Native timber a solution to serrated tussock?
From the October 2006 edition of Agriculture Today.
A farmer in the Windellama area, south of Goulburn, is using native timber to tackle serrated tussock over the long term.
“The keys to a successful long term serrated tussock strategy are what I call the two R’s”, says Mr Martin Royds, who owns the property on the Shoalhaven River near Windellama.
What are the two R’s? … “Remove AND Replace”.
“For years we have focused on removing the weed, but we often forget to replace it with something else.
“If we want to get out of the cycle of using chemicals to spray serrated tussock every two to three years, we need to replace the weed with something else,” he said.
Mr Royds recently purchased a neighbouring property that had been a source of serrated tussock seed, causing infestations of the weed on his land.
“I felt that if I bought the land, I would have a greater chance of reducing the massive seed rain onto my productive cattle property,” he said.
“I had however effectively bought a serrated tussock farm and so I had to figure out a way of managing the serrated tussock over the long term.
“The most effective strategy on this property is to shade serrated tussock out using native trees. The property I purchased is rocky and steep, and so establishing any pasture would be difficult and impractical.”
Mr Royds aims to plant native trees on the site, with a long term view of harvesting the trees for timber, and thereby recouping his original investment.
He expects he will have to continue to spot spray or chip the serrated tussock until the trees form a reasonable shade canopy, but believes that he will progressively use less and less chemicals as the trees become established.
“The goal is no chemicals after year five – revert to mattock only,” he said.
“The idea is to replace a completely worthless weed with trees that will not only out-compete the weed, but will also provide me with an income in years to come.
“I don’t expect the trees will completely stop the serrated tussock. I am however hoping that the trees will contain the tussock seed rain, and that the serrated tussock seedbank will slowly diminish over time.”
Mr Royds, who recently joined the newly formed Serrated Tussock Working Party for NSW and ACT, feels that land managers need to employ a variety of tools to manage weeds on their land, particularly in the case of serrated tussock.
“Land managers, private and public, really need to think outside the square”, says Mr Royds.
“We have expected chemicals to be the silver bullet for managing weeds for too long.
“There is no quick fix to managing serrated tussock.
“On my other properties in the Braidwood district I no longer use herbicides. A combination of grazing management with cattle, a mattock and a pocket full of seeds have kept these properties weed free.”
Mr Royds hopes that the Serrated Tussock Working Party for NSW and ACT will encourage and assist land managers throughout NSW to consider a variety of long term options to managing serrated tussock on their properties.
“We must encourage land managers not only to remove serrated tussock, but to also replace it with something else whenever possible,” he said.
Contact: Byron Stein, National Coordinator Serrated Tussock, NSW DPI (02) 4828 6632 or byron.stein@dpi.nsw.gov.au
