Managing Pastoral Country

There are approximately 1,700 woolgrowers in Australia’s pastoral zone managing properties ranging from a few thousand to several hundred thousand hectares. The industry is responding to a wide range of issues including land degradation (it is estimated that 16 per cent of pastoral land is degraded to some degree), animal welfare, uncontrolled pests and weeds, and the negative impact of these issues on native plants and animals.

>The Managing Pastoral Country sub-program worked with woolgrowers to identify how pastoral country can be better managed to address these important environmental issues while maintaining productivity. The sub-program funded five projects across Australia's pastoral zone that aimed to test and extend management approaches that deliver enhanced profitability, productivity and positive environmental outcomes.

Encouragingly, adoption of NRM practices among woolgrowers is already high with eighty-eight per cent saying they have undertaken NRM practices to manage their land profitably and sustainably. In addition, sixty-one per cent of wool growers in the pastoral zone said they were interested in receiving assistance to develop a whole farm plan to incorporate NRM into their daily farm management (Land, Water & Wool Best Practice Survey, 2003).

Projects

Publications