The Drought Resilient Pasture Landscapes (DRPL) project involved 7 groups of farmers on the Northern Tablelands of NSW over 18 months in an action learning program to improve skills and knowledge in pasture assessment and feed budgeting.

At six meetings a year, more than 80 farmers participated in coaching sessions to build skills and knowledge with assessing pastures, soil tests, feed budgets to set stocking rates, and use of the online tool Ag360 to incorporate climate forecasts into their decisions about stocking rate and pasture management for the next six months. In-stream monitoring was conducted on eight properties to assess water quality and infer the condition of aquatic ecosystems.

Better pasture management anticipating climate variability increases productivity, ground cover, and soil organic matter, and reduces weeds, erosion and rainfall runoff, with expected improvements for water quality, baseflows and ecosystems of waterways.

Southern New England Landcare (SNEL Ltd), Glen Innes Natural Resources Advisory Committee (GLENRAC Inc) and the Armidale Node of the SQNNSW Innovation Hub managed communication and engagement, and developed this online community of practice to share data and knowledge among farming communities and document ways farmers adopt these practices. Northern Tablelands Local Land Services supported the project through providing access to regional pasture data collection.

A coaching manual has been developed, setting out the learning outcomes and coaching approach, that can be used to scale the impact of this project to other regions. Click here to find out more and download these resources. (You can read more feedback from our participants on the testimonials page.)

The Drought Resilient Pasture Landscapes project (2022-24) received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.