Smart Grazing, Stronger Lands – Building Grazing & Land Management Capacity Across Australia’s Southern Rangelands

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Smart Grazing, Stronger Lands

Lead organisation: Adelaide University

Hub members and partners involved: Southern NSW Innovation Hub, Grower Group Alliance through the South-West WA Hub, South Australian Arid Lands Landscape Board, DustWatch, CSIRO, NSW Local Land Services, Rangelands NRM, Gascoyne Pilbara Rangelands Initiative, Southern Rangelands Pastoral Alliance, and the Goldfields Nullarbor Rangelands Biosecurity Association.

Node: Port Augusta

Focus area: Livestock and fodder management, Soil and land management

Project Category: Cross-hub Projects

Project summary:

Smart Grazing, Stronger Lands aims to support improvements in ground cover, vegetation health and drought resilience across Australia’s southern rangelands.

It focuses on building awareness and skills in best practice climate-smart sustainable agriculture approaches – through adoption of decision-making tools such as satellite-based pasture mapping, new ground cover prediction tools, stocking rate recommendation systems, virtual fencing, walk over weighing systems and more.

The project brings together Regional NRM, grower group, and community organisations to engage pastoralists and land managers through tailored, locally driven demonstrations, training, peer-to-peer learning and expert guidance.

SA Project Lead: SA Drought Hub
NSW Project Lead: Southern NSW Innovation Hub
WA Project Lead: Grower Group Alliance – Southwest WA Drought Hub

Project description:

Despite large investments in the development of climate-smart decision support tools and technologies, on-farm adoption has been slow due to time constraints, lack of confidence in technology use, and the need for hands-on support.

The Smart Grazing, Stronger Lands projects these shortcomings directly, by engaging with pastoralists and land managers in their districts and combining on-ground demonstrations together with targeted training and guidance.

Covering 1.5 million square kilometres of Australia’s southern rangelands, the project leverages the reach and capacity of Regional NRM, grower group, and community organisations to share new tools, techniques and knowledge with rangelands farmers.

Key achievements and results:

Two-page project information flyer: Download PDF

SA Project funding announcement: Smart Grazing, Stronger Lands project funded to boost rangeland resilience

NSW media release: Smart Grazing, Stronger Lands project funded to boost rangeland resilience – Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub

Interview with Tony Randall, SA Drought Hub Knowledge Broker: ABC Country Hour (from 17.28mins)

Further information:

Project partner sites: