19-09-2002

Australian farmers have always shown initiative when faced with new challenges. Dryland salinity is one of the greatest challenges to confront our farmers, but again they are rising to the occasion.

Presenting a case study paper at the National Conference and Workshop on Productive Use and Rehabilitation of Saline Lands this week at Fremantle, South Australian farmers Gordon and Neville Stopp have described how land that appeared worthless has become a vital part of their farm operation.

"We have about 2200 hectares of land near Keith in the Upper South East that became very badly salt affected in the early 1980s", said Gordon. "About 400 ha is remnant vegetation that is now protected under a Heritage Agreement and about the same amount is wetland, however the remainder has been turned back into valuable grazing land.

"Over the years we have progressively sown down the 400 ha of the low-lying land that is affected by salt with the very salt tolerant grass, puccinellia. The rising ground, which tends to be sandier, we have sown to lucerne."

The Stopp brothers run 3200 ewes and lambs along with about 1200 hoggets on this block, which complements the cropping and lucerne seed production enterprises on their 1500 ha home farm.

"When we first started trials with saltland pastures we were on our own", said Gordon. "Very little was known about what species to sow, how to establish it and how to manage it for the best results. Over the years we have learned a lot by trial and error, although in recent times there has been much more interest from other farmers and agronomists.

"This networking that has been encouraged by the National Dryland Salinity Program has been invaluable in enabling us to share our experiences with other farmers and learn from each other. We are now looking forward to producer networks being set up through the Sustainable Grazing on Saline Lands project."

The effort the Stopps have put into managing their saltland has paid off because it now fits so well into their whole farming system.

"Silvergrass in the lucerne would be a major problem for lambs in the lucerne during November, so it is a great advantage that we can put them onto the puccinellia at that time", said Neville. "Then again in autumn we can take the pressure off when it is slowing down."

With its combination of flats and hills, abundant shelter and perennial pastures the Stopps achieve 120 per cent lambing with cross-breds and 100 pc with Merinos. Cross-bred weaners can be brought back to the more productive home property at the end of summer and finished on grain and lucerne stubbles. In this way it nicely complements their cropping and seed production enterprises.

Seven farmers from Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia presented their case studies at the conference. All of these farmers operate in very different environments and use different systems. However they were agreed that well managed saltland can be profitable, good for the environment and very satisfying.

ENDS

Further information:

Please contact Land & Water Australia
Email: land&wateraustralia@lwa.gov.au
Phone: 02 6263 6000