Stickybeak Days prove popular
Sustainable grazing and land management were the focus of two Stickybeak Days that attracted more than 120 people to events held at Buckleboo Station and Wintinna Swamp in May and June.
Sustainable grazing and land management practices have been the focus of two Stickybeak Days held recently.
At Buckleboo Station in May, more than 80 visitors heard from a variety of guest speakers with managing soils, water and carbon in a semi-arid landscape the key themes for the event.
Guests also took part in a bus tour that visited areas of the property, including a trial site using a crocodile pitter to regenerate a small paddock which has been historically heavily grazed and is now dominated by annual grasses.
Guest speakers at the event were Russell Seaman and Adam Trownley from A1 Carbon discussing how a carbon project works in the Rangelands; Dr Rob Gourley on monitoring and mapping natural resources; George Dridan who spoke about monitoring water in the paddock, telemetry and soil probes and Richard Marver who spoke about rest based grazing systems and how they increase productivity.
At Wintinna Stationanother full agenda was presented about topics relating to the birds and the bees of the paddock in June.
About 40 people met at the Cadney Park Roadhouse to hear about heifer fertility trials with Angus McKay; EBVs and herd management from Matt and Tess Vogt from Maryvale and the Ceres Tag trials at New Crown Station. Of particular interest was an informative discussion by Bern Doube about dung beetles and their role in soil health.
The afternoon was spent at the Wintinna Swamp which has experienced fantastic growing conditions and is full of water after recent rains. An array of water birds were identified, and further conversations about dung beetles were explored during the afternoon.
The next Stickybeak Day in the SA Arid Lands will be held at Wirrealpa Station on Wednesday 13 July where soil conservation works that have taken place on the property over more than a decade will be presented. Tickets to this event are available now at https://events.humanitix.com/stickybeak-day-wirrealpa-station
Stickybeak Days are offered through 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.
