Dowerin Field Day award 2013... Sustainable Best Farm Practises

Bill Davey principal with Plantation and Landcare Services with this year Dowerin Field day award

Dowerin Field Days

It was great to get the recognition of over 28 years working with landholders and farmers across WA winning the company offering the Sustainable Farm Practises award. The key to this prize was the ability to incorporate fodder shrubs across the landscape and throughout all the landcare projects. Increasing the profitability on marginal or poor yielding soil types incorporating trees and shrubs in the areas where water table management is critical is the key to dryland salinity control.
As mentioned in my acceptance speech the federal and state funding has decreased somewhat so the landcare dollar from the farmers need to be well spent...farmers and landholders are always looking to add value and thriving for a return on your investment, even if it is long term.
The display at the field days of lots of project photo's of before and afters across the state helps promote the whole concept of making landcare profitable. With over 28 years working with landholders prospective clients get excited when they can see and visualise the end results. Many farmers have expressed interested in getting projects underway for the 2014 season.

Offset planting for Main Roads West Aust

I took a drive from Perth to Perenjori last week, winding through Bindoon’s orange orchards and the intense green of the emerging wheatcrops.

While our agriculture showed the diversity of food growing in WA it was the beauty of the mid winter wildflowers, especially the brilliant yellow of our wattles, that captured my attention.

My drive was to check out a landcare project revegetating roadsides near Perenjori where Plantation and Landcare were planting out some 150,000 seedlings of local area native plants including hakeas, melaleucas, small eucalyptus mallees and wattles.

These seedlings, like the wildflowers by the roadside, survive only on the rain that falls from the sky and were chosen to create a relaxed yet colourful landscape that will enhance the drive through the central mid west Wheatbelt.

Wattles are one of the first plants to flower in winter and part of a big family containing about 900 species ranging from big trees to small shrubs.

They are a legume with roots that adds nitrogen to the soil and are an early coloniser of disturbed sites and post fire regeneration. Most wattles have phyllodes rather than true leaves which is an adaptation to their dry environment. They are beloved garden plants and most have fluffy yellow pom pom flowers and many have edible seed.

One of the most useful small shrubs flowering now from Ravensthorpe to Geraldton is prickly moses (Acacia pulchella), which grows 0.5m to 2m high and provides a protected habitat for birds as it has small spines along its stems.

The revegetation team’s wattles included the summer scented wattle (Acacia rostelifera), a shrub from 2m to 5m, dead finish (Acacia tetragonaphylla) a spreading, prickly shrub growing 2m to 4m tall, Acacia multispicata a dense to wispy shrub from 0.2 to 2m tall and Orange Wattle (Acacia saligna) a dense, often weeping shrub from 1.5m to 6m tall.

I’m looking forward to driving back that way late next winter when I expect the roadside to be a sea of yellow and green.

Aday in the life of a tree planter

http://open.abc.net.au/posts/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-tree-planter-05ov8pf

Attached a great little video of what Plantation and Landcare are up to. Taken from ther Moresby Ranges near Geraldton Western Australia.
Stage 1 of a re-egetation of a whole farm along the ranges. Bio diversity planting to on sell as CO2 offsets within the carbon credit markets world wide

Site Preparation in Australian low rainfall zones www.palservices.com.au

Like seeding a crop or building a house the site preparation or foundations is the key to a successful project. Planting trees is no different. Ripping the ground before the opening rains is the key to good strike rates and summer survival. Ripping enables the opening rains to penetrate the sub soils. Mounding then through s the top soils into the this rip and adds a great medium to plant trees in. Mounding also elevates the trees from waterlogging in those wet low lying regions.www.palservices.com.au
Given the dry start to the 2012 season site preparation is even more important to get native trees and shrubs established in low rainfall zones.www.palservices.com.au

More information contact Bill Davey: bdavey@palservices.com.au. 0892718725 0429961770

Letter to new clients 2012

January 16 2012                                                

Landcare planning & trees for 2012

Dear  

I hope Christmas was relaxing and that you managed to take a well-earned break.  For many clients it has been a testing year! Here’s hoping that 2012 will deliver the rain when we need it.  A positive is that there should be sub soil moisture for the coming season.

Last year we met up at either Dowerin, Newdegate or Mingenew field days and briefly discussed trees and/or landcare. This is just a quick letter to let you know that I have started my travels around the state assessing this year’s projects and inspecting last season’s projects.

This involves a general over view of the property ie cropping rotations, stock, paddock management and the farmers personal needs. These factors are very important in establishing a plan that can be integrated into your system and one that is practical and works. From here we draw up a plan of attack and I can cost the project out for you, detailing procedure, schedules and specie types to meet your long-term objectives.

Our services are outlined in the attached brochure or www.palservices.com.au. We offer a full contractual tree planting service, ensuring the trees are planted on time with minimal red tape. We charge a rate per tree, which includes all services, labour, trees, machinery, weed control and back up maintenance inspections.

Those with livestock or thinking about returning to livestock should consider planting saltbush. This tough shrub will continue to be popular as it converts unproductive soils, creek lines, low yielding paddocks or wasteland into productive fodder reserves. A fodder reserve in those leaner feed years pays huge dividends as on on-farm supplement feed. There is minimal management and it is relatively cheap to establish.

Although funding is very limited in these economic times, many current clients have been successful in receiving some assistance.  Once I have assessed your issues I will be able to see if there is funding available in the coming funding allocations. You would appreciate this funding has fine print and many clients opt to chip away at their program independently.

If you have neighbours who may be interested in PALS services or if they have landcare issues which also affects your side of the fence, let me know and I may be able to help.

If you are going to be away for any length of time in the next  2 - 6 weeks please let me know and I will coordinate my travels around this.

I am looking forward to catching up for a cuppa and start the planning for 2012.  If you have any immediate queries contact me on the above numbers or bdavey@palservices.com.au

Yours sincerely

Bill Davey,

Plantation and Landcare Services