Answers for this degraded land

A TURN to natural farming methods is addressing environmental imperatives.

Charlie Maslin

WHEN the rain falls at Charlie Maslin's 4000ha sheep and cattle property at Bombala, near Cooma in southern NSW, the success of his natural farming method is apparent.

Streams that used to run for 24 hours after a downpour now trickle for three months. Stock numbers are up, labor costs are down, and profits are higher and more stable. The property, which has been in the family for 100 years, has never looked better.

When Maslin started the new grazing system in the mid-1990s, one-third of the property was bare. Ground cover is now measured at more than 95 per cent. This is despite the fact cattle numbers have increased to 1000, sheep to 10,000 and 1000 goats have been added for good measure.

The results achieved by Maslin are replicated by George King of Carcoar, south of Orange in NSW, who has turned around a marginal grazing property that has been in the family since 1880. When he took control, King could not afford the heavy costs of pasture improvement that was considered industry best practice. Instead he harnessed the lessons of nature to double carrying capacity, reduce costs and lift profitability.

Both have followed the big-herd, high-rotation grazing method designed to mirror the predator-herbivore interaction of the African plains.

On the central-eastern wheat belt of Western Australia, Dianne and Ian Haggerty have used natural farming methods to expand their business to seven properties covering 8000ha.

Using biological soil conditioners and livestock, the Haggertys have been able to reduce input costs with no loss in yields and a dramatic improvement in soil health and the surrounding environment.

Most important, the Haggertys are far less susceptible to dry spells that can cripple a crop.

The success enjoyed by Maslin, King and the Haggertys has inspired former governor-general Michael Jeffery to launch a natural farming crusade he believes can revolutionise Australia's land management.

According to Jeffery, 60 per cent of Australia's arable land is degraded in some form, while about a million kilometres of streams and rivers are damaged to the point they are no longer properly servicing the flood plains.

Through Outcomes Australia's Soils for Life program, Jeffery wants to build a network of 20 best-practice farms, study what makes them work and teach others to follow their example.

"The problem, as we see it, is the globe is going to face a big food and water problem in coming years," Jeffery says. "It has got to almost double food production by 2050 to meet a nine or 10 billion population. It is going to have to do it where agricultural lands are decreasing in availability by about 1 per cent a year, decreasing in fertility, and where there is in many countries decreasing availability of water."

Jeffery believes if we can get it right in Australia we can help other countries through our aid programs.

"We can do more to bring about global harmony and peace through being able to support another billion people through good farming and water management practices rather than by simply exporting a bit more food," he says.

Along the way, the land-use systems employed can have the dramatic effect of rebuilding the nation's water systems and locking up carbon emissions in the trees and soil.

"I have come across a lot of these farmers who for one reason or another have changed their practices, such that they are no longer using chemicals or non-organic fertilisers," Jeffery says. "They are no longer having to irrigate in many cases; they are no longer having to drench cattle for parasites."

The reasons for this are threefold, he says. "First, they all have a good understanding of how water should move into the soil and through the soil once it hits the landscape. Second, they understand soil composition; and third, they are pretty good business people who know how to turn water and soil into a sustainable profit."

The conversion to natural farming methods has often been born of necessity.

A common feature is a new generation of farmers making the transition when they inherit a property that has been on a downward spiral in fertility and productivity.

The evidence, according to Dianne Haggarty, shows that once the natural systems are allowed to thrive there is a continuing improvement.

"It has given us resilience on farm and flexibility to manage weeds better and stand up to dry spells," Haggarty says. "It is a combination of a number of things: maintaining ground cover, building soil biology and humus content and careful use of chemicals. Maintaining ground cover and a deep root system is the key."

From a national perspective, Jeffery says a transition to natural farming methods would also address two great imperatives: water and carbon.

"I think we have been looking at the wrong end of the pipe with water," Jeffery says.

"We have been looking at how much water is in our rivers and dams, which is only about 12 per cent of what actually falls on the landscape. Then we look at water in our cities running off roads and buildings but that is only another 2 per cent."

Jeffery says we are ignoring the other 86 per cent that falls on the landscape.

"What has happened is, because the landscape has been degraded in various ways, only 36 per cent of rainfall is filtrating the soil, and 50 per cent -- five times the quantity in all our rivers and 25 times the quantity in all our dams -- is evaporating because it cannot filtrate the soils," he says.

"What we are trying to say is if we get our soil management right through getting our landscape right and a biodiverse vegetation -- whether it is forest, shelter belts or crops -- and put carbon back into the soil we will retain much more water in the soil where we want it.

"In the case of the Murray-Darling we estimate that through simply rejuvenating the flood plains and getting the wetlands working again, particularly up in the upper reaches, we can save up to 20,000 gigalitres of water in the soil, which is about five times the quantity they are trying to reallocate with licences and permits."

Building soil carbon is also a key to establishing a healthy natural system.

"For every gram of carbon you put in the soil you can hold about 8g of water," Jeffery says. "What we have done over the years is reduce the carbon content of our soils from somewhere about 5 or 6 per cent to 1 per cent.

"If you get your vegetation right, hopefully you put carbon back into the soil."

With the federal government's carbon farming initiative there is a lot of potential to harness funds from the carbon market to help finance a transition into natural farming methods. But for those who have already made the transition, the potential for carbon credits is a peripheral issue.

"I started doing what I am doing a long time before any of this carbon farming business came in," Maslin says.

"It could be quite a financial benefit in the future, but at the moment I am not hanging out for any benefit from that.

"Aside from any changes in the financial viability of the place, the pleasure you get out of seeing things improve from an ecological base is something you can't really put a figure on."

But Jeffery believes there could be a big opportunity in carbon.

"What we are suggesting is, if it is done properly, we could sequester enough carbon into the soil to handle virtually all of our CO2 emissions legacy, current and future," he says.

"We are estimating that, we haven't got the science to back it yet. But we see a huge potential and what we have said is if there is to be a price on carbon the best way to handle that would be for the big emitters to offset that price in a direct deal with farmer organisations."

Jeffery believes farmer communities would then get a substantial infusion of funding and strong encouragement to improve soil fertility and productivity.

At the same time, there would be strong incentive for emitters to reduce their emissions.

"We are saying we know farmers can sequester into the soil through good farming practice and what we have got to do is get a high priority given to measuring the sequestration done through best farming practices," he says. "Rather than call it a carbon price or carbon tax, call it a carbon incentive."

While Jeffery points out that he is not a scientist, he says he has seen enough to believe there is something in it worth pursuing.

"Here we are trying to work out ways to catch CO2 from chimney stacks and pump it into aquifers, etc, when all we have got to do is revegetate the surface of the earth with functional vegetation," Jeffery says.

"You have got to do it in a properly organised and orchestrated way. We are going to show it can be done."