Burdekin Rangelands Reef Extension

As a component of the Queensland Government’s Reef Protection Package, the Burdekin Rangelands Reef Extension project aimed to help industry adopt appropriate management strategies to  improve long term business and environmental performance and reduce industry impact on the health of the Great Barrier Reef. It aimed to deliver:

• Five additional extension staff;
• Improved coordination and technical transfer with the R&D sector, particularly in rangeland science and the uptake of improved management practices and systems;
• Improved collaborative service delivery partnerships within the Burdekin Rangelands;
• Targeted Environmental Management Plan (EMP)/Environmental Risk Management Plan (ERMP) support services;
• Improved business and environmental performance.

Activities that local producers could participate in as part of this program included:

• ‘Management of Currant Bush’ PDS (producer demonstration site);
• ‘Using fire to manage grazing land’ information days;
• Workshops, including Business EDGE, Nutrition EDGE, Breeding EDGE, Stocktake, and Herd management;
• Grazing management practice adoption survey;
• Industry benchmarking (for participants in Business EDGE workshops);
• CSIRO Reef Rescue Grazing R&D project;
• Wet season spelling trial at Monteagle, Clermont;
• Spyglass land reclamation trial.

Staff continued working with the Dalrymple Landcare Committee, NQ Dry Tropics, AgForce and NRM Queensland officers.

The program aimed to deliver:

• Management of Currant Bush PDS;
• Summary of relevant fire R&D information;
• Documented case studies of use of fire;
• Documentation of grazing land management practices in use;
• Identification of grazier needs in relation to GLM practices and future RD&E programs tailored accordingly;
• Stocktake video;
• Documented links between better business management and improved grazing land management;
• More non-DAF Queensland GLM workshop deliverers trained;
• Land reclamation module developed for the Burdekin GLM package;
• Upgrade of Pasture yield photo-standards;
• Pasture monitoring video developed for YouTube;
• Economic assessments for the range of land condition changes i.e. A, B, C and D, available.

When: 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2014

Contact: Brigid Nelson

Collaborator: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

More information

To learn more please download the Burdekin Grazing BMP and extension support project – a cost benefit analysis (PDF, 72KB) from the Global Rangelands website.