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Cross Property Grazing Improves Business
Communication and Skills
Ever wondered how to get economies of scale without the costs? Australian researchers have hit on a common sense idea that combines the age old concept of grazing the commons with modern farming through cross property grazing. The benefits to farmers include lower production costs, improved returns through animal performance, and reduced labour. Dr David Brunckhorst, Director of the Institute for Rural Futures spearheaded Tilbuster Commons, a project involving neighbouring farming families joining their livestock and grazing them on the land they collective owned and managed. “That was five years ago,” he says, “and as the success exceeded the expectations of the families involved they decided to continue the practice long after the initial three year project ended.” The project involved four families and 1300 ha in the tablelands near Armidale, northern New South Wales. The project drew inspiration from previous research in the South Australia where 30 growers collectively managed some 9,000 square kilometres to regenerate land from salination using civil mapping technologies. There is now a similar project happening near Glenn Innes, northern NSW emerging from a labour sharing scheme that will now involve mixed livestock grazing. “For the families involved it was important that they make as much money in joining their businesses as they were on their own,” says Brunckhorst. Initially, the four families made formal arrangements including setting up their own company and formal meetings to discuss the operational arrangements. Each family has shares based on the agreed value of the land and livestock and receive profits through dividends. “The big issue,” as Brunckhorst describes, “was the ability to enforce the collective perspective through clear rules of discussion.” As Brunckhorst points out, “Farming families naturally focus on their own situation, but for cross property grazing to work, families had to look beyond their boundary to the bigger picture across all the properties involved. Decisions are made for the best interest of the company, verses each family’s self interest. For example, all the paddocks are supplied water from the one dam.” The big picture perspective resulted in an interesting behaviour. Families became more proactive in managing the grazing company than they had been on their own farm businesses. For example, upon working together families made the decision to cut stock numbers earlier when drought loomed. Previously, families delayed this kind of decision when managing their own operations. Brunckhorst believes this change in risk management behaviour comes from a deep desire to work together resulting from the mutual support each family provides one another and a reluctance to let one another down. This communal spirit has strengthened over the years as confidence of managing common land has grown. Family members now freely access each other’s properties and increasingly operational meetings happen informally in the paddock of the property grazing the stock rather than at board meetings around a table. Cross Property Grazing Requires Less Labour and more Profiatble The most significant saving has been in labour and time and quality of life. As Brunckhorst points out, “The labour contribution of each family is determined by the size of their property. Essentially the larger the property, the more time the animals spend there. Yet the overall labour demands for each family dropped allowing time for pursuing family interests and environmental projects.” The Tilbuster Commons company leases land from each property so everyone knows and contributes to the development of the grazing plan. The group has developed maps to plan grazing routes and determine how animal behaviour can employed to regenerate the landscape. Using planned grazing rather than rotational grazing has meant families can have animals in the right place, at the right time for the right reason and improve land use efficiency. Putting all the cattle in one mob had immediate benefits for the group. It improved the calving rate, allowed them to pull through drought easier, increased soil cover to the degree that water quality improved by 300% because of better infiltration. Cattle numbers float from 220 to 400 head with the animals taking anywhere from 90 days to 230 days to graze around the four properties. The stock policy is to run slight higher numbers and sell at lighter weights as this gives better returns both financially and environmentally. The long pasture recovery times have allowed the native grasses to return and flourish, one of the aims of the original project. As a result pasture renovation costs have drastically reduced as well as the need for winter grazing crops. The financial returns for the families has been around 10% above what they were achieving individually and that will increase to around 20% once they’ve moved through organic certification later this year. The lack of a traditional winter rainfall for 6 years has seriously influenced profitability of farms locally. Options for High Country and Small Farmer Families Cross property grazing could provide another option for High Country farmers to promote the benefits of animals on the land. There is increasing evidence that large mobs of grazing animals combined with long recovery times for pastures increases biodiversity, environmental stability, and profitability of properties. Because families own the land, the accountability of land stewardship remains with the family and is an important component of the legacy they build for themselves. Compare this to investment properties where a large number of absentee landowners abdicate their land stewardship to a manager (whose primary role is to optimise the rate of return on investment) or government departments where ownership of stewardship shifts between individuals within the bureaucracy, especially if the land is degrading. The requirement that graziers assume responsibility for the livestock while on their property would easily fit within the culture of the high country farming community. High country farmers tend to work well with one another because of the nature of the country and its climate. To plan the grazing of large mobs of animals across the high country would arguably require investing in water and very large gateways, however, it would reduce the need for subdivision on individual properties. Families could choose whether to graze their animals together at certain times of the year, as they already do in the Ida Valley, or embrace a broader perspective and run their animals altogether throughout the year. The economies of scale would also benefit lifestyle farmers, not just economically but also environmentally. The explosion of lifestyle blocks and the weed and pest problems that have emerged through a lack of management can be averted through the coordinated use of grazing animals and the cross property grazing technique. As the Australia example has shown, once families have ownership of this operation, they can regenerate pastures and make their land more productive, stable, cleaner, and profitable. |