'Broad acres, big changes' - farming for the future

This session visited the broadacre farming district of Corowa, 60km west of Albury-Wodonga, where farmers are endeavouring to sustainably manage their properties for production and conservation outcomes. They are combining major revegetation and remnant vegetation works with grazing and cropping enterprises. Diversification, Environmental Management Systems and threatened species management will be prominent themes of this trip.

Participants visited Alastair Robb's 2000 acre property 'Buraja Station' and experienced first hand the vision and energy that won him the 2005 NSW Landcare Primary Producer Award. Alastair and his wife Jane have fenced off remnant vegetation and wetlands, planted extensive shelterbelts and erected a predator proof fence around the nesting site of a Bush Stone-Curlew, an endangered bird species.

The Corowa session also visited the Victorian Department of Primary Industries' Rutherglen Research Institute to look at cutting edge research on the role of scattered trees on farms in providing habitat for wildlife and shade and shelter for stock.

Evaluation

94% of people thought that the paddock sessions helped them to understand some of the vegetation management issues discussed at the conference.

97% of people thought that the presenters and helpers at the paddock sessions answered their questions effectively.

86% of people thought that the presenters and helpers at Corowa answered their questions effectively.

75% of people thought that the Corowa paddock session helped them to understand some of the vegetation management issues discussed at the conference.

Presenters