Lockwood Blueprint

Goals & Actions

Blueprint Dashboard

Analysis Results

Photo Storage - Lockwood

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Key Metrics

Soil Carbon% (0-30cm)

Soil Carbon Stocks 0-30cm

Property Carrying Capacity

Mean

2.17%

78 t C/ha

28 SDH/100mm

Range

0.46 - 2.03%

55-98 t C/ha

2-35 SDH/100mm using actual graze history per paddock

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Farm Profile

Property

‘Lockwood’

Location

Newbier, NSW

Enterprise

Beef Breeding & Trading

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Your Goals

...these are what we have heard so far, they will change... please update as applicable

Livestock

Increase numbers as capacity increases, towards a target top of circa 1500 Steers, (where prev has been circa 950-1200 through annually)

Land

Increase soil fertility and pasture quality to increase animal performance (as ADG gains)

Continue development of larger paddocks to increase control over grazing

People

Free up Johns time to allow greater development input on the other farm

Achieve sufficient development to allow simpler daily operations with less labour

Business

Improve ADG to increase operating efficiency

Increase stocking rate to generate more profit for development elsewhere (?)

Grazing

Continue imcremental improvements coming from sub-division

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Strategic Grazing

Assessment

Metric

Current Value

6 Mth Goals

Long Term Target

Comments

Carrying Capacity

The long term LSU Days /Ha per 100mm rainfall

Cultivation: 220 DDH/100mm

Balance: 90 DDH/100mm

Farm Average:

150 DDH/100mm

no change

Farm Average:

tbc DDH/100mm

Rest to Graze %

Average % of days paddocks are in recovery versus being grazed

30-50%

40-50%

75%+

This is the rolling proportion of time paddocks spend in rest versus graze

# Paddocks per Mob

Average across the recent 12mths

3-4

5-10

20+

Will improve as the planned water points and paddock sub-divisions allow larger mobs

Density Average graze density as Head/Ha

3-4 Head/Ha average

Trial 5-6+ head/ha as learning experience

15+ head/ha

Can become a greater focus once greater control over desired recovery period is achieved

Stocking Rate : Carrying Capacity

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Observations

Carrying Capacity

There are 24 months of graze data in MaiaGrazing that provides a good indication of the spread in production, on a per paddock basis to help visualise where the actual carrying capacity has been in order to be realistic about future increase.

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Infrastructure

NOTE: It is recommended that the majority of new fencing & water point infrastructure be delayed until after Carbon project baselining is completed to allow this to be included in additionality requirements for any potential project registration.

Paddocks

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6 paddocks (roughly a third of paddocks) represent 77% of total farm area, meaning there is still large areas of development remaining to bring increase paddock count per mob, increase recovery rates and density required to achieve potential soil Carbon increases

The constraint to potential sub-division is adequate water points to meet the needs of larger mobs for reduced graze periods necessary in a greater number of smaller paddocks

Stock Water

Multiple bores to pull from, some needing testing for flow rates/adequacy etc

There are multiple creek access points for stock water

Pastures

The standout features of Lockwood pastures are:

Pasture Variation

The observed variation in structure, quality, species, diversity is significant, between the obviously less developed areas of what is currently Bullock paddock through to the fantastic mix of legumes/grasses in the Front sections

This really just suggests there remains a lot of upside potential in the Bullock areas and that older cattle with more teeth are possible a better option for rotation there until it progresses.

Plane of Nutrition

The variation in feed is not matched by variation in stock class consuming it, ie the implementation of a desirable graze rotation down to 1 or 2 mobs means there is very likely having an impact on the animal plane of nutrition, per rotation, moving the same animals through such variable feed

This is accentuated on Lockwood given the dominant stock Class is young cattle, say 200-400kg range, ranging through feed of differing quality.

Options to address this are in the Recommendations below.

Pasture presentation

the system of graze rotation being developed is keeping pastures in phase 2, as is desired, achieving solid and even utilisation in the smaller paddocks, but less so in the larger paddocks for obvious reasons. The pasture in Callide/Front paddocks were good examples of the former and the Parra grass in Scrub paddocks a good example of the latter.

Recommendations

Note: If you plan on committing to a registered carbon project then we recommend applying the recommendations in below AFTER project registration.

Take your time to develop confidence in rotation of livestock, we actually want to limit the implementation of any significant change prior to a Carbon Project registration and baselining.

Grazing & Livestock

Explore the benefits of treating Bullock as a dedicated cell, grazed by older cattle, eg trade cows, whilst it is in development and incrementally improving as a result of improvements to grazing rotation/impact

Explore the benefits of splitting the Steer portion into a Leader / Follower style of grazing in order to mitigate the shortfalls in feed quality. The lead group would continue to do well on current feed at low density with high selectivity in feed on offer, whilst larger follower mobs would then continue to work on meeting goals for animal impact on high feed levels.

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Land Health

Production Zones

Assessment (Topsoil)

Assessments

Zone 1

Zone 2

Zone 3

Zone 4

Zone 5

Soil Type & Observations

Better structured light clay loam

Denser structure of an ex-cultivation block, good quality

Noticably more anaerobic, sour smell from waterlogging

Heavier clay, some anaerobic waterlogging typical in wetlands

Medium clay, undulating tidal wetland

Water Infiltration

Target = 25+mm/hr

200mm/hr

150mm/hr

100mm/hr

300mm/hr

200-600mm/hr

Bulk Density

1.0

1.3

1.1

1.0

Pasture Type & Observations

Current growth rates of 1.25 SDH/day calculated in field

Better drained, more elevated, stronger pasture mix/diversity

Poorer looking quality feed, sour from waterlogging

100% thick Parramatta grass, needs legume introduction

Tully grass dominant spp, some Stylo, Rhodes, Centro, Mekong grass

Groundcover (%)

Target = 90%+

100%

95%

100% & thick litter layer thatch to breakdown

100% Thick litter layer & thatch to breakdown

Species Diversity

Legumes:

Siratro (Macroptilium atropurpureum)

Stylo (Stylosanthes hamata)

Centro (Centrosema)

Grasses: Rhodes, Pangola (Digitaria), Tully (Urochloa)

Centro, Siratro Mekong (Brachiaria) grass

Rhodes, Pangola dominant, some Tully grass

Minimal diversity, Parra grass dominant

Good diversity, legume (Centro) increasing

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Lab Analysis Overview

Soils

See “Soil Analysis Results” for full detail. The focus here is a high level summary of what will affect production and potential for SOC gains.

Focus

Zone 1

Zone 2

Zone 3

Zone 4

Zone 5

Topsoil 0-30cm

The best of the samples

Low Calcium, high Magnesium & Sodium

Subsoil 30-50cm

Better than the topsoil, indicating is just a good deep, uniform soil of high potential

Very high sodium constraint (ESP 18%)

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Pasture Overview

See “Pasture Analysis Results” for full detail

Analysis

Zone 1

Zone 2

Zone 3

Constraints

Opportunities

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Soil Input Recommendations

Soil

Zone

Goal

Input

Comments

Priority

Zone 1

Trigger improvement in structure, increase Sulphur

Gypsum @ 250kg/ha

High performance area warrants pushing along to access deeper soil depths

High

Raise Phosphorus & Nitrogen on targeted areas

Feedlot Manure or Gin Trash 2-2.5 t/ha to lift base P levels

$/tonne landed price needs investigation

Medium

Zone 2

Zone 3

All

Supplementation

High

Selenium

If not already part of induction Selenium definitely needs reviewing

High

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Pasture Inputs (if applicable)

Zone

Goal

Input

Timing

Zone 1

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Natural Capital Monetisation

Carbon Estimation Areas (CEA’s)

Work in progress

Work in progress

Carbon Estimation Area

Size (ha)

Soil Carbon Level (%)

CEA 1

CEA 2

CEA 3

CEA 4

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CEA Modelling: Additional Natural Capital Opportunities

Natural Capital Area

Opportunity

Size (ha)

NCA 1

NCA 2

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Potential Improvement Area:

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