Farmers in the Orange and Cabonne region are able to learn better conservation management practices to help them yield better results based on the Sustainable Farms Project, which has been undertaken in the Central West.
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Participants will be able to learn more about the research at a Conservation and Action Conference that is scheduled to take place at Orange Ex-Services' Club in November, pending the COVID-19 situation.
The conference will bring together conservation industry leaders, from scientists to policy makers, program managers, and specialists in implementing works in the field.
It will be run by Central West Councils Environment & Waterways Alliance in partnership with Sustainable Farms (Australian National University) and Central Tablelands Local Land Services, who also met with farmers at Duntryleague earlier this year.
At the Duntryleague workshop, they discussed protecting and enhancing natural assets on farms, such as farm dams, shelter belts and remnant woodlands, and how it can support native wildlife, farm productivity and farmer mental health.
Sustainable Farms Project director Michelle Young said the study is taking place on farms in the Central West and looks at how natural assets can be managed.
She said it looks at how such management can produce economic benefits such as shelter belts providing natural protection to sheep, lambs and crops from the elements resulting in a healthier product.
"A lot of focus on the research we are doing is on farm dams," Ms Young said.
She said there were better results from dams that were fenced to exclude stock and had fringing vegetation.
"Our water quality results are showing significant differences," Ms Young said.
"It's one of these things we've been looking for," she said.
"We've done some monitoring from overseas studies showing [the relationship between] water quality and stock weight gains.
"The research we've done is on overseas water quality results because we don't have local data.
She said people are "really interested" in soil carbon measures.
The results also come from 20 years of studying native wildlife on farms in the Central West to demonstrate how to look after native wildlife in those areas.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
