On Saturday, November 19, Boorowa Community Landcare group held a Grazing Day at ‘Windemere’ Murringo, on a property owned by Sam and Claire Johnson.  

Sam and Claire with their family, run a business called Boxgum Grazing which supplies grass fed beef and free range pork direct to its customers.

The farm supports a diverse mix of perennial grasses and box gum woodlands and managers are focused on increasing the biodiversity and biological health of this landscape along with its productive capacity.

Tools such as temporary electric fencing, and portable watering systems ensure regular movement of domesticated animals such as cattle and pigs, with the aim to produce fertile biologically active soils and nutritious food for people.

The property is surrounded by nature reserve, has large stands of Eucalyptus vegetation and is a great environment to run free range pigs and cattle.

The Boorowa Community Landcare group visited two sows, who were wallowing in a small mud pool under a Eucalyptus tree and had fourteen piglets between them.

The sows live their lives out on the pasture and have access to portable huts that are bedded with straw so they can build a nest in which to farrow their piglets. 

The sows are kept to a defined location through a low electric fence.  

The piglets can run under this electric wire however they always return to their mum for a feed and protection.  

Water is provided into a trough from a shade-cloth covered mobile water tank.  

The pig shelters are on wheels so that the whole pig enclosure can be moved across the paddock to a new site every few days with minimal disturbance to the landscape.  

After six weeks the piglets are weaned and moved to the woodland areas where there is ample shade and shelter and their natural pig behaviour is of great benefit.

Utilising portable electric fencing and housing they are moved to a fresh area each week.

They forage and root amongst the trees and pasture while having access to a medication-free ration of grains, protein, minerals and kelp powder.

The Johnson family butcher, pickle, smoke and vacuum pack their pork in new facilities built on site and they sell produce at the Canberra Farmers market and to selected hotels in Canberra.

The pork produced by happy free ranging pigs on pasture is sensational in taste and texture.

On their grazing property, the cattle herd is central to producing an ecologically stable environment.

As such they consider the cattle herd as a large single “mowing–munching–scuffling–trampling–dunging” tool to recycle carbon and invigorate the biology of the soil.

They graze an area at high density for a short period of time, a few days at most, before moving on.

The pasture is then given time to fully recover before the next grazing.

This “pulsing” strategy is tremendously powerful in stimulating biological activity, capturing carbon and shifting the grassland towards perennials and away from annual species and weeds.

Sam said that he doesn’t use soil tests to tell him the fertility of his land, he uses his eyes and knows from experience when it is necessary to move both his pig and cattle groups on.

They are committed to the welfare of the animals and the ecological health of the landscape.  

People attending this information day asked lots of questions which Sam was very willing to answer.

So if you would like to see what other graziers of either pork, cattle, sheep or farmers with mixed businesses do in the Boorowa region come to an event hosted by your local Boorowa Community Landcare group.

The next activity will be a Low Cost Erosion Control workshop which will demonstrate how local materials eg rocks, brush, timber can be used to turn an eroding gully into a stable site.  

This workshop will be held on Saturday, February 11, 2017; if you are interested email landcare@boorowa.net or call 0459681018 to be included in our email listing.