Justin and Melissa Ainsworth have turned nutrient poor soils and run-down pastures into a sustainable grazing business, with a focus on highly fertile soil and productive pastures.
In 2005, the Ainsworths, together with their children Cameron and Brooke, purchased Merriman Park, Stradbroke, and were faced with the harsh reality of farming during a drought.
The 140-hectare property has a range of soil types, including a water resistant black soil, as well as grey sandy loam.
"When we got here, the Olsen P levels were really low, mostly under ten and with one paddock at 1.9," he said.
"That made it difficult to get anything to grow.
"Getting the nutrient levels up is critical for successful pasture establishment and persistence and then you've got better coverage, more grass and less weeds - the whole thing accelerates from there."
While they initially used some traditional fertilisers as their budget allowed, soil; fertility has been improved with the use of chicken manure for the past four years after seeing it work in local dairy systems.
Mr Ainsworth said a key piece of their pasture success had been improving soil health.
"We've got one paddock that has gone from an Olsen P of eight to nearly 20, in just four years," he said.
Along with chicken manure, he said soil health had been improved through rotational grazing in place across nearly 40 small paddocks.
The family are involved in the local Landcare group, that had educated them on the importance of protecting and establishing shelterbelts for biodiversity and providing shade and shelter for stock.
"Caring for the environment just has to go hand in hand with farming. I reckon we've probably planted 60,000 trees in our time here," he said.
"Our focus is really on sustainability for the farm and a lot of that is preparing our pastures for the next drought that comes along.
"We know we're on the right track because when it started raining in 2020, the pastures kicked like there was no tomorrow - they were ready to go."
He said 2021 had been a year for the record books, with 900 mm annual rainfall and two cuts of silage from their highly productive pastures.
Last year the Ainsworths cut silage twice, as well as making hay. They have 300 rolls of silage buried and another 400 rolls for this year - and the pastures are still producing.
They now have the confidence to build numbers to their closed in Angus cow and calf operation, to bring it back up to pre-drought numbers of 150 cows.
"We're much better prepared in terms of our feed reserves and our knowledge of managing droughts and pasture maintenance," he said.
"Our pastures aren't perfect but compared with where we were five years ago, they are 100 per cent better."
That pasture is sown with a dryland seed mix and includes supplemented Savvy cocksfoot, sub clover and ryegrass.
"After our first drought, we had a look around the paddocks and really the only grasses persisting were cocksfoots," Mr Ainsworth said.
"We trialled quite a few types of cocksfoots, with varying levels of success, but one of these is now the mainstay of our pasture system and that's the Savvy."
He said Savvy cocksfoot was a high yielding palatable pasture that was suited to lighter soils, disease resistant and bred to tolerate hard grazing.
"In a straight Savvy pasture, the cattle will chew it down until it looks like you've topped it and in our multi-species paddocks, Savvy is the feed they will target first before looking to eat the other grasses," he said.
"We've still got some old Porto cocksfoot in a couple of paddocks, and although it would have to be one of the toughest grasses out there, the cattle won't eat it unless they have to."
The Ainsworths focus on rotational grazing and discovery of new ways to improve their soils and pastures stemmed from their Beef Cheque group and Nutrien Ag Solutions Sale agronomist Gary Condron.
"When the annual rainfall drops below 600 millimetres a year, the clovers dissipate and it's the same with ryegrasses and fescues and all the softer grasses, but the hardy cocksfoot types persist. A light summer rainfall event sees them respond immediately," he said.
"At the end of the day, we can keep trying all sorts of new pastures, but the Savvy cocksfoot is doing the job on our farm."
