Vegetation Management Boosts Grazing Productivity

_This project is complete. Click on the following link to view the case study [Wool production and biodiversity The Hill](http://landwaterwool.gov.au/index.php?q=node/126)_

Planting 400,000 trees over 25 years has been a key success factor for New England fine wool and beef producers Jon and Vicki Taylor, and has made them a case study for a major research project now underway in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales.

Over a quarter of a century, the Taylors have planted trees on more than 15 per cent of their Kentucky district property 'The Hill' while maintaining production capability from the 650-hectare farm

Leader of the Land, Water & Wool project 'Profitable Wool Production and Biodiversity, Associate Professor Nick Reid of the University of New England, said by documenting and assessing the results achieved on 'The Hill', practical guidelines could be developed for other Tablelands woolgrowers wanting to encourage environmentally significant vegetation in a way compatible with wool production.

The Taylors run 5500 fine wool Merino sheep on 'The Hill' and nearby 400 ha 'East Oaks' producing 17.5-18 micron wool, along with 150 or more beef cattle in good seasons. Survival of the 1800-2200 lambs they produce each winter is of vital importance to the Taylors' bottom line, so early tree plantings were in lines or blocks in a direct attempt to provide shelter.

The Taylors' story goes back to the mid-1950s, when the Taylor family had already been farming in the Kentucky area for 115 years. Tree cover had already been reduced to about 30 per cent by a century of ringbarking and regrowth control to open up pastures to the sun.

Continual defoliation of the peppermint gums and other eucalypts by Christmas beetles during 1956, the dramatic change to soil ecology caused by 'supering and introduced pastures, have been found through research to be factors which triggered New England dieback. This phenomenon has since killed millions of eucalypts across the New Englandand nearly denuded The Hill.

In 1979, after dieback had killed most of the susceptible trees in the area, John and Vicki planted 20,000 Radiata pine seedlings in their first attempt to foil the freezing winds that swept the property in winter.

By 1982 they were adding native species to their annual tree planting, to improve diversity and robustness of their tree lines. In 1992 they began planting over whole paddocks, along contour lines with a minimum 60-metre spacing, replicating shelter provided by natural timber cover.

In hindsight, Jon said there has been no perceptible boost to lambing percentages - which have remained steady at around 83 per cent except for two severe drought years - as a result of the additional shelter. But nor have there been the extreme weather conditions during spring shearing that have killed thousands of sheep across New England twice in Jon's lifetime.

In drought, Jon added, the trees have paid for themselves two or three times over. Protecting young trees from stock has meant that at times, up to 11% of The Hill has not been used for production.

When drought hit in 1994, however, this 'living fodder store' proved to be an unexpected blessing.

'The trees have given us an appreciation of how exposed our pastures and stock once were,' said Jon. 'We used to have harder frosts, the feed tended to burn off quickly on dry windy days, and the stock suffered - not just in winter. If we want to find our stock on a summer's day, we know we'll find them in a tree plantation.'

The lessons of 1994 stayed with the Taylors, so that when drought hit in 2002 - the worst in the Taylor family's 160-year tenancy of the area - they were well prepared.

'It was a real test of the drought reserve system we developed using the tree plots in 1994,' Jon said. 'We were stretched to the limit this time, and when it broke we only had a few weeks before we would have had to sell our remaining cattle. But our core mob of 60 breeders raised calves during the drought, which we sold, and the breeders are in calf again. And we didn't have to buy feed for any of them - it's just not economic for us.

The Taylors have recently embarked on an on-going program of thinning and cutting the early Radiata plantings for timber production. In later plantings, exotics and natives were planted side-by-side, so that as the pines are cut out, the natives will stand alone.

The big return on harvestable timber will be realised by the end of this decade, adding a new income stream to 'The Hills' books. Before that, however, Land Water & Wool will be working to fill in some of the missing pieces of the jigsaw for the Taylors.

'If 20 years ago we'd invested our money instead of putting it into trees, it's possible it would be worth as much as the trees are today,' Jon said. 'But what we can't measure is the trees' impact on stock health, the value of the estate, water quality and our farm ecosystem in general.'

While Jon indicates environmental benefits are particularly hard to gauge, he notes water quality along creeks has improved dramatically, they have stands of native timber that withstood dieback, bird numbers are '20 to 50 times higher' than when they started planting trees, and koalas and echidnas are now a common sight. A university study found 82 species of insect on the exotic trees, and 87 on the natives, with only three of the 14 insect orders found common to natives and exotics - indicating that exotics play a significant role in biodiversity too.

First published in November 2003. For more information go to the Managing Native Vegetation and Biodiversity Sub-program.