Less soil is being lost to creeks and rivers on the southern Tablelands thanks to changed grazing practices and to solutions like rock chutes for eroded gullies.

Seven farming families have been working with not-for-profit environmental organisation Terrain NRM and grazing and soil health specialists for the last seven years on changes that range from dividing paddocks up and rotating cattle differently to building up vegetation coverage where rock chutes and bund walls have been built to stop gullies from eroding any further.

Graziers say the results include better pastures

“What we’re seeing is more feed and better-quality feed,” Woodleigh Station’s Pete Waddell says. “We’ve fenced to cut paddocks up and we’re now running bigger numbers of cattle on smaller areas rather than the reverse, which is the traditional approach. I’ve seen a marked improvement in the condition of country.’’

Preventing 4,500 tonnes of fine sediment from reaching the Reef annually

Terrain NRM’s Duncan Buckle says the combined impact of 10 erosion-control structures, and grazing management changes across six cattle stations, is keeping thousands of tonnes of soil on the land each wet season and stopping an estimated 4,500 tonnes of the really fine soil particles (the equivalent of 225 semi-trailer loads) from becoming sediment on the Great Barrier Reef each year.

“Fine-tuning grazing management practices and making the land more resilient has been a big part of these two projects,’’ he says.

“It’s the key to reducing erosion in the Herbert River catchment. We’ve been working with graziers to improve the health of grassland ecosystems and cattle, and to improve production.

Managing cattle to improve soil health

“We look at ways to manage cattle to promote soil health because improved soil health results in thicker, healthier, more nutritious pastures. And getting more roots in the soil means the soil can absorb water better and hold together better.”

Grazier Curtis Archer says changes on Glen Ruth Station are creating better pastures and making it easier to handle cattle and control weeds like lantana with fire.

Splitting paddocks for a three-paddock rotation system

“We’ve split paddocks in half and gone to a three-paddock rotation system in the river country and another three-paddock system to manage the creek flats,’’ he says.

“It’s making the cattle work the country better, rather than just sitting on creek flats and always hammering them. It’s giving paddocks a more even graze and we’ve seen the dominant species take over – good native grasses. We’ve got three times the volume of grass in these paddocks, which means we can add a few more cattle now. I think there will be more and more benefits over the years.

Join us in the Tarzali region for two grazing workshops with Dick Richardson on Tuesday 9 April and Wednesday 10 April…

Graziers from across the region are encouraged to come to these free events, which will focus on ways to optimise cattle and pasture performance.

Terrain NRM is bringing grazing guru Dick Richardson back to the region for these events – the first for those who haven’t been to one of his workshops before, or want a refresher, and the second for those who’ve been before and want to delve deeper.  We will be looking at everything from reading animal, dung and pasture condition to stock movement and assessing feed availability.

Dick Richardson is an internationally recognised leader in natural grazing principles to improve soil depth, water retention, biodiversity and animal production.

He has been helping graziers in our region for more than five years.

During the workshops, which will run from 9am to 3:30pm, there will also be plenty of time to ask questions, share experiences and ideas.

These events are part of our Upper Herbert Sediment Reduction Project, funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The Herbert catchment is one of the top three contributors of fine sediment flowing to the reef. This project aims to reduce fine sediment loads entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from the Herbert River Basin, by targeting priority erosion hot spots and high-risk areas with a combination of construction works and agricultural extension support for farmers.

Register for a workshop, or find out more, by emailing Terrain NRM’s Duncan Buckle at duncan.buckle@terrain.org.au or calling Terrain NRM on (07) 4043 8000.

For those who haven’t been to a Dick Richardson workshop before, here are three short videos featuring Dick and focused on soil health in the grazing world.

Why is Soil Health Important?

How to Tell if your Soil and Pasture is Healthy

Using Grazing to Improve your Soil’s Health

Join us at Woodleigh Station for a grazing workshop with Dick Richardson on Wednesday 30 August…

Graziers from across the region are encouraged to come to this free event, which will focus on ways to optimise cattle and pasture performance.

Terrain NRM is bringing grazing guru Dick Richardson back to the region for this event.  We will be looking at animal, dung and pasture condition, stock movement, the use of supplements and incorporating fire in management practices.

Dick Richardson is an internationally recognised leader in natural grazing principles to improve soil depth, water retention, biodiversity and animal production.

He has been helping graziers in our region for more than five years.

During the workshops, which will run from 9am to 3:30pm, there will also be plenty of time to ask questions, share experiences and ideas.

The day is part of our Upper Herbert Sediment Reduction Project, funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The Herbert catchment is one of the top three contributors of fine sediment flowing to the reef. This project aims to reduce fine sediment loads entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from the Herbert River Basin, by targeting priority erosion hot spots and high-risk areas with a combination of construction works and agricultural extension support for farmers.

What a difference 18 months can make – that’s the feeling at Tash and John MacPherson’s cattle property where a swag of changes is rejuvenating the land and waterways.

The family is working with natural resource management organisation Terrain NRM on a property overhaul that includes earthworks, fencing, tree-planting, alternative water sources for cattle and a fresh perspective on grazing the land.

Tash Macpherson said the results were a win for cattle pastures and the overall environment.

“When we bought this property in mid-2020 we de-stocked it for a year,’’ she said. “The land really needed a break. There was bad erosion – big wash-outs along the waterways where the cattle had been, and springs that were a boggy mess.”

Through the project, three creeks have been fenced-off, smaller grazing paddocks have been created, 5000 native trees have been planted to strengthen creekbanks, and an off-stream watering system has been installed with a bore, water tanks and troughs.

Zuni bowl, fencing, tree-planting, off-stream watering solutions…

A Zuni bowl was also constructed to stop erosion advancing in one of the paddocks.

Terrain NRM’s Vanessa Drysdale said the bowl was a carefully designed lining of rocks at a steep drop in the gully erosion.

“This was an active gully system that had eroded several hundred metres in wet seasons over the last few years, and wasn’t going to slow down without intervention,’’ she said. “The traditional solution is a rock chute, but Zuni bowls are a more cost-effective treatment method that has proved its worth on Tableland and Daintree farms over the last few years.”

Saving sediment from reaching the reef

She said the combined work on the MacPherson property would save an estimated 180 tonnes of sediment from flowing to the Great Barrier Reef each year. It’s one of 11 properties where earthworks, tree-planting, fencing and off-stream watering infrastructure strategies have provided long-term solutions to erosion issues.

Timber pile fields will help to protect the Mossman River and two of its bridges in the upcoming wet season.

Flood-damaged riverbanks at Foxton Bridge and Anich’s Bridge in Mossman have been repaired using pile field structures, bringing a new approach to erosion solutions to the Far North.

Terrain NRM has been working with Douglas Shire Council, landholders and Neilly Group Engineering on the two river projects, which are jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

Terrain’s Jen Mackenzie said floodwaters had stripped back 80 metres of riverbank at Foxton Bridge and 30 metres at Anich’s Bridge.

“A monsoonal event in early 2019 left trees hanging by their roots and changed the river’s course,’’ she said. “Now the erosion is progressively threatening these bridges and the rail corridor. Without enough land for rock battering or vegetation on the banks themselves, timber pile fields are a good option.”

What are pile fields?

Pile fields are multiple rows of piles, designed to slow down water and build up sediment, to protect and repair damaged riverbanks. They are used in southern Australia and in other parts of the world, and one was recently constructed in the Herbert River catchment near Ingham as part of disaster recovery work.

“The challenge, when building these fields in the Wet Tropics, is the high volume of rain,’’ Ms Mackenzie said. “In this region more robust engineering and modelling is needed, for designs tailored to our weather conditions.”

To create the pile fields, seven-metre hardwood poles were driven five metres into the riverbed and bank. The work in Mossman also included riverbank re-profiling, rock buffers and revegetation with native trees.

Grazing cattle to improve productivity while managing the land more sustainably was the focus of a workshop on the Tablelands recently.

Far Northern landholders heard from grazing ecosystem specialist Dick Richardson on improving soil health and pasture performance across properties, one paddock at a time.

New Malanda landholder Natasha MacPherson said information about rotational or cell grazing would help shape cattle production plans for the family’s property.

“This land was historically over-grazed, with cattle having full access to watercourses on the property. This has caused erosion and sediment runoff,’’ she said.

“For us this has been about learning how cattle and the land can get the best out of each other and how we can improve soil health and diversity in our pastures – all while maintaining beef production and improving the quality of water leaving the property.”

Mr Richardson follows a grazing naturally method where a priority paddock is grazed repeatedly and intensely during the pasture-growing season and can later be spelled for up to 12 months.

The aim, among other things, is to optimise the sugar flow in soils and to increase their ability to capture and hold water.

“It’s a bit like preparing a lawn – mow it, water it, feed it, mow it again and repeat,’’ Mr Richardson says. “In no time you’ll end up with a lush thick carpet of grass.”

The workshop was part of Terrain NRM’s Upper Johnstone Integrated Project, funded through the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Investment Program.

A Mossman farm has become a demonstration site for Zuni bowls – a solution to gully erosion.

Landholders, engineers, council officers and contractors are visiting the property to learn how to build the structures, where they work best and how they can be used more widely to fight erosion in Tropical North Queensland.

Terrain NRM’s Ruginia Duffy said two Zuni bowls had been built on the farm.

“They are a smaller-scale, cost-effective way for landholders to stop erosion from advancing,” Ms Duffy said. “These bowls follow on from work on an Atherton Tablelands farm last year, where smaller bowls were built and have settled into the landscape.”

Zuni bowls are a lining of rocks built into gully heads where there are abrupt vertical drops. They take their name from the Native American Pueblo people from the Zuni River Valley, who first developed and used the structures.

“These days, work starts with a bobcat and ends with shovels and crowbars,’’ Ms Duffy said. “The structures are carefully designed to prevent water from disturbing the soil any further. They work with the natural landscape – by mimicking the kind of forms found in creeks.”

The latest bowls are part of a larger project repairing flood damage in the Mossman region. Other parts of the project have included more traditional earthworks, rock work and tree-planting to stabilise creekbanks that bore the brunt of floods in the 2018-19 wet season.

The Mossman Integrated Catchment Repair Project is funded by the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Investment Program.

Rock work and grasses are replacing erosion on a cattle property near Innisfail as part of a $2.3 million project to improve the land and better protect the Great Barrier Reef.

More than 200 tonnes of rock has transformed two sites on the Loudon family’s East Palmerston farm, where changes to cattle and pasture practices are also making a difference.

Stuart Loudon said the property, on Berner and Fishers Creek, had been farmed by the family since the 1960s. “It’s hilly land and when it’s wet, it’s really wet,’’ he said. “We’ve been working on improving the soil, our pastures and the land so it can better handle our cattle and the wet seasons.”

The third-generation grazier has welcomed recent earth and rock work by Terrain NRM at a creek crossing and on an eroded hillside.

“The crossing area had eroded over time because of a natural spring bubbling up out of the ground above the creek in the wet season and the ongoing cattle and farm vehicle traffic,” Terrain’s Vanessa Drysdale said. “It’s the only way to access another section of the farm so we’ve laid a rock bed that’ll get cattle and traffic over soft ground without causing more erosion.”

Ms Drysdale said a gully head was forming beside a sloping pasture on another section of land where cattle once moved between paddocks. “Water was running down the cattle pads in the wet season and being funnelled into the rainforest at a gateway, causing more and more gully erosion,’’ she said. “We’ve created a bowl-shaped area and a bund so that the water spreads out over a much wider area on its way to natural waterways and doesn’t make its way to the gully head anymore.”

Mr Loudon is following up with more fencing, to keep cattle off creek banks and create another paddock for rotational grazing. He said a shift to more natural pasture enhancers was also helping to improve the land.

“We don’t use a lot of fertiliser here anymore – we’re applying a fair bit of fish emulsion and worm juice,’’ he said. “We’ve been doing that for about four years and we’re seeing healthier soil and thicker grass.”

Earthworks and tree-planting are giving a Mossman farmer “peace of mind” leading up to the wet season.

Carmen Henning-White and husband Trevor White found ravaged creek lines when they inspected their property after floods in early 2018, with chunks of creek bank torn away and large trees swept into the floodwaters.

“We’d had erosion on the farm before, through the creek, but nothing like that,’’ Ms Henning-White said. “We lost three to four metres off banks, it was all just gone.”

The Whites are one of five Mossman families whose properties are being worked on to stabilise creekbanks and improve their resilience to future rainfall events, thanks to Terrain NRM’s Mossman Integrated Catchment Repair Project funded through the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Investment Program.

Terrain NRM’s Ruginia Duffy said two sites had been repaired on the White’s property. She said “rock toes” were built in the streambed, embankments were reshaped and trees, shrubs and grasses planted.

“With the rate and level of erosion, combining earthworks and revegetation is the way to hold these streambanks together for the long-term,” she said.

“The rock structures are designed to protect the bank while the trees establish.”

The iconic Daintree River is under repair after floodwaters caused erosion in its lower reaches.

Tree-planting and earthworks have strengthened the river’s banks near the Daintree Village, where land washed away in record floods in recent years.

Terrain NRM’s Jen Mackenzie said almost 9000 young plants were now helping to stabilise the bank along two stretches of eroded land, where rockwork is the new foundations.

“There was nothing left to hold the soil in place in these sections,’’ she said. “The vegetation had been washed away and the erosion was only getting worse.”

Terrain NRM has been working with landholders and contractors on Disaster Relief Funding projects, jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Grazier Barry Osborne is one of a number of landholders in the Daintree region whose river frontage has been part of the project. Mr Osborne said big floods had taken their toll on riverside land in the Daintree’s lower reaches.

“With two record floods in the last four or five years, the river has cut into the land,’’ he said. “There was a 10m-high bank here years ago but there is hardly any bank at all now and the river has moved in about 30m, creating big washouts.

“This is loamy, sandy soil so floods knock the country around badly.”