The latest news…

RCS subsidy

RCS subsidy

Always being on the learning curve is making sure your business isn’t standing still. Burdekin graziers who complete one of these RCS courses will be eligible for a $500 subsidy:

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Leaky weir remedies

Leaky weir remedies

Have you got small gullies continuing to creep? NQ Dry Tropics’ Healing Country team can help landholders tackle small-scale erosion before it develops into a bigger problem.

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Monitors continue good work

Monitors continue good work

A community-based water quality monitoring group established in 2019 continues to prove its worth to scientists, collecting data on how much sediment and nutrient run-off is flowing into the Great Barrier Reef from the Bowen, Broken, Bogie (BBB) catchment, around Bowen and Collinsville.

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Integrated weed control

Integrated weed control

LDC’s grazing land management activity area continues supporting the BBB community to develop a region-wide integrated approach to weed management to help improve healthy and productive landscapes.

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Optiweigh cluster

Optiweigh cluster

A BBB cluster group is being formed to use a Optiweigh unit to demonstrate the value of in-paddock cattle weighing systems for improved monitoring animal weights, optimising compliance with target market weight specifications and for improved labour efficiency. 

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Two important tenets

Two important tenets

LDC is continuing to encourage non-graziers who manage or use land in the BBB to get involved with the project so it can truly be a whole-of-catchment effort.

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Belmore work complete

Belmore work complete

Remediation work carried out at Belmore Downs on seven active gullies covering 19ha is now complete. It’s been a big job and it will have a big impact.

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Herding Change wrap up

Herding Change wrap up

This two-day event wraps up the Herding Change project and includes a Christine Jones soil health workshop, tour of AIMS, a day on the reefs around Orpheus and Pelorus islands.

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LDC 2024 celebration

LDC 2024 celebration

We reckon it’s time to throw another shindig. Join us for a gourmet barbecue, a few drinks, and a whole heap of banter and laughs at the Workers Club in Collinsville on Wednesday, 15 April.

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Data collection fun

Data collection fun

Portable laser scanners, such as handheld 3D scanners and mobile lidar systems, have transformed the 3D mapping industry. Their advantage over typical 3D mapping technology includes mobility, flexibility to be used in a wide range of environments and industries, and are easy to use.

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Birriah planning success

Birriah planning success

During the past six months several Birriah families have been working together to develop a Caring for Country Plan at a series of workshops held in Townsville, Collinsville and Ravenswood. The most recent workshop in mid-January attracted more than 35 participants, demonstrating a high level of interest and commitment.  

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Cultural fire for grazing landscapes

Cultural fire for grazing landscapes

NQ Dry Tropics’ Cultural Fire Management for Grazing Landscapes project is demonstrating how cultural fire can improve the health and productivity of grazing land by controlling invasive weeds and bringing back native pastures.

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EOY Sugar industry function

EOY Sugar industry function

There was plenty of festive fun and laughter at the Burdekin Theatre last week as nearly 60 growers, extension officers and service providers attended the NQ Dry Tropics End Of Year Sugar Celebration.

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Community Planting Day

Community Planting Day

More than 30 participants did their bit to protect sand dunes at Wunjunga, at a Community Planting Day in December, 2023. In little more than two hours, they planted 900 native seedlings to stabilise the dunes and protect the access road from storm surges and future extreme weather events. 

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Hands-on result

Hands-on result

Barry Collett’s unique position as owner operator of an earthworks business, and manager of Todsure, the family business, meant he could take advantage of his experience to undertake the remediation works and subsequent maintenance works. 

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Regaining land

Regaining land

Earth works were aimed at halting the progress of a linear hillslope gully, about 15m wide and 0.8m deep, consisting of a series of actively eroding gullies. Remediation involved the construction of a 250m long diversion bank and a 20m water spreading structure at the outlet of the bank.  

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Manage dry times

Manage dry times

Running a profitable business while ensuring sufficient end of dry season ground cover has been at the core of Dino and Norma Penna’s grazing enterprise since moving to Kangaroo Hills, south west of Ingham, in 1998.

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Slow the flow

Slow the flow

Erosion repair works were undertaken at a multi-branched gully in black soil. Importantly for this site, the property boundary is less than 30m up catchment from the most up-catchment gully head.

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Tried and true

Tried and true

Erosion repair works aimed to halt an active 2m deep gully located at the base of a small hill with head cuts slowly making their way up-slope. The soil is a sodic duplex with 20cm grey topsoil and deep dispersive mottled red and yellow clay subsoil derived from decomposing granite. 

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Real collaboration

Real collaboration

An important tenet of NQ Dry Tropics’ extension program — collaboration with key stakeholders, including landholders, to work towards solutions for NRM outcomes. It leads to deeper insights, fresher perspectives and delivers results.

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Healing gullies

Healing gullies

NQ Dry Tropics’ Healing Country team can help landholders tackle small-scale erosion before it develops into a bigger problem. The team uses non-mechanical methods where fragile soils mean machines aren’t the best option.

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Virtual fencing

Virtual fencing

NQ Dry Tropics has been awarded a Future Drought Fund grant to conduct a five-year trial into the efficacy of drought-resilient grazing strategies in the Burdekin region.

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Kickstart GRASS

Kickstart GRASS

The Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) program is aimed at helping beef producers improve areas of poor or degraded land condition and to develop and implement a tailor-made action plan for land management.

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LDC in a nutshell

LDC in a nutshell

Between 2017-2020, the Burdekin Major Integrated Project (Landholders Driving Change) completed 25 gully remediation projects, five large-scale and 20 small-scale sites.

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Gully sweet spot

Gully sweet spot

Sick and tired of seeing topsoil disappear down gullies and creeping gully heads gobble up productive land, graziers have been working hard to fix them. The trick is finding the sweet spot — low cost interventions that stop further erosion and enable grazing land to be reclaimed.

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Monitoring works

Monitoring works

CSIRO produces an annual report to present the monitoring results for control and treatment gully rehabilitation projects on four properties in the BBB catchment area, on behalf of the Landholders Driving Change project. 

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Plan for LDC 2

Plan for LDC 2

The Queensland Government has committed a further $3 million for the LDC project in the Bowen Broken Bogie (BBB) catchment which includes the Bowen and Collinsville region.

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Real-life science

Real-life science

Community science validates sediment reduction modellingJames Cook University TropWATER’s Dr Stephen Lewis and NQ Dry Tropics Drought Resilience Coordinator Marc McConnell told an audience of scientists how community involvement in a water quality monitoring...

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Belmore gullies

Belmore gullies

Remediation of seven active gullies covering 19ha on Belmore Downs, near Collinsville, has been completed. Until this large-scale intervention, the gullies were sending an estimated 4617 tonnes of sediment downstream every year and expanding at an accelerated rate.

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Small-scale repair

Small-scale repair

Scottville grazier Graham Gordon is undertaking small-scale gully works to slow water on his property to improve soil and pasture health, and reduce sediment loss.

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Accelerated Grazing

Accelerated Grazing

The Accelerated Grazing Support in the BBB (Landholders Driving Change) project, in partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), is an investment of $5 million, to improve the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef through targeted water quality improvements.

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Regenerative ranching

Regenerative ranching

Never stop learning and don’t stop asking questions. This was a key message many Burdekin graziers came away with after attending a regenerative grazing workshop near Bowen.

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Zippas seal the deal

Zippas seal the deal

StoolZippas, funded through NQ Dry Tropics’ Lower Burdekin Major Grants project have improved the effectiveness of fertiliser applied by participating cane farmers. StoolZippas are designed to ensure fertiliser and pesticide applied during routine farming operations, are completely covered by soil.

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Sugar Innovation Field Day

Sugar Innovation Field Day

Lower Burdekin cane growers heard about the “latest and greatest” innovations available to improve efficiency, profitability and sustainability at a Field Day on Aaron Linton’s Home Hill farm recently.

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Working Dogs

Working Dogs

An attentive cohort of about 30 people attended a four-day Advanced Livestock Handling and Working Dog School with renowned dog trainer Neil McDonald in Townsville in October, 2023. It’s a bit of a misnomer — it is a school for working dogs, but they’re last on the list that need the education necessary to be able to move mobs of cattle in a calm, controlled manner.

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CAMM group in GRASS

CAMM group in GRASS

Bryce Camm was a dinkum bush kid who grew up on Natal Downs south of Charters Towers… riding horses, chasing cows and enjoying nature. As for his parents’ grazing business, he remembers a crew of eight was employed to maintain the 55,000ha family property.

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2023 Photo Competition

2023 Photo Competition

The Burdekin Dry Tropics is unquestionably a beautiful part of the world. It has inspired us to celebrate the region through a photography competition. We’re looking for amazing standalone images that capture ‘our environment’, ‘our people’ and ‘our work’ to show off all the dry tropics offers.

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Natural balance crucial

Natural balance crucial

Jervoise Station grazier Kerry Jonsson is keen to fight a fire. It’s in an unproductive patch of softwood scrub in a remote part of the property that’s difficult to access. The fire hasn’t started yet, but she knows doing nothing means it will happen.

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Lamington Park

Lamington Park

As one farm gate closes, another opens. Manager of Lamington Park for more than a decade, Sam and wife Genevieve Clarke are moving onto bigger and better things… almost 50 times bigger at a beef cattle stud near Eidsvold.

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Landholder survey

Landholder survey

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) and Carbon Accounting (CA) aren’t just buzzwords, they’re potential opportunities for landholders… and for Natural Resource Management groups to help landholders realise that potential.

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Spyglass Station Extension Convention

Spyglass Station Extension Convention

The North’s graziers stand to benefit most from a collaborative training event at the recent Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ (DAF) research property, Spyglass Station north of Charters Towers.

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Lower Burdekin Water Quality Grants

Lower Burdekin Water Quality Grants

Grants of up to a cap of $30,000 are available to Lower Burdekin cane growers as a 50 per cent rebate on equipment or agronomic services, or both. While there are qualifying conditions, the primary requirement for any application is that there is a demonstrable reduction in Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN) leaving the farm as a result of that project.

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Giru growers mobilise to control feral pigs

Giru growers mobilise to control feral pigs

Queensland’s estimated three to six million feral pigs cost the agricultural industry around $80 million per year. The majority are found in the State’s north, and impact cane farmers through crop damage, weed spread, soil erosion, and damage to infrastructure such as irrigation, fencing and dams.

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Clusters tackle pig problem

Clusters tackle pig problem

Landholders from Alpha and Clermont have formed cluster groups as feral pig numbers and control costs surge. The aim is to enhance feral pig control activities of the Isaac and Barcaldine regional councils within the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM region. Landholders have been engaged through workshops to establish cluster groups in three areas.

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Starlink trial

Starlink trial

NQ Dry Tropics is trialling a new satellite internet service, which could provide connectivity for field officers working in areas with limited, or no internet service.

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Processing facilities tour

Processing facilities tour

A group of North Queensland graziers had an opportunity to learn more about the other side of the beef supply chain during a recent visit to JBS Meatworks and Reid River Export Depot.

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Manage land and cattle will thrive

Manage land and cattle will thrive

Ulcanbah Station grazier Robert Hollingsworth well-remembers his “light bulb” moment when he decided to concentrate on managing land rather than cattle. That moment came during a KLR Marketing course in 2016 when he realised his business was about more than just cattle.

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Ongoing gully maintenance

Ongoing gully maintenance

Between 2017-2020, the Burdekin Major Integrated Project (Landholders Driving Change) completed 25 gully remediation projects (five large-scale and 20 small-scale sites).

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GRASS — Kirkland Downs

A little mothering from Nature did the trickA little mothering from Nature did the trickKirkland Downs graziers Stacey Kirkwood and Ian Collins.Kirkland Downs graziers Stacey Kirkwood and Ian Collins have never been so happy to be wrong. They have a lush new...

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Soil Fact Sheet #10

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #9

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #8

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #7

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #6

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #5

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #3

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Soil Fact Sheet #2

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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SoilFactSheet #1

Focus on the soil Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral...

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Prime Cuts photographs

The 2022 year in pictures: 24 Workshops; 540 attendees. Four projects were involved in activities: Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions; Landholders Driving Change; Herding Change Through Grassroots Practice and Stomping Out Sediment.

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Annual Review 2022

Annual Review 2022

North Queensland farmers are continuing to improve land condition, boost productivity and reduce environmental impacts, according to new figures published in NQ Dry Tropics’ Year In Review 2021-22.

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Soil fact sheets

Soil fact sheets

Many modern farmers focus first and foremost on the foundation of their enterprise: the soil. Having an understanding of the health of the soil, the different types of soil and their properties, the soil’s ability to accept and hold water is integral to running a profitable primary production business.

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RISF June 2022

RISF June 2022

Agenda for the Paddock To Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting program’s Burdekin Science Forum, a part of the Conversation Series.

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Rubbervine

Rubbervine

A rubbervine infestation so thick it threatens to pull down 100-year-old trees will be tackled by a united trio of grazing properties along Maryvale Creek.

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Northern Beef Producers Expo – Top Rail Forums

NORTHERN BEEF PRODUCERS' EXPO TOP RAIL FORUMS   Charters Towers, 3-4 JuneNQ Dry Tropics is proudly hosting the second Top Rail Forums at this year's Northern Beef Producers Expo. A range of speakers including leading Australian producers, scientists and advisors will...

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Animal Health Workshop

Animal Health Workshop

More than 70 graziers, industry representatives and extension officers brushed up on the latest knowledge in animal health at a series of workshops held across the Burdekin region in March, co-hosted by NQ Dry Tropics and the Department of Agriculture (DAF).

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Mapping helps planning

Mapping helps planning

More than 40 graziers have taken part in workshops held across the Burdekin region to learn how to use Queensland Globe and Avenza Maps mobile app

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Prevent fish kills

Prevent fish kills

Heavy rainfall combined with hot sunny days could increase the chances of fish kills in the lower Burdekin’s creeks and wetlands.

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Removing ferals

Removing ferals

More than 600 feral animal pests have been culled from cattle properties north of the Basalt Wall near Charters Towers. Pigs, deer and feral horses accounted for most of the animals removed from properties during pest management campaigns across two cluster groups.

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Planting protects dunes

Planting protects dunes

A major revegetation project kicking off in January will improve the condition of sand dunes on the lower Burdekin’s most popular beach.

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Innovations bus tour

Innovations bus tour

A guided bus tour of three grazing properties along the Flinders Highway could be the catalyst for landholders to redouble efforts to change grazing regimes.

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2021 EOY Sugar function

2021 EOY Sugar function

The crop was all but harvested and crushed and the excellent early rain made it too wet to work, so Burdekin cane growers were keen to welcome in the festive season with an early Christmas dinner recently.

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ICPA barbecue

ICPA barbecue

Kids from all over rural North Queensland will be heading to Charters Towers this weekend to participate in the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) ‘Fit for Rural Futures’ camp.

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Bird’s eye view

Bird’s eye view

Drones are giving NQ Dry Tropics’ field staff greater reach, more information and a new perspective on land condition and grazing patterns as they support graziers to repair degraded or eroding land.

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Wongaloo Wetlands Open Day

Wongaloo Wetlands Open Day

Nearly 400 North Queenslanders had a unique opportunity to learn about the spectacular Wongaloo Wetlands, which have been described as the east…

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Cane Innovation grants – 2021

Cane Innovation grants – 2021

BURDEKIN cane farmers involved in a project targeting innovative farming practices have succeeded in making spectacular savings in the amount of water and power needed to grow their crops.

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Big rocks protect beach scrub

Big rocks protect beach scrub

Rocks weighing more than 650 tonnes were recently installed along King’s Beach Road to protect fragile beach scrub, mangroves and saltpans from damage caused by 4WD vehicles.

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Funding boost for work in the BBB

Funding boost for work in the BBB

Bowen and Collinsville graziers are encouraged to get involved with a multi-million dollar natural resource management project to enhance land condition and productivity that will help improve water quality outcomes for local waterways, and the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

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New project to help Burdekin landholders

New project to help Burdekin landholders

Graziers in the Upper and East Burdekin catchments have an opportunity to get involved in a new extension project to support the adoption of land management practices to boost productivity and profitability, build soils and improve pasture health and enhance biodiversity.

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Grazing Science Forum to discuss regional water quality projects

Grazing Science Forum to discuss regional water quality projects

NQ Dry Tropics is hosting a Grazing Regional Integrated Science Forum to bring together local grazing extension officers, government and science representatives to discuss the implementation of the Paddock to Reef (P2R) Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program (Paddock to Reef program) in the Burdekin region.

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Cane Innovation grants – 2021

Farm transformation

Home Hill cane grower Joe Linton has operated the farm where he grew up for more than 50 years and he has always tried to ride the first wave of every innovation in the industry.

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Drones fly in agriculture

Drones fly in agriculture

PEOPLE who work with cattle will be able to muster using a drone, but even the most skilled drone pilots with no cattle nous will fail. That’s the steadfast opinion of veteran helicopter and drone pilot Lyle Gillham

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Education key to moving cattle calmly and safely

Education key to moving cattle calmly and safely

THE workshops conducted by Neil McDonald at his Livestock Handling and Working Dog School are all about educating graziers to  develop a calm, safe routine for shifting cattle. He has a strict priority in the way he goes about delivering that education.

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Help to restore degraded land

Help to restore degraded land

AN NQ Dry Tropics project is helping Amelia Downs grazier Jane Weir to restore degraded land along a river front on her 20,000ha property. The Linking Landholders to Frontage Country project, funded by the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Investment Program — will help her to remedy a large and long-standing erosion problem in the Bottom River paddock, one of 32 paddocks on the property.

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GRASS plan boost

GRASS plan boost

CAERPHILLY Station graziers Mick Duckett and Emma Robinson have some great ideas about how to improve productivity and land condition on their 59,000ha property 200km south of Charters Towers.

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The ‘show’ must go on

The ‘show’ must go on

AS the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”. To help ensure safety in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, NQ Dry Tropics has cancelled workshops, field days, and all other face to face events until at least 1 June.

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Shutterbugs, train your lenses

Shutterbugs, train your lenses

NQ Dry Tropics is on the hunt for photos featuring beautiful landscapes and hard working, salt-of-the-earth people in the Bowen and Collinsville region. This is the second year the organisation is running a photography competition through its Landholders Driving Change (LDC) project.

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Power of peer-to-peer learning

Power of peer-to-peer learning

AN enthusiastic “mob” of North Queensland graziers is gaining an appreciation of the power of peer-to-peer support as they adopt new grazing and pasture management practices on their properties.

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Growers raise a glass to celebrate 2019 achievements

Growers raise a glass to celebrate 2019 achievements

MORE than 70 cane growers, extension staff, contractors and suppliers were hosted by NQ Dry Tropics at an End Of Year celebration in the Burdekin Theatre this week. Sustainable Agriculture Manager at NQ Dry Tropics Rob Hunt said there was plenty to celebrate.

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Burdekin property planning takes a front seat

Burdekin property planning takes a front seat

IT was Benjamin Franklin who said: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Eight Burdekin extension officers on a learning journey to support graziers develop land-based property management plans focused on water quality and ecology are definitely planning to succeed.

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Basalt wall erosion threatens highway

Basalt wall erosion threatens highway

THE Commonwealth and Queensland governments’ Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) will help to prevent expensive repairs by averting a disastrous landscape change that could threaten a section of the Lynd Highway.

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Changes clear at LDC midway point

Changes clear at LDC midway point

THE NQ Dry Tropics’ Landholders Driving Change (LDC) project has reached the halfway point.It is piloting land management and repair approaches at a catchment scale, evaluating their effectiveness in improving water quality and long-term sustainable land management.

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Changing the landscape with soil health

Changing the landscape with soil health

GRAZIERS in the Bowen, Collinsville Ayr and Eungella regions have delved deeper into soil health with two of the best in the ‘soil health’ business – internationally renowned soil ecologist and founder of Amazing Carbon Dr Christine Jones, and agricultural ecologist David Hardwick, of Soil Land Food.

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Central Queensland funding boost

Central Queensland funding boost

Extension providers, landcare groups and primary producers in the Central Highlands area will have the chance to increase their skills while learning from each other and industry experts, thanks to a series of upcoming projects worth around $50,000.

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Cochineals to the rescue

Cochineals to the rescue

An insect used to make dyes and food colouring has been employed to destroy an infestation of drooping prickly pear in a patch of threatened Beach Scrub near Bowen.

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Digging in for good health

Digging in for good health

SOIL health and tips on managing land to achieve good healthy soil will be the subject of a series of up to five workshops conducted in North Queensland by soils specialist David Hardwick.

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Graziers make a change for the better

Graziers make a change for the better

MOST people find change uncomfortable. Grazing Naturally advocate Dick Richardson revels in it. He believes change is the keenest tool he has as a land manager, particularly in a grazing setting.

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Graziers get Reefwise to protect land and business

Graziers get Reefwise to protect land and business

BURDEKIN graziers will be supported to boost productivity and improve water quality flowing to the Great Barrier Reef, as part of the recently-launched Reefwise Grazing of Burdekin Rangelands project. The two-year project will work with 12 properties to improve landscape function and business performance in a challenging climate, and is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

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Agricultural professionals learn to flourish as influential leaders

Agricultural professionals learn to flourish as influential leaders

RENOWNED Australian behavioural scientist Allan Parker, OAM, is guiding agricultural professionals through an accelerated program to learn how to excel as influential leaders. With an emphasis on frameworks and techniques to help broaden perspectives in family and business negotiations, 44 participants completed two days of theory and practical scenarios around conversation, conflict resolution, questioning and body language.

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Managing breeders for profit

Managing breeders for profit

A take-home message for graziers who attended a herd management and pregnancy testing workshop at Glenden Station, near Glenden: if you want to develop a good maternal herd, cull hard and cull consistently. Earlier this month, nine graziers from near Glenden and Collinsville took part in a NQ Dry Tropics’ Landholders Driving Change two-day workshop, led by Dr Ian Braithwaite, a cattle veterinarian with more than 30 years experience.

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Burdekin cane growers meet AIMS scientists

Burdekin cane growers meet AIMS scientists

LOWER Burdekin cane growers have met face to face with scientists who are monitoring water quality in the Great Barrier Reef as part of the Marine Monitoring Program. The NQ Dry Tropics event, supported by the Australian and Queensland governments, gave scientists an opportunity to learn about the issues growers faced as they embraced practice change – and the growers had no shortage of questions on the science.  

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Conserving Brigalow corridors in the Burdekin

Conserving Brigalow corridors in the Burdekin

Conserving Brigalow corridors in the Burdekin Land managers in the Northern Brigalow Belt region are working to conserve and protect brigalow threatened ecological community corridors to help conserve wildlife, specifically endangered species. The NQ Dry Tropics’...

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Collaborate to benefit landholders and the environment

Collaborate to benefit landholders and the environment

NQ Dry Tropics is focused on its people and building cross-program collaboration to work towards a common goal – to partner with the organisation’s stakeholders to create connected and functioning landscapes. Recently, 16 staff across three program areas – Sustainable Agriculture, Strategy and Partnerships and Landholders Driving Change  – attended a masterclass with industry specialists Brian Wehlburg (Inside Outside Management), Dr Christine Jones (Amazing Carbon) and Dick Richardson (Grazing Naturally).

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Minimising grazing impact on stream frontage pastures

Minimising grazing impact on stream frontage pastures

NQ Dry Tropics is working with landholders in the Upper Burdekin catchment to find ways to manage grazing pressure to maintain productive frontage pastures and minimise impacts on waterways and wetlands. The Linking Burdekin landholders to their frontage country for vegetation, and soil quality gains project, funded by the Natural Resources Investment Program, is taking a ‘ground-up’ approach that combines landholders’ knowledge with the latest scientific research to develop and trial solutions designed to remove social, financial and technical barriers to practice change.

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Water monitoring helps protect wetlands

Water monitoring helps protect wetlands

PREVENTING runoff makes good business sense for cane farmers in North Queensland’s Lower Burdekin region, and with internationally significant wetlands and the Great Barrier Reef on their doorstep, it makes good environmental sense too. NQ Dry Tropics’ Connecting Burdekin Cane Farmers To Their Local Wetlands project supported a group of farmers located near Lilliesmere Lagoon, Ayr, and Horseshoe Lagoon, Giru, to monitor their runoff and improve their irrigation and nutrient efficiency.

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Use natural tools to develop a “fit for purpose” landscape

Use natural tools to develop a “fit for purpose” landscape

THE best tool to develop a fit for purpose grazing landscape was the animal for which the pasture was intended, according to renowned regenerative grazing expert Dick Richardson. Speaking at a workshop designed to coach graziers in pasture management and grazing planning, Mr Richardson said nature provided the tools to “inoculate” land with desirable pasture, and those tools were the same animals that were going to be grazed there.

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Leadership program for local graziers

Leadership program for local graziers

A LEADERSHIP program, developed specifically for graziers in the Bowen and Collinsville region, has kicked off. Thirteen local producers have signed up to the program that has been designed by NQ Dry Tropics’ Landholders Driving Change (LDC) project.

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Learning how to build healthy soil

Learning how to build healthy soil

Soil is an important asset for every farmer, and Central Queensland graziers now have a greater understanding of soil health and soil-building practices thanks to a six-month soils extension and training program that wrapped up last week.

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Taking stock – pasture management is key

Taking stock – pasture management is key

The Landholders Driving Change (LDC) grazier support program for 2019 kicked off with 40 producers attending a Taking Stock – Managing Pastures and Productivity Day at Weetalaba Station, near Collinsville last month.

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Finding common ground on how to prevent erosion

Finding common ground on how to prevent erosion

PREVENTING and managing erosion isn’t just an issue for graziers, but one for all land managers including utilities, mines, local councils and government departments. Through its Landholders Driving Change project, NQ Dry Tropics is facilitating cross-sector collaboration…

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Whoa boys stand up to monsoon at 6 Mile Creek Station

Whoa boys stand up to monsoon at 6 Mile Creek Station

A series of erosion control measures installed at a grazing property south west of Home Hill have held firm despite nearly record monsoonal rainfall during February. Last September, whoa boys – a type of diversion bank – were installed along 14 km of roads throughout...

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Big year ahead for cane projects in the Lower Burdekin

Big year ahead for cane projects in the Lower Burdekin

It promises to be a busy 2019 for NQ Dry Tropics and its project partners in the Lower Burdekin, with several initiatives continuing to support cane growers to implement practices that improve water quality and their bottom line. NQ Dry Tropics’ Sugarcane Team Leader...

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Pest Advisory Forum

Pest Advisory Forum

Pest forum helps Burdekin community tackle unwanted species More than 65 people including sugar growers, scientists, property owners and other interested community members, attended the Dry Tropics Pest Advisory Forum at the Ayr Showgrounds, to learn more about how to...

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