The Better Burnett team and Auburn River landholders met recently at Narayen to discuss the progress of the recently funding sustainable grazing projects. The Better Burnett project management team updated the landholders on the preliminary monitoring and evaluation results of the nine funded projects in the Auburn River Subcatchment.
The projects were part of the Better Beef component of the Better Burnett catchment recovery pilot, funded by the Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG). The current nine funded projects in the region cover almost 9000 ha and involve the installation of over 30km of fencing and 17 alternative watering points.
The fencing and watering points will allow landholders to better utilisation their pastures as well as rest and rotate paddocks which will hopefully improve pasture condition which can have significant positive natural resource management outcomes.
The landholders were presented with a hypothetical property calleed AR Holdings, which was determined by collating and averaging landtype, paddock and watering point information of the properties involved in the pilot. They were then asked to determine what they believed the “average” Auburn River landholder did with the Better Burnett funding on AR Holdings. The landholders spent the fictional money on their hypothetical property very similarly to how the real funding was utilised, investing in additional watering points and fencing to allow paddock resting and rotation.
Overall, both the landholders and the Better Burnett team feel the on ground projects have been progressing well.