A young Elmore farmer pursuing regenerative farming practices is among the newest cohort chosen for Australian Nuffield Scholarships.
The scholarship provides overseas travel up to the value of $30,000 and lamb producer Jessica Conlan intends to travel to the United States and China next year.
She will use the scholarship to research better ways to finish lambs on grass.
Dr Conlan, 30, and her mother, Jo, sell about 2000 heavy lambs off their farm, Tumbywood at Runnymede, and are transitioning the property to regenerative agriculture to boosts its productivity and resilience.
Dr Conlan said when she decided to come back to the farm and leave her work as a research scientist in marine biology, she sat down with her mum to discuss what they would like to do differently.
“We both agreed that regenerative agriculture was something we would enjoy doing,” she said.
They have moved to a no-till approach, use a disc seeder to sow multiple species of grasses and try to reduce synthetic inputs.
For example, last year they suffered an outbreak of redlegged earth mite and used a pesticide, but this year they applied a molasses foliar spray designed to raise the sugar level in plants and to make the plant less digestible to pests.
They hope the use of up to 14 different species of grasses will rejuvenate the soil. Early signs are promising, as a soil test in one trial paddock has shown improved levels of elements.
The family has also fenced off part of Mt Pleasant Creek that runs through the property. They hope allowing this area to regenerate will have pay-offs for the remainder of the farm that will more than compensate for the area lost to grazing.
“We were amazed by the growth rate of the lambs on the multi-species crops,” Dr Conlan said.
“It was also a great learning experience to see the sheep choosing to graze different species throughout the season.”
With an increasing global appetite for grass-fed meat, she believes Australian lamb is well placed to take advantage of this trend.
“The MLA Global Consumer Tracker shows that Australia's largest lamb importers, China and the US, will pay more for Australian lamb due to good animal welfare, safety, quality consistency and higher nutritional value.
“So, global data backs grass-fed Australian lamb as an increasingly valuable commodity, making advanced grass-finishing systems an industry priority.”
Dr Conlan will travel throughout Australia, New Zealand, the US and China to explore methods to grow more, better quality grass for longer seasons. These methods include forage cropping, rotational grazing and summer-active grasses.
“My work will examine these methods' true potential for finishing heavy lambs in Australia to future-proof our industry's reputation,” she said.
“The Nuffield Scholarship will allow me to gather knowledge from across the globe and encourage farmers to weave this through their daily practices, cementing our industry as one of great innovation, quality and morality.”
Her scholarship is supported by the William Buckland Foundation.