Projects

Results: A key Australian Wool Innovation (AWI)-funded program, Land Water and Wool (LWW), has boosted productivity and benefited the environment, according to an independent evaluation of the six-year, $40 million program.

AWI Chair Wal Merriman said LWW equipped woolgrowers with the knowledge and skills to better manage natural resources by linking growers with a comprehensive NRM knowledge bank.

Key benefits to growers and the wider community were productivity improvements due to changes in grazing strategies and pasture management; and water quality and biodiversity improvements.

“Agtrans Research’s cost-benefit analysis clearly shows that the involvement of woolgrowers in the subprograms and networks developed was an important outcome from the project,” Mr Merriman said.

“This was instrumental in enhancing current and future adoption and in ensuring outputs from the subprogram were in an ‘adoption friendly’ format.”

The evaluation estimated a benefit:cost ratio for the LWW program investment of 3.9 to 1, with an internal rate of return of 26 per cent.

The six LWW subprograms were evaluated for economic, environmental and social benefits.

Sustainable Grazing on Saline Land (SGSL) benefits included:

• Increased adoption of salt-land pastures;
• Higher gross margins on a whole-farm basis resulting from lower cost of establishment; less risk in establishment; productivity increases; higher stocking rates with improved salt-land pastures; water quality impact on livestock performance; and
• Rehabilitation of degraded land.
  

Rivers and Water Quality benefits included:

• Water quality improvement;
• Biodiversity enhancement; and
• Increased carbon sequestration
  

Biodiversity and Vegetation benefits included:

• Higher gross margins on a whole-farm basis resulting from pasture productivity improvements;
• Improved growth rates and reduced death rates of livestock; 
• Pollination and improved pest control; 
• Reduced input costs associated with fertiliser/chemical use and the cost and maintenance of sown pastures;
• Ecological value of improved biodiversity; and
• Increased carbon sequestration due to enhanced vegetation growth.
  

Managing Climate Variability benefits included:

• Increase in long-term average profitability per property from use of climate information (including seasonal climate forecasts) and their applications in decision-making.

Managing Pastoral Country benefits included:

• Maintenance of productive capacity and an increase in long-term average profitability per property from improved stocking rate and grazing pressure decision-making.

Future Woolscapes benefits included:

• A future research agenda that is robust given the range of futures considered (leading to potential efficiencies in R&D resource allocation);
• More astute alignment of strategic policies with potential future impacts; and
• Optimal development of and access to future markets.