The Nature of ‘Lana’

Nick Reid - 10th April 2013
- Professor in Ecosystem. Management at the University of New England.

Southern New England Landcare and the University of New England undertook research on Profitable, Biodiverse Wool Production Systems as part of a nation al program called Land Water and Wool. ‘Lana’ was one of our case study farms where we documented woolgrowers’ success in managing both wool profits and biodiversity. We found some great biodiversity results on ‘Lana’.

What is ‘biodiversity’? It’s the variety of life - the variety of plants, animals, fungi and microbes, the genes they contain and the ecosystem which they form. We need biodiverse farms for production - so that there are plants that can produce forage in every season, wet or dry, for instance. We also value biodiversity for production and conservation.

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You have heard how, over the past 20 years, the Wrights have increased their wool and beef profits and drought-proofed their business, by nurturing the native vegetation, enhancing biodiversity, generating clean water for the downstream catchment, and regenerating habitat for their farm business and wildlife.

‘Lana’ is a fantastic example of how, in agriculture, we can have our cake and eat it, too. We can grow wool and beef very profitably in a high-rainfall, native environment - and we can do it by using and looking after the native vegetation and biodiversity that our city cousins are so concerned about. It’s a win-win!

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Clean Water in Riparian Zones and Farm Dams

A paper by Canadian researchers, in an issue of Australian Journal of Agricultural Research last decade, confirmed what the Wrights and other case study woolgrowers had been telling me for years: clean water increases livestock production.

The Wrights manage for clean water using planned grazing - stock are only in paddocks with dams and riparian zones for a few days each year. The other 355 days of the year, the paddocks are rested, leading to minimal livestock fouling of water sources, well-vegetated riparian zones and dam surrounds, and maximum filtration by the dense fringing vegetation and groundcover of solids and dissolved nutrients from runoff into dams and streams after rain.

We surveyed frogs on ‘Lana’ as a bio-indicator of water quality in January 2003, at the height of the drought. We found seven frog species at riparian zone sites and two dams at ‘Lana’ including all 7 frog species around one dam!

By comparison, a 2-year survey of 25 wetland sites along the Murrumbidgee River in southern NSW only found six frog species in total. So seven frog species at one ‘Lana’ dam in drought is a pretty good result in terms of water quality and habitat value.

The other comment about water quality relates to the Wrights’ deliberate retention of timber in the riparian zone. The shade of trees and the thick overhanging vegetation on the stream banks, generate litter inputs into the water. Believe it or not, this is positive for water quality - think of the crystal-clear water that comes out of a rainforest, for instance.

Why? Streams with overhanging trees and fringing vegetation have water columns that are cool and shaded, with lots of organic matter inputs - we are talking about cool, upland, clear-water streams. The food web in such streams is dominated by a diversity of water bugs - technically, aquatic macro-invertebrates - that shred and decompose the leaves and twigs that fall in.

Most tableland streams, however, are the exact reverse. Riparian vegetation has been cleared or grazed out, and the sunlit warm muddy water is enriched by urine and dung because stock have access most or all of the time. The main energy source in these streams is sunlight, producing conditions ideal for green and blue-green algae, with associated problems of poor water quality and taste, odour and toxicity issues. Livestock hate foul water and since water consumption is closely related to forage consumption, liveweight gain suffers.

So timber retention along streams coupled with planned grazing, producing well vegetated river banks. dams and shading vegetation, are good for water quality, livestock production and the environment. And the platypuses in the creek behind are testimony to that….

Reid also wrote about Timber, Birds, Bats and Natural Pest Control at ‘Lana’ - Contact Tim for the full article