Production in the rangelands
Forum organiser Sally Ware with Ngiyampaa Elder Roy Kennedy, who opened the event.
Riverina Local Land Services hosts successful forum
More than 100 people attended a Rangelands Forum held in Hay last Wednesday, hosted and organised by Sally Ware, Senior Land Services Officer from the Hay office of Riverina Local Land Services.
A range of topics were covered by the guest speakers, including the Hay Inc rural education program by Sandra Ireson, an extensive sheep flock pregnancy scanning trial update by Dr Sue Hatcher, an overview of a western landscape function trial by Dr Sarah McDonald and an information session on building soil carbon in the west by Dr Susan Orgill.
Dr Orgill and her team from Select Carbon are commencing trials in this region on the feed value and soil carbon benefits of Anameka saltbush with potential field days on this topic in the future
Other speakers at the forum included Oxley-based Tanisha Shields speaking about key profit drivers in the rangelands, and George Lehmann and Miles Barritt discussing the new Australian Wool Innovation Wool Q traceability data system for woolgrowers and showing the success of the film clip promoting natural wool clothing over fossil fuel fabrics.
The final speakers were Dr Louisa Manouney and John Seidel from the Credits Supply Taskforce providing a snapshot on the opportunities for western landholders in the biodiversity credit market.
Roy Kennedy provided a moving Acknowledgement of Country in conjunction with a film clip compiled by Jade Auldist from Riverina Local Land Services.
Other film clips shown on the day produced by Riverina Local Land Services included restoration of sandhill country by the Lugsdin family at Gunbar, the Ryan family with their Curragh shed and yard design at Oxley and the erection and design of exclusion fencing by the Crossley family at Booligal.
Over thirteen information stands were also available on the day covering topics such as flood recovery services through to agriculture training and resources, landholder grants and landscape regeneration.
The day was also attended by students from Charles Sturt University and the University of Sydney, who then spent time on-farm with the Crossley family.
Presentations were recorded and will soon be available from the Local Land Services website. For further information on the day please contact Sally Ware, RLLS in Hay on 0429 307 627.
