On Thursday October 25, 30 people gathered at the Boorowa Ex-Services Club for the Boorowa Community Landcare Group (BCLG) Annual General Meeting.
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It was a timely opportunity for the local community to celebrate its champions who won awards at the recent National Landcare Conference: David Marsh ‘Individual Landcarer Award’ and Charlie Arnott winner of the ‘Bob Hawke Award’, which acknowledges an individual who has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to caring for the land.
Short videos of their stories can be found on the Boorowa Community Landcare Group Facebook page.
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A comprehensive treasurers report was presented by Steve Bunnell and Chairperson’s report was delivered by outgoing chair Kathryn McGuirk.
Key highlights from 2017-18 for BCLG has been funding support from National Landcare Programme (NLP), delivered through South East Local Land Services, to enable hosting of events and regular members’ activities on a vast range of topics including regenerative agriculture, pasture cropping, grazing, fodder shrubs, fruit tree pruning, bees, drones and other technology.
The BCLG Re-Gen Grazing Group, who have been meeting bi-monthly since early 2017, with funds from NLP have been able to engage Scott Hickman to facilitate some meetings including a recent bus trip around the mid-Lachlan.
Next meeting will be on Friday, November 30, 2018 near Rye Park.
Congratulations and a warm welcome to the new executive of Boorowa Community Landcare Group:
Chairperson: Paul Cavanagh
Vice Chairperson: Steve Bunnell
Secretary: Kathryn McGuirk
Treasurer: Steve Bunnell
Committee Members:
- Janine Hagar
- Sharman Darnell
- Heather McLeod
- Tom Reid
- Victoria Peverell
- Ted Flaus
Matt Doyle, as the after-dinner guest speaker, talked about his experiences with 22 other Aussie farmers on a tour of USA.
Travelling more than 6000km through Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Jackson Hole, Matt met ranchers who talked about holistic management, cover cropping and letting nature be, to create a healthy ecosystem.
Key messages include improved ground cover works to reduce runoff and improve water infiltration, this has led to longer growing seasons and bigger better grass plants.
One of the host managers has removed 60 per cent of his costs by moving to cover crops.
The day after wheat harvest an eight species cover crop was sown into the stubble.
This is giving much better nutrient cycling resulting in much lower fertiliser requirements.
Matt travelled with the KLR Marketing team, an educational organisation that helps producers understand the costs of their business and how this relates to when we should sell or buy livestock.
Australian producers, Geoff and Linda Wearing, from Hughenden QLD, shared their story – they are in their 6th year of below average rainfall and have learnt that constant variation of stocking rate is vital to match the dynamic carrying capacity of the land.
Whilst in Australia, we don’t have the problems of wolves, bears, coyotes and wild elk, the principles of timing grazing to match plant growth and recovery has a universal message.
Boorowa Landcare, moving into its 30th year in 2019, is proud to celebrate its past achievements and is enthusiastic about the future of Landcare as a conduit for production systems in agriculture.