Storing carbon, supporting sustainability

For over 30 years Jim and Pam McGregor have been putting the health of their land at the centre of how they manage their farm. The McGregor's take a holistic approach to managing their property near Kojonup in Western Australia and as a result, they have reduced fertiliser use and native grasses are slowly reappearing.

Key points

• Three decades ago, the McGregors realised that the problems of salinity, erosion and soil acidity were the result of inappropriate and inadequate land management

• They have almost tripled the number of paddocks on their 1400-hectare property, enabling the grasses to fully recover and increased the carbon stored in their land

• The additional paddocks and introduction of planned grazing has reduced the need for regular fertiliser applications over the last four years and that when it rains grass growth is much quicker than previously

In the future, Australian farms will store more carbon than they emit

At least that's the hope of Jim and Pam McGregor, farmers from Kojonup in south Western Australia who are practicing a low-input method of farming using holistic management .

"If we as an industry generally can get grazing management right, we can actually store more carbon in the soil than we emit from the animals, which is really exciting as it means we can have a positive effect on reducing Australia's greenhouse emissions", says Jim.

In order to get more farmers managing their soil more effectively, Jim supports farmers being rewarded for storing carbon in their soil, - "You would find a lot of people moving very quickly."

The move to holistic management

Pam and Jim arrived in Western Australia from Fife, Scotland in 1973, setting up their farming business on a property in Denbarker, near Denmark on the south coast of Western Australia.

It was here that they first realised the problems of salinity, erosion and soil acidity were the result of inappropriate and inadequate land management.

"All the things that we were doing didn't seem to be improving the situation, so we decided that rather than treating particular areas of the farm, that we had to manage the whole catchment," says Jim.

The couple were using a set stocking regime, which means the cattle were moved infrequently, wearing down the paddocks. This system was often negatively impacted by even small climatic variations.

"We decided we had to find something a bit more sustainable. We had the information about holistic management and felt that it really fitted with what we were trying to do and emulates what happens in nature," says Pam.

Jim explains that holistic management is essentially a decision making process in which goals are set and worked towards. The process provided extra impetus to keep going, says Jim: "It keeps us doing the mundane jobs that sometimes we don't feel inclined to do."

In 1998 they moved 150 kilometres north to their current property just south of Kojonup. After building a house on the new farm, they sub-divided 29 paddocks into 85, which allowed them to more easily use a planned grazing approach.

"This aims to put the right number of animals in the right place for the right reason for the right amount of time," says Jim.

Each paddock is then allowed to recover for a time, encouraging plant roots to fully regenerate and ensuring the grass is not over grazed.

Implementing holistic management was a challenge for the McGregor's when they started, as they were one of only a small number of producers managing holistically in the area.

"The fact that there weren't too many people doing that in our area or generally in Western Australia, meant we basically had to pick our way through the issues carefully."

But Jim says there's now a lot of interest in their area for different and innovative farming strategies, describing the Kojonup district as one of the most progressive in the country.

"People are always doing a lot of different things and are always looking over the fence to see what's going on."

He says they share with other farmers a set of common values, including a commitment to the land and their animals, as well as to country life and being good neighbours.

"We're passionate about the environment and what we do and I think most farmers are too."

Establishing perennial grasses is also a focus for Pam and Jim, who have been trying different ways to establish those without baring the soil and inhibiting grass growth.

Perennial pastures have deeper root systems, which allow them to make better use of rainfall throughout the year. The planned grazing also provides year round ground cover, reducing the risk of wind and water erosion.

"Over a period of time doing this grazing system, you can actually build soil and organic matter and create healthy living soils, " says Jim.

Results

As a result of their efforts, native perennials are now returning. "The seeds were still there, they just need the chance to express themselves," says Pam.

And fertiliser use has been reduced on the farm. "In the 11 years we've been there, there's been no more than five when we have put fertiliser on and we haven't put fertiliser on in the past four," says Pam.

This has also had an economic benefit, which Pam says fits with their holistic approach. "One of the things we do with holistic management is to try and make budget decisions annually about where we spend our money to get the biggest bang for our buck."

Jim explains that a few years ago when it was too wet to put fertiliser on, they spent their fertiliser budget on fencing, subdividing all of the bigger paddocks.

"Basically, in the last couple of years we've been able to manage the grazing a lot more effectively, and we are monitoring the influence of that before we make a fertiliser allocation in the budget."

While they have not used fertiliser in recent years, it's still something the McGregors keep an eye on with regular soil tests. "We are interested in what we can do to build fertility and therefore productivity by enhancing what nature has made available to us.

They are also running some field experiments to gauge the impact of certain biological preparations - including worm juice - when applied to the soil.

The McGregors make available a balance of major minerals and trace elements to their cattle to supplement the quality of their pastures. They buy hay when they need it and pellets and grain, when necessary.

Their cows are calved just as the growing season is starting, reducing the amount of supplementary feed. Young stock, meanwhile, are weaned earlier than normal to take further pressure off the cows.

Now when the rain falls at the break of the season in April/May, the pastures grow much quicker as a result of their grazing efforts.

While the ground is still often quite hard, the dry grass cover protects it and, "It doesn't get baked by the hot summer sun," says Pam.

Jim says the system they now use is also more reliable. "It gives us much greater security because our feed stocks are much more dependable."

The McGregor's have also reduced their stocking rates, although this was more as a response to reduced rainfall than as an overall strategy and is constantly reviewed.

"After 2006 - our worst year in 36 years of farming in WA - we sold one third of our beef breeding herd and we sold all the sheep - 1200 Merino breeding ewes."

They now run 400 breeding cows, including an Angus stud. During the growing season, approximately 1200 animals are carried - the cows and their calves and the previous year's calves.

Jim says they are happy with the current number of breeding cows. "We think the numbers we run give us the flexibility if the season is tough. The youngsters become the trading stock."

Jim describes their method of farming as low input. "It is management intensive but low cost. A high cost system can be really stressful in a tough season."

"I think we've got to try and reduce our costs, so negative price fluctuations aren't the end of the world.

"But it's a tough call: we're living in high cost times, prices for every input are going up all the time."

Sharing knowledge

The McGregors welcome visitors, keen to see the different approach carried out on their property.

"We enjoy farming and we like to show people what we are doing. If we can create a bit of interest in what we are doing, it's good for everyone," says Jim

Some come as part of organised trips with their respective farming groups, such as those involved in a nearby Prograze group, a grazing management skills course.

Others are vet students from Murdoch University in Perth, who spend one week or two on the property watching and learning. Pam says it's a two way process. "It's a learning time for them, but it's also a learning time for us."

Pam and Jim are Cattlecare accredited, a quality assurance system that sees them audited each year to make sure they run their cattle in a way that are healthy, free of chemical contamination and acceptable to consumers. Their cattle are listed on Angus Group Breedplan, a performance recording system.

Right now they're working on developing an official environmental management system that is organised through the Blackwood Basin Group, a community-based organisation that co-ordinates environmental management within their region of south-west Western Australia.

Pam says it provides them with an assurance they are on the right track: "Like Cattlecare, it's about somebody from outside of our business saying 'yes, you're doing the right thing.'"

With the pair "fired up" to carry on their environmental work, it seems Pam and Jim will continue to do the right thing for some time yet. "We're in our mid-60s but as long as we're able and capable and we enjoy what we're doing, we're driven to try and do things better," says Pam.