George Brabin from Junee has just scraped out some soil samples from the pit and placed them in water in the petrie dish in front of him, to check their structural stability.

Farmers are picking up on opportunities to learn more about preparing their businesses to cope with predicted climate change.

As floods finally tumbled out an insistence at some compass points that this drought will in fact be finite, attendance by farmers and the broader community at soil workshops and free climate change forums encouraged organisers.

Drought declared areas now make up 80 percent of the State.

Climate change gatherings in June involved 400 people at Dubbo, Bega and Nowra.

Ever-committed dirt scratchers, and the researchers, advisors and service providers who love and serve them are now registering for next month’s Grasslands Society conference in Queanbeyan, where the C-word is on the agenda.

At Junee, 50 farmers last week got the chance to reacquaint themselves through a microscope with soil organisms, at a workshop put together by NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) project officer Susan Orgill and Cootamundra district agronomist, Phil Bowden, to show why organic carbon is the basis of sustainable agriculture and fertility.

Ms Orgill expects soil organic matter workshops organised by DPI to be well subscribed, with plans for several to take place in the coming months.

This enthusiasm is a boost for the next step of a climate action project in which researchers want to involve farmers who have pasture paddocks with a known history, which preferably have been under that pasture for at least 10 years.

“The challenge is to turn agricultural soils into carbon sinks to help reduce the onset of global warming,” Ms Orgill, based at DPI’s Queanbeyan office, said.

Ms Orgill gave a presentation in the paddock at Junee on how to use soil pits and calico strips to see the activities of soil biota.

Climate action project leader, Dr Yin Chan told workshop participants that although there is a limit to the amount of organic carbon that can be stored in soils, large losses in the past mean that many Australian agricultural soils have the potential for large remedial increases.

“Management practices influence soil organic carbon levels and many that are effective in increasing carbon also improve crop and pasture yields,” Dr Chan said.

“The amount of soil carbon that can be stored is dependent on the farming system, soil type and climatic conditions as well as the initial soil carbon level of the site.”

The Happy Seeder – a new machine that can seed through all sorts and loads of stubble with minimum till farmers in mind was there for farmers to look over. Phil Bowden discussed stubble management and explained the seeder.

Soil physics technical officer at Wagga Wagga, Albert Oates, has received many offers from farmers who think they may have paired pasture paddocks suitable for the climate action study and is now whittling the list to a manageable number.

“However, there are some comparisons where extra paired paddocks would still be useful, in particular annual versus perennial pasture and set-stocked versus rotationally grazed,” he said.

“We’d also be happy to hear from any interested Yeoman’s practitioners or pasture croppers.”

Despite storm warnings at Bega before a climate change forum, 120 people showed up out of 150 who registered and the same number turned out in better weather the next day at Nowra, according to the head of NSW DPI climate risk management, Gary Allan.

As expected, more farmers made up the ‘demographic’ at the Dubbo forum but the balance between farmers and the wider community at both South Coast locations was almost a 50-50 split, reflecting concerns beyond agriculture.

A guest speaker at both Bega and Nowra, NSW coastal specialist Professor Bruce Thom from the Wentworth Group, said people in coastal areas needed to think hard about land use and how it was now regulated in an uncertain world.

"What I am concerned about is different land uses, where pressures are coming from a variety of directions to secure the highest value of that land,” Professor Thom said.

“The question arises as to what impacts these urban coastal uses will have under climate change.

“More than ever people in coastal regions need to know more and make informed decisions about how they can better appreciate, and respond to, the changes that global warming will bring to their lives."

According to Mr Allan, a dairyman at Nowra summarised the timing problem for those who were too busy to get away from their farms to attend a forum.

“In refining the information flow, we’ll now turn our attention to setting up individual sessions at the convenience of some industries, organised through our regional staff,” Mr Allan said.

“Most parts of the State have now been canvassed by a climate change forum and we have a good overview of regional issues.”

Dates for the next round of forums will be announced soon.

Contact Gary Allan, Orange, 02 6391 3902 or Susan Orgill, Queanbeyan, 02 6287 1861.