THE integration of Landcare practices into a commercial farm is like a marriage - it requires compromise.
Stradbroke West beef farmers Melissa and Justin Ainsworth used the practices to transform their Merriman Park property into an award-winning sustainable farm.
- AT A GLANCE
- Who: Justin and Melissa Ainsworth
- What: beef, biodiversity
- Why: uniting production and Landcare
- Where: Stradbroke, Victoria
In 2009, the Ainsworths won the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority's sustainable farming award and next week their farm will feature in a week-long event to celebrate 25 years of Landcare.
The couple bought the 100ha farm six years ago, attracted by the patch of remnant vegetation and access to the Merriman Creek but later challenged by a 20m deep, 1km long limestone gully down the middle of the farm.
Since 2005, they have fenced off the creek and gully, planted native vegetation, put a conservation covenant over a fifth of the farm, established shelter belts as wildlife corridors, improved pastures and built up a commercial Angus herd.
Melissa used to be a Parks Victoria ranger in Holey Plains State Park, so her interest was in conservation, while Justin, who grew up on a Queensland cane farm, wanted to go into beef.
"I wanted natural vegetation, the more remnant the better, but Justin didn't want too much," Melissa said.
"So when we first got here, that (conservation) was one of our priorities.
"Fortunately, we got assistance from Trust for Nature, Greening Australia and WGCMA because it was a massive project."
Protecting the creek was particularly important as the water quality was good and it was home to a family of platypus.
Justin favoured a cow and calf operation, so they selected Innesdale Angus from Heyfield as the base and now have three bulls plus about 100 cows.
Livestock and pasture management was a steep learning curve so they relied on local resources, including Department of Primary Industries field days.
"I was like a sponge. I wanted to learn as much information as possible," Justin said.
"I latched on to dairy farmers because they grow grass like there's no tomorrow and I went to all their field days."
The pastures required major renovation and weed eradication and now, after much trial and error, they plant cocksfoot as a perennial base and rotate it with annual ryegrass, millet, rye corn or fodder crops.
"We also invested heavily in machinery, so we can lease land and make it productive fairly quickly," Justin said.
The farm has been fenced into 30 paddocks to control grazing and the shelterbelts form a wildlife corridor into the state park.
A strict cell grazing regimen is used and a containment paddock helps minimise erosion.
"If we need to slow down the rotation, we feed hay and silage to cattle and then move the cattle to the paddock when the pasture is ready," Melissa said.
Their next step is to fence the farm according to soil type which ranges from sandy to heavy loam, so they can graze more precisely and protect some of the large trees.
Although Justin still works offshore to supplement their income, the couple reached a milestone this year when Melissa started working on the farm full time.
All of their efforts have been about balancing production with caring for the land which they say can complement each other.
"When we put in the wildlife corridors we also made them shelterbelts for stock, so you can mesh the two and get a great outcome," Justin said.
Melissa said at first she wanted to run the place like a national park but that had to be meshed with running a business.
"It's exactly like a marriage," Justin said.
"There has to be compromise, there has to be give and take and you have to listen."
Regional Landcare facilitator for the WGCMA Nick Dudley said the Ainsworth farm was a great example of sustainable agriculture.
"They are still running a productive farm and at the same time they have gone to a considerable effort to protect biodiversity values, so it's a win-win situation," Nick said.
- A Landcare field day will be held on the property in Mowats Lane, Stradbroke West, next Tuesday from noon to 3pm.
