University of New England study finds drought resilience methods

The University of New England, CQUniversity and CSIRO have delivered behavioural science work into how livestock producers make decisions to carry them through drought.

The Decide and Thrive drought preparedness project, which aimed to find regionally-relevant livestock ranking strategies to secure farm businesses into, during or out of drought and improve natural capital.

The study's first step was a deep dive into the decision-making processes and management strategies of producers and it revealed differences depending on where cattle are being run.

The research found emotions and instincts already played a lesser role in drought decision making on Victorian livestock operations than they do for larger, northern outfits.

Victorian family farms, dominated by Merino breeding, along with beef and sheep consultants, took part in interviews for the study.

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The researchers said the focus was on 'working smarter' at an individual level in Victoria, with producers emphasising the importance of having a stable income.

Not surprisingly, given the small scale of most farms, soil was identified as an important asset to be protected.

Sustainable farming and succession planning were identified as important motivators.

Advisors reported being employed to assist with getting farms "fully operational post drought as quickly as possible".

There was a perception in Victoria that drought happened every few years rather than consistently, as was the thought in Queensland.

But the impact of frosts, floods and bushfires were also highlighted.

So managing 'climate variability' was the focus more so than 'managing drought' in Victoria.

To that end, the thinking was 'doing the basics well' all year.

Three quarters of the producers interviewed destock seasonally - approximately a third of the flock each year irrespective of drought.

They focused on keeping the best breeding stock and then trimming around the edges.

Removing the empties dominates and then lesser performing animals are removed.

This 'one third' cull enables regenerated pasture growth, producers told the researchers.

Containment feeding was a priority in managing climatic extremes and most producers had accessed government drought funding to set up pens.

Most discussed with researchers how difficult it was to replace high-quality ewes.

One producer quoted in the report on the research said: "We've never approached a drought with the strategy of selling excess sheep, or selling any sheep. We focus on building and maintaining our good genetics so it's better to feed and look after the stock we've got."

All consultants in the Victorian study emphasised the importance of having a plan and echoed the importance of decision making based on objective data, not just intuition.

Getting the basics right and following the key messages of planning, acting early and having trigger points were considered imperative and time-honoured approaches.

Researchers reported that in Victoria, participants tended to value the use of external consultants when making decisions during climatic extremes, rather than relying solely on family or peers.

"By seeking out the advice of external consultants on a regular basis, producers felt more confident in their decision-making," they said.

"Smaller operations often have less room for error and fewer resources to fall back on in the event of a crisis, hence producers valued impartial advice based on data and industry best practice."

Meanwhile in Rokewood, Paul Walton, Wurrook Merinos said he experienced three droughts in the past 20 years and took the opportunity to reduce his flock numbers and improve its quality.

He manages 20,000 Merinos.

"We've had three droughts since 2000, the first one we were told was a one-in-100-year drought and the second one was worse, and the third was as bad as the second one," he said.

"When you've worked out that you have more animals than what feed you've got, you start selling the ones that are the least important to the future first."

Mr Walton said they managed to reduce their flock by 20pc during a second drought, and using a mixer wagon to feed the animals.

"We could maintain them on an overall lesser-quality feed if we mixed beans or lupins or grain with it," he said.

"What a lot of farmers did - which we didn't do - was build containment areas where they would put them on smaller paddocks which kept the sheep off their other paddocks and their top soil didn't blow as much."

The insights are now informing ongoing research by the Decide and Thrive team into herd and flock measurement technologies and culling decisions of breeding stock, with a key message to developers to keep stock selection tools simple and to provide users with support during the adoption phase.

The team is also developing communications and training tools for extension providers, farm consultants and the Commonwealth-funded Drought Resilience, Adoption and Innovation Hubs to assist them in driving adoption of objective stock selection tools.

"There's always been droughts and there always will be droughts," Mr Walton said.

"It's just something we'll always have, keeping plenty of fodder and having a good water supply is a must."