Catching up with Ang Hammond

Your role - what is it and what does it involve?

I am the Landcare Farming Project Manager.  The Landcare Farming Program (LFP) aims to strengthen the connection between Landcare and Australian agriculture sectors and build agricultural community resilience.  The objective of the LFP is to identify, share and promote awareness and uptake of information and practices for adoption of management practices that improve soil and water health and maintain or increase biodiversity.  The LFP will assist in building the resilience of all Australian producers and their rural communities through improved participation in environmental stewardship, innovative land management practices and validating new research that improves farm productivity and protects the health of our soil, water and biodiversity.  The LFP strategy intends to align Landcare strengths, capacities & local priorities with agriculture RDE&A strategies, BMPs and individual industry sustainability reporting strategies.   

A lot of my work is about listening to producers, being in the paddock with them, understanding what issues and opportunities they face and listening to them.  It is a wonderful job – I feel in a way I am a sort of a Lorax for Primary Producers, in that I can take their message to the organisations we collaborate with and assist with designing effective strategies and programs for our industry.  I am very proud of the Ag industry & really enjoy doing my best to be supportive of the industry as a whole.

What most excites you now regarding the work you do in relation to drought resilience?

Drought resilience is at the forefront of agricultural thinking and rural community health.  Ever since Europeans started to learn how to manage land in Australia to produce food and fibre, we have struggled with understanding and managing the Australian climate in a production agriculture sense and in a human resilience sense.  As Dorothea Mackellar wrote in ‘My Country’ in 1908, “I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains.” The huge climatic variations we are subjected to in Australia particularly affect our rural communities and industries.  So, the work we do at Landcare Farming to support farmers, graziers and their families and communities is multi-faceted.  We are lucky to be able to work with producers to investigate soil, pasture and livestock management systems to promote environmental health to ensure the long-term sustainability of the environment we all depend on for food, fibre, health and happiness.  

A huge part of our work is effectively collaborating with other industry partners, such as the Drought Hubs, to support primary producers and land managers, to better understand how to manage their land and support one another in droughts and flooding rains.

At Landcare Farming we are working with several Landcare Farming groups at improving our soil function, water holding capacity, renovating rangeland to improve rehydration and increase groundcover, and using science to determine best land management practices.  For example:

• Harden Landcare Soil Moisture Probe Project
• Landscape Restoration through Seed Nurseries
• Treating Invasive Native Scrub
• Group Approach to Managing Feral Pigs
• Exclusion Fencing and Land Rehydration

How you and your colleagues work with farmers and the community?

A great example is the work we are doing with the Bubbogullion 100 Landcare group  in the Tamworth region.  The Landcare Farming Program Benchmarking Soils Project is working with farmers to use soil data to establish baseline soil carbon levels which, when combined with farm emissions and reduction information, will support carbon and biodiversity reward program participation.  The Landcare Farming Program Benchmarking Soils Project evolved out of carbon accounting workshops developed to help landholders establish benchmarks for their soil carbon levels and greenhouse gas emissions.  Nine of the original participants progressed to one-on-one sessions to delve deeper into their carbon status, which involved establishing just where their soil carbon levels were at. The group will then explore avenues to improve carbon sequestration – mainly through groundcover and pasture management – while increasing productivity.

Project participant John Stokes, who runs self-replacing Dorper prime lamb enterprise 25 kilometres north Tamworth with his wife Samantha, said he joined the program because improving soil health has multiple benefits to his business. “Firstly, there is the opportunity to increase production through better soil fertility and pasture production,” he said.  “Improving soil carbon could offer us the chance to align with external income streams through ecological monitoring and soil biology consulting.  “And then there is also the chance to value add to our red meat products (through sustainability accreditation and labelling in the supply chain).”  John said Landcare was the ideal vehicle to upskill landholders on carbon management and, at the same time, communicate with science the “on the ground” needs.  “I think farmers are wanting to do as much as they can in this space, but we are waiting on government and science to provide us with meaningful tests and measures we can use,” he said.

For fellow participant Wayne Chaffey, also from the Bubbogullion 100 Landcare group, the project offered a chance to build his understanding about maintaining environmental health and productivity.   “If there is a chance to maximise carbon sequestration on our land, to help the planet, I want to be able to do it,” he said.  “I’m open to thinking holistically and building long-term sustainability rather than quick fixes which ultimately degrade the production potential of the environment.”

The project was delivered in partnership with FarmLab, CSIRO, the SQNNSW Drought Hub, Soil Future Consulting and Optisoil.  The group also explored opportunities for enhancing existing remnant bushland and restoring areas of farmland to participate in biodiversity building programs while benefiting from the gains from improved biodiversity on their own properties.  

While farmers are building their knowledge on soil carbon in the Tamworth Regional Landcare Association Benchmarking Soils Project, they are also learning the value of good data.  Environmental management consultants and soil testing specialists have worked with the project participants to build a picture of exactly what is going on in their soil and how to measure and monitor it.  “‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure’ would be the key takeaway from the two field days we’ve held with the participants,” said Sophie Kennedy-Gordon from FarmLab, who ran the field days with her co-worker Jade Binks. “Giving landholders access to software designed to help streamline the process of soil testing, as well as a platform to help analyse their environmental data is the first step in facilitating further understanding of the opportunities for increasing carbon on their land.”

FarmLab provided Landcare members with an Environmental Farm Assessment tool to help assess the environmental condition of their property. This helped identify possible soil sampling locations. Farmers were also trained in using remote sensing imagery to help understand and monitor natural capital, such as soil carbon levels and biodiversity.  Ned Skehan from OptiSoil supported participants in learning best practice for collecting representative soil samples for testing and how to look for clues in the environment, such as geological history, to build soil knowledge.  “My advice would always be to measure. Without measurement, you don't know what you're dealing with,” Ned said.  “Soil testing seems expensive, but the insights it provides make it an intelligent investment.”  Ned recommends farmers test soil for more than just carbon levels. 

Thoughts on your partnership with the Drought Hub?

The LFP partnership with the Drought Hub has been of huge benefit since we are able to collaborate with both paddock activities (such as the Bubbogullion 100 Landcare group) and program design.  The work in the paddock informs us as we develop effective strategies to improve our abilities to support land management going forward.  The Drought Hub & LFP have been involved in on-ground activities from Tamworth to Ilfracombe and in between.  It is from LFP & the Drought Hub working with landholders in the paddock, listening to their concerns, being involved in identifying strategies to improve their understanding and knowledge of land management, that we can design effective future programs to ensure that we continue to progress as an industry.