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Soilkee project
SoilKee Renovator - Building drought resilience in grazing systems in the Tweed
Status: CompletedInvestor: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, through funding from Australian Government’s National Landcare Program - Smart Farms Small Grant
Locality: Tweed Valley, Northern Rivers, NSW
Goals: Sustainable Agriculture
Funds: $185,500
Partner(s): Agriprove, Tweed Shire Council, Byron Shire Council, Brunswick Valley Landcare, Southern Cross University and North Coast Local Land Services.
Tweed Landcare secured a grant to trial and demonstrate the benefits of regenerative grazing management in a project involving a “Soilkee Renovator” aimed at showing farmers how they can convert tired pastures into nutrient-rich, carbon-sequestering soils. The aim of the Soilkee project was to improve the drought resilience of beef cattle farms by trialling biological farming methods and multispecies pasture cropping at 2 demonstration sites in the Tweed LGA.
Working with two farms in the Tweed Shire, we trialed the Soilkee Renovator to turn compacted, unproductive land into deep, spongy soil rich with nutrients. By using multi-species pasture cropping, we successfully demonstrated the potential to fill the winter feed gap into the summer months and permanently increase pasture diversity, including drought-resilient legumes and broad-leaved species. Winter pasture cropping is suitable in the Tweed LGA because the dominant subtropical pastures stop growing through the cooler months and provide minimal competition for sown pastures.
Future work should consider the long-term effects of pasture cropping, rotational grazing and the effects of different fertilisers on soil health and the drought resilience of grazing systems. Consideration could also be given to summer planting, particularly in pasture dieback affected areas where groundcover is poor and there is minimal competition from the summer-growing subtropical species.
For more information on this project, get in contact with us at tli@tweedlandcare.org.au
Tweed Landcare promotes sustainable farming through regenerative agriculture projects, on-farm support, and education. We work in partnership with Tweed Shire Council and other groups to leverage funding and implement projects that align with the Tweed Sustainable Agriculture Strategy as part of Tweed Shire Council’s Sustainable Agriculture Program.
