Sustainable agricultural practice benefits waterways of the region

South East Queensland produces a substantial portion of Queensland’s total agricultural commodities. Rural areas make up approximately 1.9 million hectares or 85% of the South East Queensland (SEQ) landscape, much of which is managed by farmers.

The protection and sustainable management of agricultural land in SEQ is important to safeguard the capacity of the region to produce food and fibre for local communities and broader markets. Given the relative area of land managed by farmers, they also play a role in the conservation and management of other natural values, including the regions waterways and rich biodiversity.

Farmers of the region are faced with many challenges in maintaining viable enterprises, including climate extremes, cost of production, profit margins, and market uncertainty. These challenges can place pressure on already stretched land and water resources.

How agricultural land in South East Queensland is managed influences the health of waterways, including the regions creeks, rivers, estuaries and coasts. In some cases, poor agricultural land management continues to threaten water security and waterway health.

The uptake of sustainable agricultural practice in the region can enhance the long-term viability of farm enterprises, supporting regional communities, and in many cases can have positive outcomes for waterways and catchments. In South East Queensland farmers and communities continue to realise these benefits!

What is sustainable agriculture?

A sustainable agricultural practice is one that is economically viable and enhances the environmental quality and the resource base on which agriculture depends, such as the soils, water, plants as well as insects, such as pollinators.

Practices are specific to different types of agriculture such as horticulture, grazing, or market gardens. These practices may be broadly known and shared between generations of farmers while others are new innovations in response to emerging and ongoing challenges.

Implementation of sustainable agricultural practice requires vision, persistence, innovation, and often up-front and ongoing expenses. There are many examples across the region where sustainable agriculture is having real benefits for farm enterprises while delivering improvements in local waterway and catchment health. Some of these include:

• Grazing land improvement through best management practice improvements.
• Managing stock to protect water security.
• Conserving soil and improving water quality.

Improving grazing land condition in the Upper Catchments

Grazing is the dominant rural land use in SEQ, utilising 51% of the land area in SEQ. The management of pasture and land condition is key to the productivity of graziers. In South East Queensland, land areas within mid-to upper catchment continue to support grazing practice.

Grazing land condition is the capacity of the land to efficiently capture energy, cycle nutrients, and respond to rainfall to produce useful forage. It is a measure of how well the grazing ecosystem is functioning and directly influences the productivity of land. Maintaining and enhancing land condition improves grazing productivity and also reduces soils loss and associated threats to waterways.

The effective planning of grazing land management to enhance health and diverse pastures is benefiting farming enterprises across the Upper Catchment of South East Queensland. This is being achieved through incentive and capacity building programs across the region.

Managing riparian areas to protect water security

Watering cattle can be a challenge in areas with variable rainfall and limited access to surface water. Allowing stock access to creeks is a cheap way to water stock, however the direct access of stock to creeks can negatively impact freshwater stream health and water quality for drinking water supply.

Fencing creeks and/or providing off stream watering points, and stock bridges can reduce the negative impacts to waterways and provide reliable good quality water to the stock. This requires up-front capital cost, and these assets require regular maintenance. Recognising the shared benefit of managing stock access to creeks, many graziers are implementing these practices through a range of incentive programs.

The Source Water Protection Partnerships program, delivered by Seqwater and Natural Resource Management organisations aims to work with landholders and farmers to improve water quality in water supply catchment. A key focus of this program is working with graziers to manage direct stock access to creeks.