Land and Water Link

December 2004

Across the fenceline

How do farmers decide which land management practices are the best to use? Initially, they take a look across the fenceline to see what the neighbours are doing. If it’s looking good, then something must be working.

Now farmers can look across the virtual fenceline, thanks to new web-linked technology that gives them real-time information on drainage under different land management practices.

The Across the Fenceline project is helping farmers tackle dryland salinity and develop sustainable agricultural practices through an innovative mix of automated monitoring and community education.

The project team has developed a new, relatively inexpensive remote sensing instrument that monitors deep drainage on-farm and relays the data direct to farmers. These instruments are deployed at a number of strategic locations within the catchment. Local farmers and advisors visit the sites frequently to obtain results, which can also be sent directly to the website and to farmers’ mobile phones.

The chosen sites have become the regional focal point for farmers and advisors to meet with researchers to discuss water use efficiency, crop rotations and management options – providing possible solutions to the rising water tables, salinity and water quality.

Project leader Dr Paul Hutchison from CSIRO Land and Water says ‘At present we are monitoring an annual cropping system, an improved perennial pasture system and a best practice phase farming system, on a range of representative soil types’.

According to David Cusack, who owns one of the farm sites, the project will enable farmers in the area to determine the amount of water that is leaking into the water table with different land uses. ‘This knowledge will then allow more informed decisions to be made over a micro-catchment on a suitable mix of land uses, reducing the amount of water that leaks into the groundwater system and leads to dryland salinity.’

Across the Fenceline is a joint project between CSIRO, the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group and the Grains Research and Development Corporation, with assistance from the Natural Heritage Trust.

Further information:
www.clw.csiro.au/fenceline/
CSIRO contact:

Dr Paul Hutchinson
Ph: +61-2-6960 1558