Resilient pastoral business

South Australian Arid Lands Landscape Board

Challenge

To adjust to a changing climate, pastoral businesses needed to consider changes to grazing practices and build on their understanding of the environmental values of their property.

Response

Engaging with landholders, we heard about the need for property planning in a way that encompassed the entire pastoral business. Property Management Planning (PMP) was offered as an holistic program that addressed links between primary production, business management and healthy landscapes. The four stages of the PMP look at personal business drivers, property mapping, financial analysis and action planning.

Success

Twelve pastoral businesses completed the program in its first two years, with a further six involved in round three. Properties involved in the early rounds of the PMP program have gone on to win grants to implement works to improve groundcover and slow water flow across the landscape.

Additional landholders have learnt from PMP projects through stickybeak days, while a variety of workshops have been offered to support additional landholders from across the region.

The PMP program is part of the Building Pastoral Sustainability project, which is supported by the SA Arid Lands Landscape Board through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and Future Drought Fund.