Evolving grazing research
New Acland Mine moves trial to fifth year
ACLAND Pastoral farm manager Steve Erbacher has been watching the grazing trials taking place on New Hope’s rehabilitated mined land for some time now.
But never has he watched so keenly as now, with weaners bred, born and raised at Acland Pastoral Company soon to enter the trial for the first time. Started in 2013, the grazing trial is run independently by livestock consultants Outcross and takes place on rehabilitated mined land at New Hope’s New Acland Mine north-west of Oakey. Now in its fifth year, the trial has used cattle purchased from a sole black angus breeder. Until now.
“What we are doing this time is using our own cattle that have been conceived, born and raised here at Acland Pastoral Company,” Mr Erbacher said.
“They are completely acclimatised to this environment, they have only ever known this land – this is their home, so it will be good to see how that goes.”
The weaners will begin the trial’s induction process by late October, early November.
“They’ll be weighed and given a trial-tag colour, and also given their own identification number for the trial,” he said.
Trial cattle are grazed in paddocks not far from coal operations, and drink recycled water, which is pumped from Toowoomba Regional Council’s Wetalla water treatment plant. Although the rehabilitated mined land is not irrigated or treated with fertilisers, trial cattle are thoroughly checked for any traces of contaminants after they exit the trial and are processed through the abattoir.
Cattle growth rates are recorded throughout the study, which is run in part by the University of Southern Queensland. With the trial is now in its final year, Mr Erbacher stressed New Hope would continue the research if they felt there was more to be learned from the study.
“We are still getting good data out the trial,” he said.
“The rehabilitated mined land is performing well and we are starting to see good levels of consistency that shows cattle on the rehabilitated mined land are performing as
well or better than cattle in the unmined land.
“The first few years of the trial were basically to prove that grazing could be done on the rehabilitated mine land. And now, in these later years, it’s about proving
sustainability and viability.” Introducing their own herd to the trial reflects Acland Pastoral Company’s transition from a predominately backgrounding property, to a breeding block.
“The breeders have been a recent introduction to Acland Pastoral Company… previously we were more of a backgrounding and farming operation,” he said. At the moment, there are about 2200 breeding cows and 77 bulls on the property.