The Rangelands Living Skin is a four-year project linking farming families, scientists and other collaborators to evaluate cost-effective practices – chosen by producers – that focus on regenerating the NSW rangelands to support production now and into the future.

The project will create an evidence-base for helping widespread adoption of practices that benefit soil, plants, animals and people – the living skin of the rangelands.

Led by NSW Department of Primary Industries and funded by Meat & Livestock Australia, the project is investigating:

• The role of grazing management in improving soil and landscape function, including rotational grazing and high-intensity animal impact. Rotational grazing management (short periods of grazing, followed by long periods of pasture rest, with a flexible and adaptive approach) is hypothesised to improve pasture quality, ground cover and productivity. Achieving high-intensity animal impact by running a large herd in a short but intense period over hard-set soil surfaces like a clay pan will is hoped to break-up surface crusts, add nutrients and organic material to the soil and improve water infiltration.
• The use of mechanical interventions, such as ponding, banking and ripping lines in hardened soils, to increase water infiltration and retention in the landscape.
• Introducing new plant species, including perennial shrubs, annual legumes, multi-species crops and no-kill cropping. Perennial shrubs (old man saltbush) are sown to explore whether their deeper root systems improve soil function and pasture productivity. Multi-species plantings will be sown to explore if diverse plants (and the unique role each plant species offers to soil functionality) influences soil and landscape health. The potential of annual-hard seeded legumes to survive and increase soil health in rangeland environments will also be evaluated.
• No-kill cropping, where forage species are sown into existing perennial  grassland, is also being trialled. The hypothesis behind no-kill cropping  is that the existing perennial plants maintain a functioning soil and landscape system, which allow the crops to benefit from the undisturbed soil, water, carbon and nutrient cycles and thus be more resilient challenging climatic seasons.
• The impact of several practices related to soil amendments, including biological inputs (vermicast), biochar and gypsum, on plant growth, soil microbiology and carbon will be evaluated.

More about this project

• Rangelands Living Skin - Meat & Livestock Australia