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    DAY OUT: From left, Rachel and Sarah Crothers of Warrnambool, Wimmera CMA’s Bryana Bisset and Bindy Lees of West Wimmera Shire enjoy a cuppa and chat.
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    ALL SMILES: From left, Rita Bikins of Black Range, Mary-Ellen Jess of Glenorchy and Rosie Nater of Moyston enjoying Chicks in the Sticks
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    CATCH UP: Buangor’s Katie Sanford with Beau, and Lindy Smith of Horsham.
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    DISCUSSION: Ararat’s Debbie Shea, left, Brim’s Annie Erhardt and Cavendish’s Cal Stewart, right, spend some time in the sun.
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    SPECIAL GUESTS: Wimmera CMA sustainable agriculture facilitator Bronwyn Bant, centre, with guest speakers Fiona Conroy, left, and Cassandra Schefe. Pictures: BRONWYN HASTINGS

AgLife: Chicks in the Sticks rehatched after decade break

By Bronwyn Hastings

A low-emissions farming focus brought women to the latest Chicks in the Sticks event at Moyston last week, where two guest speakers delivered talks from farming and scientific perspectives.

A decade since the last event, a crowd of about 40 women participated in the day at Grampians Park Station, organised by Wimmera Catchment Management Authority.

Wimmera CMA sustainable agriculture facilitator Bronwyn Bant said the concept was born in about 2009, after observing most farming events were male dominated.



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“Way back when we first started Chicks in the Sticks we noticed that often a lot of our events were just attracting the men farmers in our region,” she said.

“We know that women make up a large percentage of our farmers and they’re decision makers as well, so we wanted to make an event for women that was appealing to them.”

Family friendly and ran during school hours, the event has been hosted by women farmers across the Wimmera to showcase a variety of sustainable agricultural practices. 

Ms Bant said last week’s guest speakers, The Cool Soil Initiative principal scientist Cassandra Schefe and Bellarine Peninsula farmer Fiona Conroy, shared their knowledge and practical experience in low-emissions farming. 

“Dr Schefe has worked with many Wimmera farmers in helping them understand their farming systems and soil health through her business Agri-Sci, while Ms Conroy runs a mixed farming enterprise with her husband Cam Nicholson and is using a variety of practices to achieve carbon-neutral status,” Ms Bant said.

Dr Schefe said her specialty was in soil-carbon interactions at fundamental levels, and the connection between farming at a molecular level to global events.

“There’s a lot of perceptions of carbon and emissions being a big impost on agriculture,” she said.

“My world is working with farmers around the fact they’re already doing really well in understanding the fundamental processes that happen with carbon and organic matter on farm and how they’re already doing a lot of the good things.

“This new world of emission reporting and acknowledgement of carbon in the system is really an opportunity for farmers to show how good they are and to tell their story. 

“Australian farming overall has much better practices, sustainability stories and track record compared to a lot of the world – it’s our chance to really shine and to demonstrate that we’ve already done a lot of the heavy lifting in this space.”

Ms Conroy said she had been recording production, emissions, and other factors on her farm for about three decades.

“We’ve got data going back 30 years in terms of soil carbon, soil fertility, animal performance and tree planting,” she said. “We can bring all that together to get a farm carbon account, and we can watch how it changes in good seasons and bad seasons, and hopefully that will give people a bit of an insight on their implications for farm management.”

Ms Conroy said livestock producers faced a lot of challenges because 95 per cent of their emissions came from livestock.

“Eighty-eight per cent of those emissions are in the form of methane, and there is no silver bullets to reduce methane at a farm level, yet,” she said. 

“I suppose what we’ve found is that by improving our soil fertility and our productivity, we’ve managed to reduce our emissions’ intensity.

“Carbon accounting is something we’ve all got to look at doing, because it’s going to be a market requirement, so it’s good that people are out here today learning about it.”

Chicks in the Sticks was delivered with funding support from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water under the Carbon Farming Outreach program. 

Wimmera CMA plans to bring more low emissions farming events to the Wimmera next year.

The entire October 30, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire October, 30, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!