By CATHERINE POTTER
SWAN Creek landholders Mark and Mary Richardson hosted a field full of people who attended the first Balance Workshop on Tuesday, 23 April, for the first of a series of workshops supported by Condamine Alliance.
The aim of the Balance workshops was to support landholders wanting to work on a range of topics relating to their business including production, financial and environmental; while creating an environment for people to meet regularly, hear from a speaker and discuss what this means for individual businesses and the broader community.
The focus last week was on pasture management, with Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry extension officer, Brian Johnson, sharing his technical knowledge with a group of land managers and Landcare staff.
Workshop facilitator Julia Telford said understanding pastures was always a priority for landholders.
“What species to plant, encouraging productive pastures, and monitoring changes in pasture are really critical for landholders to get maximum benefit from their pastures,” she said.
“That’s why we wanted this to be the focus for the first get-together, to focus on a topic that has been identified by landholders in the district.”
The morning involved checking out three sites on the property, where recent flooding has impacted pasture species and the increase of weeds, particularly lippia.
“It was a good chance for land managers to talk about what we saw in the paddock, but also what they are noticing on their own paddocks,” Ms Telford said.
This workshop was delivered with the support of the Condamine Headwaters Landcare Group.
“It is always great working with Catherine Potter – she knows the land managers and can encourage their involvement in events like this, and it’s really important to get the message out about what is happening across the catchment, and the Landcare Group has such good contacts for that,” Ms Telford said.
The balance workshop series is supported by the Condamine Alliance Sustainable Agriculture program with funding from the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country and the Queensland Government’s Regional Natural Resource Management Program.
For more information about this or future workshops contact Julia Telford by email juliatelford@bigpond.com or call 0427 408 713.
To find out more ways you can improve and protect your land visit www.condaminealliance.com.au/land
