Condobolin and District Landcare hosted a Grazing Clinic on 22 to 24 March, led by Resource Consulting Services principal advisor and facilitator Matt Barton.
A total of 29 people attended the two-and-a-half-day course in Condobolin. In addition to locals, attendees also travelled from Caragabal, Cowra, Warren, Narromine, Parkes, Obley, Dubbo, and Yoeval to attend the course. This diversity led to fantastic and varied discussion throughout the couple of days.
The Grazing Clinic covered topics such as economics, ecology, grazing systems, the principles of regenerative grazing, and cell, fencing and water design. There was a continued focus over the two-and-a-half-days that ‘your property must work for you, you cannot work for your property’. An interesting concept!
The field trip on Wednesday afternoon saw us visiting the properties of James and Danielle Leigo, and Jeff and Lisa Bennett – a special thanks to both families for allowing the group access for the afternoon. We looked at pastures in different phases of growth, spoke about the factors contributing to decision making on farm, learnt feed budgeting tools and much more. The discussions over the afternoon were excellent and everyone gained a lot from it.
Condobolin and District Landcare were able to provide heavily subsidised course enrolment fees for the Grazing Clinic thanks to funding received from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. This course was just one part of the larger grazing project that we have underway at the moment. A grazing support network has been formed with landholders from the region, and now thanks to this course we have connections from nearby regions also. Last year we held a number of informal meetings, field days, and also individually visited the properties of some members of the group. Scott Hickman from Mid Lachlan Landcare has been working closely with us over the last year and will continue to do so moving forward. We are grateful for his continued support.
We have more events in the pipeline for the coming months and welcome anyone to join us. If you are interested in being informed about the these upcoming events, or want to find out more about the project, please contact Sarah White at Condobolin and District Landcare on 0499 199 018 or email her at condobolindistrictlandcare@gmail.com
Contributed by Local Landcare Coordinator Sarah White.