Dung beetle trial on a roll

DANEKA HILL

A SOUTH Australian experiment is firing up after 10 Goulburn Valley farms opted into the project.

This is the first time the project – which measures the benefits of feeding biochar to livestock and introducing dung beetles – has been trialled outside SA’s Fleurieu Peninsula.

Stanhope dairy farmer Craig Emmett received his dung beetles on September 17 and will begin feeding out biochar in the near future.

“I’ve gotten a dung beetle called O. vacca which is a high-rainfall type and they’ll be going on the irrigation paddocks,” Mr Emmett said.

“The idea is to feed the cows the biochar and when it comes out in the manure the beetles bury all the nutrients into the soil.”

All 10 farms are receiving dung beetles while three are trialling biochar (a biomass and charcoal blend) as a feed supplement.

The dual use of biochar and dung beetles has been observed to improve pasture dry matter by 30 per cent, increase water retention and lift milk yields.

Goolwa beef farmer Melissa Rebbeck is the woman behind the project.

Since 2015, Ms Rebbeck has been involved with biochar and has facilitated several trials as the director of her company Climate and Agricultural Support.

In one trial a SA dairy farm recorded their average cow’s daily milk yield increased by 1.4 litres after introducing biochar.

“For that 250-cow farm that means a $70,000 increase in yearly profit,” Ms Rebbeck said.

She said for every $800/tonne of biochar used she had recorded a net user benefit of $5000.

“And that’s just measuring the milk yield increase not the improvement to pasture biomass, soil health and better feed conversation ratio, and similar.”

Currently all biochar for the project is being provided by Mara Seeds in NSW.

The Goulburn Valley in northern Victoria was selected as the project’s breakout test site because of Katunga dairy farmer Paul Stammers, who heard Ms Rebbeck on ABC Radio.

Mr Stammers got in contact with Ms Rebbeck to say he’d purchased biochar to trial, drawing her interest to his farm and others in the region.

Since then Ms Rebbeck has partnered with Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and Goulburn Murray Landcare to engage with local farmers.

“We’ve done the trials and technical reports over here (SA), and now we need to demonstrate it can work in other regions,” Ms Rebbeck said.

All Goulburn Valley farmers will keep their beetles in a specially designed nursery for the next 12 months, blowing their 50- to 100-strong populations out to 3000 or 15,000 depending on the species.

The use of a nursery stage is a new method and is expected to streamline the establishment of the species.

The dung beetles are provided by land rehabilitation organisation Creation Care.

Creation Care owner Greg Dalton said the Goulburn Valley project had multiple “really exciting” features.

The two dung beetle species involved – B. bubalus and O. vacca – are new spring-active types and not yet established in any of Australia’s agricultural regions.

“Most introduced dung beetles in Australia are only active in summer or winter,” Mr Dalton said.

“But most pasture growth happens in spring. It creates what we call the spring gap.”

It is hoped the beetles will adapt to Goulburn Valley soils and work with other species in the area to create a year-round workforce, burying nutritional and carbon-rich manure up to 40cm into the ground.

Added benefits include reducing fly numbers and the fire fuel load.

“Soil carbon is the most important thing for Australian soils,” Mr Dalton said.

“And I can confidently say this is the biggest carbon sequestration project in Australia … each

Greg Dalton with some Bubas bubalus dung beetles - a late winter to mid-summer active species from southern Europe.

cow produces 7.2 tonnes of manure per year, and if you have year-round beetle activity they will bury 80 per cent of that.”

Australia has more than 500 species of native dung beetle which don’t interact with livestock manure and 23 introduced species.

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Pressure for truthful labels

DAIRY AND meat producers will be protected from the competition of plant-based products with accurate labelling.

A meeting with industry representatives to discuss accurate labelling of plantbased products was recently held by Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.

Members of the plant-based, meat, dairy, egg, manufacturing and retail sectors attended the meeting.

Mr Littleproud said truthful food labelling was a Federal Government priority.

“I want all of our agricultural industries to grow and succeed and for this to happen we need a fair playing field on food labelling,” Mr Littleproud said.

“I am sympathetic to concerns from producers of genuine meat and dairy products who are forced to contend with highly creative, and sometimes misleading, advertising and labelling of plant-based foods and drinks.

“Seeking more truthful labelling and protecting the reputation of genuine meat and dairy products is not an attack on fake meat and milk.

“On the contrary, I am confident the massive demand for protein presents huge opportunities for all food producers, and I remain committed to giving our growers greater opportunities to be part of the globally thriving plant-based industry.”

Mr Littleproud said plant-based industries provide crucial jobs to many Australians living in rural communities, both on-farm and through the food manufacturing supply chain.

He said the meeting was a chance to bring industry participants together to work towards a common approach for improving the clarity of product labelling for consumers.

“More accurate and truthful labelling of plant-based products will prevent consumers from being misled and protect against the misuse of the meat and dairy sectors’ reputations,” he said.

“There is a place for both plant-based and genuine meat and dairy products in Australia’s agriculture system, but we need to set the divide so that one is not unfairly trading on the reputation of the other.”

Girgarre's Neil Maudsley thinks Australians lack the resilience to fill farm roles.

JOBS ARE HERE BUT NO WORKERS

RODNEY WOODS

A Girgarre dairy farmer wants to know where the unemployed Australians looking for work are, after a group of unions called for the scrapping of the Holiday Maker Program to prioritise unemployed Australians over backpackers.

The Australian Workers’ Union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association and the Transport Workers’ Union said ending the program would stamp out widespread worker exploitation and provide more jobs for young people in regional Australia.

But Neil Maudsley has not been able to fill a position on his farm for two months and has had to rely on backpackers who remained in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are prepared to teach anyone the skills but we have got to have someone who will at least turn up,” he said.

“I think we’ve become a group of people that lack resilience.

“I’ve been farming for over 40 years and jobs that Australians would do, like general farm work and milking, are now being taken up by backpackers.

“We use a lot of automation now, so the work is easier than it once was.”

Mr Maudsley said there were plenty of jobs available but the local workforce was just not there.

“We need those unions to tell us the people who are looking for a job and we are happy to give them one,” he said.

“I could name half a dozen agricultural businesses who can’t find people to apply for jobs.”

While he has the capacity to provide work year-round, Mr Maudsley still finds it difficult to recruit locals.

“The backpackers are wanting to be here for 88 days at a time, which is not ideal as we like to train them up.

“I’d like to put on a local for as many years as they like, but they are just not available.”

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has put the onus on state governments to address farm labour shortages with overseas workers.

Mr Littleproud said while unemployment was high, many farm jobs were thousands of kilometres away from Australians out of work.

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