Natural Asset Farming: Creating Productive and Biodiverse Farms

By David B. Lindenmayer, Suzannah M. Macbeth, David G. Smith and Michelle L. Young

Farm dams, creeklines, vegetation and rocky outcrops are natural assets that are essential for healthy, sustainable farms. Protecting and enhancing these elements of natural capital on farms not only supports biodiversity, but also contributes to farm productivity and to the well-being of farmers and farming communities.

Natural Asset Farming: Creating Productive and Biodiverse Farms reveals seven key natural assets and why they are so valuable for biodiversity and productivity on farms. Drawing on two decades of long-term ecological monitoring and knowledge exchange with farmers, Landcare groups and natural resource management experts, this book is a tool for building and enhancing natural assets in agricultural landscapes. In bringing together ecological science and the experience of farmers in the wheat–sheep belt of south-eastern Australia, Natural Asset Farming will help foster ideas, boost resilience and improve the sustainability of agricultural production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781486314850

David B. Lindenmayer

Professor David B. Lindenmayer AO has worked as a researcher on Australian farms for more than 23 years. He has a particular interest in improving environmental conditions on farm properties, including protecting remnant native vegetation as well as restoring and replanting it. He specialises in establishing and maintaining ecological large-scale, long-term research and monitoring programs on farms.

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Natural Asset Farming

We dedicate this book to Marion Keith and the late Kent Keith who supported Sustainable Farms at The Australian National University through their generous donation of the proceeds from the sale of one of their farms. In doing so, they have made a major contribution to ensuring that top-quality research continues, providing an evidence base for sustainable farming into the future.

Marion and Kent Keith. Photo by Lannon Harley.

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Copyright The Authors 2022. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 9781486314836 (pbk)

ISBN: 9781486314843 (epdf)

ISBN: 9781486314850 (epub)

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Lindenmayer DB, Macbeth SM, Smith DG, Young ML (2022) Natural Asset Farming: Creating Productive and Biodiverse Farms. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

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Front cover (clockwise from top): A fenced, enhanced dam near Albury, NSW (photo: Suzannah Macbeth); Farm dams field day near Gerogery, NSW (photo: Kylie Durant); Superb Fairy-wren (photo: Damien Esquerré); Farmers at a field day near Devenish, Victoria (photo: Alice Marzano).

Back cover (left to right): Crimson Chat (photo: David Smith); Yellow-footed Antechinus (photo: David Smith); Sheep on a farm near Yass, NSW (photo: Suzannah Macbeth).

Edited by Adrienne de Kretser, Righting Writing

Cover design by Cath Pirret

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Index by Bruce Gillespie

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CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands that we live and work on across Australia and pays its respect to Elders past and present. CSIRO recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made and will continue to make extraordinary contributions to all aspects of Australian life including culture, economy and science. CSIRO is committed to reconciliation and demonstrating respect for Indigenous knowledge and science. The use of Western science in this publication should not be interpreted as diminishing the knowledge of plants, animals and environment from Indigenous ecological knowledge systems.

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Contents

About the authors

List of contributors

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Natural asset management on farms

Chapter 1 Planning changes that make a difference

Chapter 2 Enhance farm dams

Chapter 3 Establish shelterbelts and other plantings

Chapter 4 Protect remnant woodland

Chapter 5 Protect creeks, wetlands and riparian zones

Chapter 6 Protect paddock trees and grow new ones

Chapter 7 Maintain native perennial grasses

Chapter 8 Protect rocky outcrops

Chapter 9 Manage feral animals and overabundant native species

Chapter 10 Planning work to improve the natural assets on a farm

Appendix A: Plant lists for farm dam revegetation

Appendix B: Plant lists for supporting pollinators on farms

Index

About the authors

David B. Lindenmayer is a world-leading expert in forest and woodland ecology and resource management, conservation science and biodiversity conservation. He currently runs five large-scale, long-term research programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily associated with developing ways to conserve biodiversity in farmland, wood production forests, plantations and reserves. He has maintained some of the largest long-term research programs in Australia, with some running for more than 38 years. He is among the world’s most highly cited ecological researchers and has received numerous awards for his work.

Suzannah Marshall Macbeth is a writer with a background in conservation, communications and creative non-fiction. She manages communications and engagement for the Sustainable Farms project, based in Canberra. She has worked in rangelands conservation, campaigning and advocacy, digital media and the university sector. Suzannah grew up by the ocean in Western Australia and has strong roots in farming landscapes in East Gippsland, Victoria. She acknowledges and pays her respects to the Nyoongar, Gunaikurnai and Ngunnawal Traditional Owners of the lands she calls home.

David G. Smith is a research ecologist with the Conservation and Landscape Ecology Group at The Australian National University, working on the Sustainable Farms project. David manages biodiversity monitoring projects in the Western Murray region of New South Wales and North East Victoria. David’s research background includes extensive work with reptiles, mammals and birds across Australia, and he has a particular interest in avian biology and ecology. David contributes to several projects outside of the woodlands, including bird and mammal research in Victoria’s central highlands and mammal reintroductions and broader biodiversity monitoring and research in Booderee National Park.

Michelle L. Young is the Director of the Sustainable Farms project. Michelle has developed an innovative outreach program to ensure that the knowledge and understanding developed through ANU research meets the needs of both farmers and the natural resource management sector. Michelle is a social scientist who has previously worked on the evaluation of environmental management programs for the Federal Government and on health promotion programs in NSW. Michelle’s research background also includes several studies looking at biosecurity and sustainability in the Australian meat and grains sector, and the application of narrative research approaches to the assess the impact of changes in environmental management.

List of contributors

With contributions from (in alphabetical order):

Philip Batterham

Tabitha Boyer

Kimberly Brown

Helena Clayton

Clare Crane

Meredith Cosgrove

Amber Croft

Saul Cunningham

Natasha Fijn

Daniel Florance

Tamara Harris

Eleanor Lang

Kathie LeBusque

Alice Marzano

Colleen O’Malley

Jackie O’Sullivan

Ben Scheele

Angelina Siegrist

Acknowledgments

Many people and organisations have contributed to the work of the Sustainable Farms project at The Australian National University. Key organisations that have provided funding over the years of our work include the Australian Research Council, the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, the Ian Potter Foundation, the William Buckland Foundation, the Caponero Grant, Murray Local Land Services, Riverina Local Land Services, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, North East Catchment Management Authority, Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, NSW Environment Trust, and the Wheen Bee Foundation. We have also been supported by donations from several farmers including John Mitchell and Kent and Marion Keith as well as several anonymous donors. We have received significant in-kind support from many Landcare groups, especially Holbrook Landcare, as well as volunteer organisations such as the Canberra Ornithologists Group.

The research described in this book would not have been possible without an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP60100243), and our partners in that project – Riverina Local Land Services, Murray Local Land Services and Holbrook Landcare.

This book draws on more than 20 years of detailed scientific work, primarily on environmental conditions and biodiversity conservation on farms. Many people have made significant contributions to that work, including Wade Blanchard, Ross Cunningham, Chris MacGregor, Lachlan McBurney, Michael Vardon, the late David Blair and the late Jeff Wood. We also thank those who previously worked with us and have now gone on to work elsewhere, including Emma Burns, Mason Crane, Geoff Kay, Damian Michael, Rebecca Montague-Drake, Sachiko Okada, Colleen O’Malley, Thea O’Loughlin and Claire Shepherd. Heather Keith produced the innovative hierarchy linking natural capital and natural assets. We are most grateful for the insights that she contributed to work on temperate woodlands. We also thank Natasha Fijn for her work conducting interviews that formed the basis for three of the farmer stories in this book.

We thank the excellent people at CSIRO Publishing for the production of outstanding books over many years. We are deeply grateful for their collaboration and support.

We extend thanks and recognition to the many farmers who provide us access to their properties for scientific monitoring, who are generous with their time and knowledge, and who willingly share their insights and experiences from life on the land.

Finally, we acknowledge that Western agriculture in NSW and Victoria was established in a landscape that had been expertly managed by Indigenous people for 60 000 years. It was a landscape in good condition, with functioning ecosystems and incredible biodiversity. Country was and is inseparable from all aspects of Indigenous life and society, and we recognise the ongoing connection to Country and extensive knowledge of Traditional Owners. Ecological restoration and reconciliation must go hand-in-hand, for the benefit of all Australians.

Sustainable Farms project team, August 2021

Introduction: Natural asset management on farms

Australian farmers are considered to be among the most resilient and innovative in the world, perhaps because of the distinctive nature of the continent’s nutrient-depleted soils, its hyper-variable climate, and long distances to markets. Australian conditions create challenges quite unlike those anywhere else on Earth, and the nation’s farmers produce food that carries an impression of wholesome goodness and integrity to overseas markets.

Our agricultural landscapes are unique bioregions – characterised by natural features and environmental processes that strongly influence the occurrence of plants, animals and other organisms. As agricultural land stewards, farmers are also managing the ecosystems which underpin landscape function. Many farmers feel great connection to the native plants and animals on their land. Now, as farmers grapple with changing climates and the legacy of decades of intensive agriculture, innovation must support not only agricultural productivity but also the biodiversity, landscapes, ecosystems and people on which that productivity depends.

The agricultural landscapes of Australia’s south-eastern wheat–sheep belt, on which this book is largely focused, are characterised primarily by paddocks cleared for livestock grazing or crop production. What remains of the original vegetation and wildlife, and the environmental processes on which they depend, is of vital importance not only as part of Australia’s sense of place and identity, but also to the future of farming itself.

It has long been recognised that some past management practices, such as extensive land clearing, have had significant negative environmental impacts and, at the same time, undermined the productivity of farm businesses. Different approaches to farming have been proposed to counter these problems. For example, Natural Sequence Farming utilises natural processes in the landscape to restore waterways on farms (see www.nsfarming.com/Principles/principles2.html). Regenerative agriculture focuses on bolstering the condition of the soils and maintaining year-round ground-cover as part of facilitating landscape ‘renewal’ (Massey 2017). These approaches bring a welcome focus to three key components of natural capital – water, land (including soil and erosion management through ground cover) and carbon, and have distinct advantages for agricultural production and the environment. The fourth component of natural capital, biodiversity, is a vital part of any farming system and requires careful attention and management. Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of life, at a range of levels including species and ecosystems.

Figure I.1: An agricultural landscape in the south-eastern wheat–sheep belt of Australia. Photo by Suzannah Macbeth.

In this book, we examine how key natural assets on farms – native vegetation (including remnant patches, large old trees, native grasses and plantings such as shelterbelts), rocky outcrops, riparian areas and farm dams – are critical for maintaining and regenerating the ecological systems that support agriculture. The condition of these natural assets is closely linked with biodiversity, which is the focus of our research, but managing, protecting and enhancing any or all of these natural assets on farms will help support all four components of natural capital.

Farming sustainably in Australia’s south-eastern wheat–sheep belt involves balancing multiple considerations and priorities to achieve profitability, improve farmer well-being and support biodiversity. Within the Sustainable Farms project at The Australian National University, our focus is on the maintenance, improvement and regeneration of natural assets to help achieve all three of these objectives. On this basis, and building on the work of many farmers and natural resource management agencies, we have developed the concept of Natural Asset Management on farms. This recognises the need to improve the condition of natural assets on farms to produce resilient farming systems and better conserve unique temperate woodland ecosystems. The overarching aim is to create a strong and balanced portfolio of natural assets, much in the same way as a superannuation fund manager seeks to have a diversified and strongly growing portfolio of financial assets for their client. Over time, growing this portfolio of assets builds capital – in this case, the natural capital of land, water, carbon and biodiversity (Figure I.2).

Actions to enhance the condition of natural assets include (but are not limited to) grazing management, strategic fencing, active revegetation with native plants, and the control of feral animals. Through more than two decades of research and monitoring by the Sustainable Farms team (see Box I.1) and thousands of conversations between ecologists and farmers, it has emerged that improving natural assets has benefits not only for native fauna and flora but also for agricultural production and the well-being of farmers.

When natural assets are well managed, they deliver dividends in multiple ways. For example, more and better-quality water (including during drought) from improved management of farm dams not only promotes livestock production, but also creates micro-hotspots of native biodiversity (see Chapter 2 on farm dams). Similarly, well designed and well managed shelterbelts that provide shade and shelter lead to more efficient livestock production (such as reduced lamb mortality) and improved quality of habitat for native wildlife (see Chapter 3 on shelterbelts). Wildlife, in turn, provides integrated pest management (like rodent and pest insect control), pollination services and nutrient cycling. Animals such as microbats, Krefft’s Glider (formerly known as the Sugar Glider) and birds (like the Straw-necked Ibis) consume large quantities of insect pests (Carrick 1959). Similarly, both native and introduced dung beetles have critical roles in breaking down dung, improving pastures through limiting the extent of fouled land, and reducing pest fly populations (Tyndale-Biscoe 1990). Natural assets in good condition can sometimes also make a positive difference to property values (Walpole et al. 1998; Polyakov et al. 2015) and certainly to the aesthetic appeal of a farm.

Figure I.2: The relationship between natural capital, natural assets and management actions on a farm. Derived from work by Heather Keith at The Australian National University.

Box I.1: Where do insights on maintaining and improving natural assets come from?

The majority of recommendations in this book about improving natural assets on farms are based on detailed scientific studies conducted by researchers at The Australian National University over 20 years, including as part of the Sustainable Farms project. These studies have involved field measurements and dedicated scientific monitoring on more than 850 sites located on more than 250 farms from north-east Victoria to south-east Queensland. The data collected on these sites and farms were subject to statistical analysis before being written up as scientific articles and were peer-reviewed by other scientists before being published. However, science is not the only lens through which to understand the world, and we work closely with farmers and other land managers as well as with natural resource management agencies and Landcare to learn about the ways they have met and addressed the challenges of sustainable farming. This book includes stories from farmers who have taken practical action to improve the natural assets on their land.

In this book, we examine seven kinds of natural assets (see Box I.2) and the management practices to maintain, improve or restore them. Not all assets will be present on a given farm and not all approaches to improving asset condition will be applicable in every circumstance. Efforts to improve natural assets do not have to entail a comprehensive whole-of-farm transformation and/or an all-of-business transformation (although we know some farmers who have done either or both). Rather, efforts to improve the condition of some natural assets – or even just one asset – will have positive benefits. Each landholder can determine the level to which they choose to engage in improving the natural assets on their farm, including how they might wish to make incremental changes over the medium- to long-term. Many farmers already invest time and effort into managing their natural assets and most have a strong desire to leave their land in better condition than when they first started working on it. Our hope is that this book will help farmers to identify further achievable restoration goals that align with their values and aspirations, and to provide guidance when planning and undertaking natural asset enhancements.

Some of the management recommendations we propose in this book are based on an extensive history of practical application by thousands of farmers and on support and insights from groups like Landcare, Greening Australia and natural resource management agencies (such as Local Land Services and Catchment Management Authorities). Our partners in Landcare have contributed significantly to raising awareness and understanding of landscape function and promoting on-the-ground change. The establishment of shelterbelts and other kinds of plantings is an example, with a history dating back many decades. This history includes the original Potter Farmland Plan in western Victoria that aimed to rejuvenate degraded agricultural land through targeted restoration efforts and appropriate grazing regimes (Mathews 1990). This program helped give rise to Landcare initiatives (Campbell 1994). Decades of investment by farmers and others, and long-term monitoring of the results, has continued to produce new insights that are valuable for improving management actions (e.g. Westgate et al. 2021). Insights into the importance and management of other natural assets like farm dams and rocky outcrops have a more recent and far less extensive history (Romanowski 2009; Michael and Lindenmayer 2018). We trust that even those landholders who already have a long and proud tradition of improving the condition of their farms will find new and interesting perspectives in this book.

There is extensive existing literature on some of the topics in this book (e.g. pest control in Chapter 9 and native grasses in Chapter 7), and we have not attempted to provide a detailed discussion on these. For instance, entire books have been written on topics such as the design of shelterbelts (Cleugh 2003)