Managing your pasture in dry

conditions
With South East Queensland offcially
drought declared as of August 2014,
many graziers are confronted with
the diffcult challenge of ensuring
their stock have access to suitable
nutrition in the months ahead.
Landholders are invited to come
and hear the latest advice about
managing their pastures and stock
nutrition during the dry season at the
next Beaudesert Landcare feld day
on October 22
nd
.
Beaudesert Landcare are holding
the event in partnership SEQ
Catchments, Croftby Community
Group, the Queensland Government
and Scenic Rim Regional Council as
part of an ongoing series of feld days
to assist the sustainability of the local
grazing community.
Damien OSullivan and Roger Sneath
from the Queensland Government
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Forestry will be the guest
speakers on the day.
Roger and Damien will be covering
a variety of topics including the use
of climate outlooks to help you plan
ahead, best methods for managing
your pastures and information about
animal nutrition and supplement
requirements.
To suit the season the advice will
cover nutritional strategies for cows
and calves, including information on
late pregnancy, early lactation and
early weaning as methods to help you
manage the arrival of new calves.
The advice will be just as relevant to
whatever style of grazing enterprise
you are running, with a focus on
meeting the needs of your stock
while looking after your pastures and
property.
All landholders are invited to the
workshop. Full details are provided on
Pg three of this newsletter.
Continuing dry conditions across South east Queensland are presenting
many challenges to producers in the region.
Free Equiculture
day in Jimboomba
Acclaimed author and expert on
horse property management, Jane
Myers MSc (equine) will share her
expertise with horse keepers on how
to look after your property for happy,
healthy horses.
The free seminar, held in partnership
with Logan City Council, will help
horse keepers better understand
how they can manage their horses
natural and domesticated behaviours
to promote better horse health,
but also keep costs down, achieve
good environmental outcomes and
help improve the aesthetics of their
property.
If you would like to attend this
free workshop on October 11th
please see over page for full
details or contact Britt Rodgers at
[email protected].
Above: Jane is a popular presenter on
healthy horses and healthy land.
Left: Early weaning can be an
important strategy during drought
LOGAN & ALBERT| OCT 2014
Soil health day a great success
The importance of recognising soil
as the ecosystem that supports your
farm business was highlighted at
the June soils and grazing day with
Beaudesert Landcare.
During the morning, guest presenter
Alan Coates outlined the importance
of monitoring to build up a record of
your soil health and understand the
effect of management practices. Alan
described soil as an ecosystem in
itself - and a resource that must be
managed to maintain productivity.
Col and Jackie Clark gave us a
tour the creek fats on their farm
where they were growing winter
pasture crops. We also viewed their
composting operation. Watching a
compost windrow being turned by a
driverless tractor was a frst for me!
The Clarks described how they are
building soil health on their place by
manufacturing and applying compost
and using their animals to recycle
nutrients back into the soil.
Alan demonstrated soil monitoring
using the soil health card method
developed in Northern NSW. The
method uses 10 straight forward
visual tests that require simple
equipment and can be carried out by
one person in the feld.
If you want to give it a try, the Soil
Health Card method is provided on
the SoilCare website here: www.
soilcare.org/soil-health-card.html.
And some good news! Members
of SoilCare Inc will be visiting the
Clarks property in the near future
to explore soil care Rahane style.
Congratulations Col and Jackie!
- Apanie Wood, SEQ Regional
Landcare Facilitator
Below: Hosts and attendees at the
Beaudeset Landcare soils and grazing
day
Landcare celebrates 25 years in 2014
Perhaps because of this 25 year milestone, the 2014 National Landcare
Awards ceremony seemed particularly signifcant. It was great to see Bob
Hawke celebrating with the ~600 attendees at the awards ceremony which
wrapped up the National Landcare Conference in Melbourne on Sept 18th.
The individual Landcarer award went to Colin Seis. Most of you will know Colin
as the inventor of pasture cropping. What was an experimental idea has been
increasingly adopted by farmers and hailed by international crop scientists. It
was great to see recognition of Colins efforts from the Landcare community.
Although no SEQ based landcarers were award recipients, we had a couple
of fnalists, including Maroochy Landcare for their FarmFLOW project and
Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation, working in Moreton
Bay. Congratulations to both these groups, and to all the hardworking
volunteers who didnt nominate for award.
Its the season for
owering weeds
Youve probably noticed that freweed
is particularly common this year.
It has fourished due to the dry
conditions. Fireweed thrives in areas
with low groundcover.
And its not only the paddocks that
are changing their colours. The yellow
fowers of the Cats claw creeper are
also out on display this time of year.
The best weed control is prevention.
Beaudesert Landcare and SEQ
Catchments are working together to
control Cats Claw Creeper in some
areas. But management of both Cats
Claw and Fireweed require ongoing
efforts from all landholders.
Visit the our website for information
on controlling cats claw creeper, or
the QLD Government website here for
information on Fireweed control.
www.seqcatchments.com.au/case-
studies/crusade-against-cat-s-claw-
creeper
Right: Farmers who embrace
practices that protect our
natural resource base are the
foundation of Landcare
BEAUDESERT LANDCARE GROUP
Dan Coaster-Garton
Ph: 07 5541 4353
BOONAH ORGANISATION FOR A
SUSTAINABLE SHIRE
Julie Jackon - Secretary
Ph: 07 5463 4774
M: 0435 992 798
E: [email protected]
www.boonahboss.blogspot.com
CROFTBY COMMUNITY GROUP
Paul Coyne
Ph: 07 5463 6828
E: [email protected]
LOGAN AND ALBERT
CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
Anne Page - President
Ph: 07 3297 0624
Kathy Faldt - Vice President
Ph: 07 3200 0129
www.laca.org.au
LOGAN ALBERT RIVER
CATCHMENTS ASSOCIATION
Matthew Arkinstall
Ph: 0429 618 147
TAMBORINE LANDCARE
ASSOCIATION
Ph: 07 5545 1847
E: secretary@tamborinemtnlandcare.
org.au
The Piccabeen Bookshop
Shop 10/15 Main St, Nth Tamborine
MEETINGS | FUNCTIONS | EVENTS | NEWS
Upper Brisbane Region Catchment Network Group
SEQ Catchments Ofce - Beaudesert
82 Brisbane Street,
Beaudesert 4285
PO Box 657, Qld 4285
This newsletter is produced by SEQ Catchments in partnership
with the Regional Landcare Facilitator project, an initiative of
the Australian Government Department of Agriculture
Col Hastie
Community Partnerships Manager
E : [email protected]
M: 0457 109 122
Apanie Wood
Regional Landcare Facilitator
E: [email protected]
M: 0448 069 226
Local news, events and resources
Free healthy horses, healthy
land workshop - Jane Myers,
Oct 11
th

Find out how to set your horse
property up to minimise costs,
maximise horse welfare and protect
the environment.
Saturday 11th Oct 9am - 3pm.
Dorrington House, Johanna
St, Jimboomba. RSVP with
Britt Rodgers on 3412 5059,
[email protected].
Glossy Black Cockatoo
Birding Day needs your help!
Coordinated by the Glossy Black
Conservancy, this citizen science
program aims to learn more about the
status and trends within the Glossy
Black Cockatoo population of SEQ.
Sunday October 19th, SEQ
Register to help by fnding
your regional coordinator at
www.glossyblack.org.au/gbcday
Managing your pasture and
livestock nutritional needs in
dry conditions, Oct 22
nd
Climate outlooks, dry season
planning and pasture management,
animal nutrition and supplements.
Wed 22nd Oct 9:30am - 2:30pm
Rathdowney Hall, 87 Collins St,
Rathdowney.
RSVP with Col Hastie (details below).
Cultivation nutrient trial & new
vegetation laws, Nov 11
th
Researcher Martin Labadz will
discuss the results of a nutrient
management trial he has undertaken
on the dairy farm cultivation of
Michael and Sally Undery. Michael
will speak about his attempts to
reduce nutrient losses and improve
soil health.
Dave Hinz from DNRM will provide an
update on the recent changes to QLD
vegetation management laws.
Tues 11th Nov 9:30am - 2:30pm
Kerry Memorial Hall, 1488 Kerry
Road, Kerry and Underys dairy farm.
RSVP with Col Hastie (details below).
Weeds & grazing land
condition workshop, Dec 6
th
Visit the Dunkleys property and
explore how they are controlling
weeds and improving land condition.
We will discuss grazing land
management practices that can
restore soil health, help fght weeds
and improve pasture growth. Well
also discuss control methods for
environmental weeds such as Cats
Claw Creeper and restoring the
endangered Swamp Paperbark.
Tues 11th Nov 9:30am - 2:30pm
Dunkleys property, 301 Cusack Lane
Jimboomba. RSVP with Col Hastie.
Australian Governments 25
th

Anniversary Landcare Grants
now open
Funding of $5,000 to $20,000 is
available to community groups and
landholders to undertake projects
to conserve the natural resource
base. If you require help to develop a
proposal contact Col Hastie or Apanie
Wood. More here: www.nrm.gov.au/
national/25th-anniversary-landcare-
grants
Below: Getting up close with nature
at BallowView, Carneys Creek as
part of the Land for Wildlife Open Day
in May this year.