Macarthur landholders are invited to get back to basics as part of a soil workshop in Camden later this month.
Coordinated by Greater Sydney Local Land Services (GS LLS) in partnership with Sydney Environmental & Soil Laboratory (SESL), the workshop will cover all aspects of best practice soil management including testing demonstrations and results analysis.
Project officer Linda Hanlon said the workshop was part of the GS LLS Healthy Soils, Productive Pastures project currently in its second year.
“This project focusses on demonstrating best practice pasture and soil management specifically tailored to the Sydney basin landscape,” she said.
“We’ve achieved a lot in the past year, having engaged an agronomist, prepped paddocks, conducted initial soil tests and sowed seeds, we now have two very flush looking trial paddocks of different trial pasture crops complete with a newly introduced herd of 10 sheep at our demonstration farm,” she said
“The sheep have been moved on and off the crops on a rotational basis to take the grazing pressures off the crop and encourage regeneration.”
Ms Hanlon said the team were excited to welcome crowds back for a series of Covid-safe soil testing demonstration workshops at the demonstration farm, Camden Town Farm and Dooralong this month.
“This is a back to basics event with live demos on the why, how, who, what and when of conducting a thorough soil test with the opportunity to have an expert interpret the results down the track,” she said.
As part of the project, GS LLLS has also engaged several local farmers to conduct on farm trials through funding grants and technical advice and assistance.
Ace Ohlsson agronomist Adam Little is the advisor on the trials and said the progress to date was encouraging.
“This is a great example of government and industry working together to support a more productive and sustainable agricultural industry with a focus on graziers and growers in the Sydney basin,” he said.
The Camden workshop will be held on March 15 with registrations essential online. Contact Peter Conasch on 0427 741 956 for full details.
This project is supported by Greater Sydney Local Land Services through funding from the Australian Government’s national landcare program.
