Productivity & Diversity Can Go Hand in Hand

Gwymac Inc partnered with the Ashford Landcare Group and invited Colin Seis to Ashford, northern NSW to talk about multi-species cropping and the benefits to both agriculture and the environment.

Productivity & Diversity Can Go Hand in Hand

Gwymac Inc partnered with the Ashford Landcare Group and invited Colin Seis to Ashford, northern NSW to talk about multi-species cropping and the benefits to both agriculture and the environment.

Showing the Difference -

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The issue

Landholders in the area were wanting to avoid leaving paddocks fallow for extended periods of time and maintain ground cover yet were still wanting to harvest grain or grow a forage crop for livestock during the winter months.  Colin Seis has been developing pasture cropping and multi-species cropping since 1993 and has now refined his processes so that up to 10 annual plant species can be used to increase plant diversity while enhancing ecological function, soil health and soil carbon; reduce insect attack and reduce pesticide and fertiliser use.

The solution

Gwymac applied to the Northern Tablelands Local Land Services Small Community Grants program and were able to secure a visit by Colin Seis in March 2017.  Over 60 people attended the workshop, some travelling over 200 km in order to listen to Colin's presentation and learn from his experiences.  Pasture cropping can produce high yielding crops and has been proven to restore landscape ecological health, restore native grasslands, improve grazing pasture quality, improve soil nutrient cycling and sequester large amounts of soil carbon.

The impact

100% of attendees said they would recommend other people attend this field day and 97% said they now had a better understanding of grasslands and how they function.  It was anticipated that approximately 30 people would attend the event, so to have over 70 registrations and over 60 people attend on the day spoke volumes for the issue being very popular amongst landholders.

Key facts

  • Productivity and Diversity can go hand-in-hand.
  • Landholders do not need a monoculture crop in order to harvest grain.
  • Cropping paddocks do not need to have extended fallow periods.

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