu regenerative agriculture group held its third farm walk on Friday 24 June. Twenty two landholders attended hosts Mary Rose Ward and Geoff Ninnes' property just south of Normanville, where they run cattle.

After a brief introduction and history of the property, Mary Rose lead the group on a farm walk, with a focus on their revegetation efforts over the past fourteen years. These included planting shelter belts, paddock trees and fencing off remnant vegetation from stock. 

Participants were interested to hear where our hosts had sourced their tubestock, (Trees for Life), what level of species diversity was in their plantings and which species thrived and which ones didn't.

There was much discussion about all of the principles of regenerative agriculture, including minimising soil disturbance, keeping cover on the soil, maintaining living roots in the soil, how to improve the diversity of plants and soil microbes and integrating livestock into the system via rotational grazing.

After the walk, landholders were happy to stay around and chat. Often this informal networking leads to the sharing of ideas and new learning. The Southern Fleurieu regenerative agriculture group will meet next time in August, and have aspirations of including guest speakers and experts in future farm walks. If you are interested in joining the group, contact jim.mead@sa.gov.au

Rural Land Management Course for fire affected landholders

Rural Land Management Course for fire affected landholders

Local Economic Recovery funded Rural Land Management Course, Woodside- Wednesday nights, 7:30 – 9:30 pm - Woodside Warriors Soccer Club, Woodside

This course aims to assist landholders with properties within the fire scar to develop a whole farm plan, taking into account a range of factors.

The eight week course focuses on the following topics:

week 1: An introduction to land management, property plan, land capability & stocking rates
week 2: Soil management
week 3: Watercourse and Dam management
week 4: Pasture management
week 5: Biodiversity and native veg
week 6: Pests and weeds
week 7: Bushfire preparation
week 8: Course summary and property planning

The course finishes with a weekend farm walk on a participant's property with Nic Kentish from RCS.

If you live in the Cudlee Creek fire scar and would like to be a participant, please send an expression of interest to Jim Mead at jim.mead@sa.gov.au

Soil Carbon Basics - Webinar - July 5

Can’t pick your carbon from your cations? Getting into a quandary over clays? Wondering about the potential for soil carbon as a climate solution or cash ‘crop’?

If you have ever wondered how sequestration of carbon in soil works, or what opportunities exist for you to generate saleable credits from storing carbon in soils, or what other benefits increasing soil organic carbon might offer, this webinar is for you.

Join NRM Regions Australia on Tuesday 5 July from 2:30-4:30pm AEST to hear from our panel of experts on how to get the carbon into soils – and to unpack the potential for keeping it there. To register, click here.

The webinar will address the following topics:

• What is soil organic carbon and how can we keep it?

Associate Professor Beverley Henry from Queensland University of Technology 

• Where soil carbon can be stored – sequestration potential across Australia.

Sam Duncan, Chief Executive Officer, FarmLab

• Soil carbon credits – understanding the life cycle of a soil carbon project under the Emissions Reduction Fund soil carbon method

Luke Signor, Assistant Manager – Savanna, Agriculture and Soil, the Clean Energy Regulator

• Perspectives at ground level – understanding a farmer’s experience of running a soil carbon project

David Allen, farmer from the Corangamite region in south-western Victoria

This session is targeted at regional NRM organisation staff with some general knowledge of carbon farming, but anyone with an interest in soil carbon is welcome to attend.

Panel of speakers

Associate Professor Beverley Henry from Queensland University of Technology

Beverley Henry has been involved in research, policy and industry roles across agriculture and land use sectors for 30 years. Her work has largely been in the areas of climate change, climate variability and environmental management, including in greenhouse gas and carbon credit accounting and monitoring. Beverley is the co-chair of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the ‘4 per 1000 Initiative for Food Security and Climate’.

Sam Duncan Chief Executive Officer, FarmLab

Sam is a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture. A lover of the outdoors and an Air Force veteran of 12 years, he founded FarmLab in 2016 with the hypothesis that if farmers had better soil data, they could better manage soil carbon. Since then, FarmLab has evolved into a sustainability company, helping farmers and their consultants collect and measure the environment using technology.

Luke Signor- Assistant Manager in the Savanna, Agriculture and Soil Carbon Credits team at the Clean Energy Regulator

Luke’s primary role is the facilitation and regulation of soil carbon projects registered under the Emissions Reduction Fund.  This includes managing the registration, crediting and variation of any projects in the soil carbon space.

David Allen – Soil Carbon Farmer, south west Victoria

David runs a beef, wool and cropping farm that has been in the family for 116 years. David has been involved in Landcare for around 30 years, and his family are currently running a soil carbon project on their farm. David’s property is a McDonalds Flagship Farm – the only one in Australia.

'Healthy Soils, Healthy Plants' day and the 'Climate Smart Farming Forum' hit the mark

In June, the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board’s Sustainable Agriculture team hosted Dr Christine Jones for two events, a ‘Healthy Soils, Healthy Plants’ field day and the ‘Climate Smart Farming Forum’, both held at Lobethal.

The field day started at the Lobethal Bierhaus, and was attended by over 60 people. Dr Jones gave a comprehensive presentation and stressed that biodiversity is the key factor in the effective functioning of all living systems. Other key messages included using farming practices that activate plant dependent soil microbes, keeping green plants growing for longer, using a diversity of plant families in pasture crop mix (at least 4 plant families) and using untreated seed when sowing pasture to activate fungi in the soil. She advocated for the idea of getting more complexity back into farming systems to improve soil health and function.

Attendees then visited a local property at Woodside to look at a soil sample and discuss how best to sow pasture crops using a Soilkee renovator.

The Climate Smart Farming Forum was held at Goldings Winery with a range of soil experts, including Dr Jones, presenting alongside three local landholders.

Other experts included Amanda Schapel, who presented on the importance of soil carbon for healthy, functioning soil. Pater Hayman presented on climate change science and the climate trends and projections for the Adelaide Hills. Meat and Livestock Australia’s Margaret Jewell presented on how MLA will achieve Carbon neutrality by 2030 and Emma Winslow explored the market drivers for the shift towards carbon neutrality in her presentation. Ed Scott wound up the expert presentations by helping landholders understand how their farming systems have both carbon loss pathways and the capacity to store carbon, so managing their systems appropriately can improve their overall carbon position.

The day finished with a local flavour, with presentations by graziers David Elliot and Ken Woods and viticulturalist Richard Leask. Feedback from the 94 participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

Keep an eye out for a link to the videos of these two events in our July edition of the Regional Landcare News. 

The Very Fast Break - June 2022

Check out Dale Grey’s latest antics on the very Fast Break for June in South Australia, with a guest appearance from a John Denver impersonator! Find out about the possibility of a 3rd La Nina event and what it means for SA. For more, click here. 

Also, check out the BOM Climate update here.

Things to do on your property in Winter

Things to do on your property in winter:

Weed control: Key winter weeds to target include capeweed and cape tulip – speak with landscape officers about the best way to control these and see the article above.

Livestock management: Keep an eye out for sheep grazier alerts as the weather gets colder. Adjust your rotational grazing program to include your most sheltered paddocks.

Pasture Management: Adjust your rotational grazing program to avoid pugging in wet or waterlogged paddocks. Maintain at least 70% ground cover.

Revegetation: Winter is the time to get native plants in the ground, to give them the best chance to establish root systems before the summer months. Native vegetation in the form of biodiverse shelter belts, erosion control plantings, woodlots or even Carbon plantings can enhance your property’s aesthetic appeal, provide shelter for stock and even another long term income stream.(eg woodlots grown for firewood).

Native plant nurseries include:

• Clayton Bay Community Nursery - click here. 
• Fleurieu Natives - click here. 
• Trees for Life - click here.
• Kersbrook Landcare Nursery - click here.
• Hindmarsh Island Nursery - click here.
• Alexandrina Community Nursery Goolwa - click here.   Retail on Friday only 
• Mt Barker Community Nursery - click here.
• State Flora Belair  - click here.

Upcoming Events

• July 5     - Soil Carbon Basics Webinar – online via Zoom
• July 7     - BIGG Conference – Angaston