Bumper 18 months of support for farmers

Published on 01 February 2022

Byron Shire Council’s work with rural communities in the last 18 months is paying massive dividends for property owners, and more importantly, for the environment.

As part of its support for farmers, Council was successful in obtaining a grant as part of the Australian Government’s ‘Combatting Pests and Weeds During Drought’ project which has benefitted more than 280 farmers and landholders in the Byron Shire.

The aim of the project was to:

Council’s Agricultural Extension Officer, Andrew Cameron, said an innovative part of the project was aimed at educating property owners about how to control weeds by managing grazing of livestock or through bush regeneration.

“We are trying to encourage people away from the conventional approach to weed control of chemical spraying on paddocks, to regenerative grazing,” Mr Cameron said.

“This involves regular rotation of cattle through many smaller paddocks which helps to reduce weeds, improve soil fertility, sequester carbon, increase drought resistance and finally, to increase agricultural production on the land.

“We started this part of the project with the aim of planning and implementing regenerative grazing on 120 hectares of land and at the last count we were up to 366 hectares which is a terrific result,” he said.

Other achievements include the eradication of all known outbreaks of the invasive tropical soda apple weed in the Shire (over five hectares) and the trapping of 11 wild dogs, 17 foxes and 2 feral cats over 23 weeks. 

Bush regeneration contractors were engaged to work with farmers to control environmental weeds on over six hectares of grazing land and riparian zones bordering creeks.

“All of our work is based on improving the productivity of land in a sustainable way which is of course beneficial to the natural environment,” Mr Cameron said.

“Our focus for the next 18 months is to continue to work with farmers by providing mentoring opportunities, hosting sustainability and drought resilience workshops and field days, as well as helping them increase productivity on their land,” he said.

People interested in receiving great primary production/regenerative farming information and opportunities, can join the Byron Farmers Network via Council’s website.

Pictured is Andrew Cameron, Council's Agricultural Extension Officer.