The project has been running for 15 months across four landholder groups in Castlemaine, Talbot, Normanville and Raywood.
These communities are given grants to run workshops and implement on-farm demonstrations of regenerative agricultural practices.
Planned paddock demonstrations have been putting the learnings from soil testing into practice, to develop confidence in implementing the practices required to increase soil carbon and protect the soil from wind erosion.
Surveys show 62 per cent of landholder participants are considering trialling practices such as cover crops, multi-species crops and grazing management to increase ground cover, to be supported in future years of the project.
Agriculture Victoria and industry leaders have been participating in events to add knowledge to the project.
The project is supported by North Central CMA with funding from the Federal Government's National Landcare Program.
The project focus for each group is:
● Castlemaine: Soil and plant health, baseline soil testing and demonstrations for improving pasture cover and management.
● Talbot: Reviewing results of cover crop trials and working with bio-stimulants, bio-fertilisers, compost and worm products.
● Normanville: Year one demonstration results of chicken manure compared with varying rates of nitrogen and phosphorus across high and low-yielding areas.
● Raywood: Reviewing results of multi-species cover crop trials sown into existing lucerne paddocks, soil testing and establishing a grazing fodder shrubs demonstration to fill feed gaps.
To get involved, or for further information, email project manager Felicity Harrop at: felicity.harrop@nccma.vic.gov.au
