Our Bingara Extension Officer, Janelle Schafer, was recently invited to Mitiamo, a family farm at Palla, near Bingara in Northern NSW. It’s the home of Jason and Breanna Mack, with Don and Gay Mack living at the neighbouring property, Berrybank. Combined, the two farms are 3100 hectares. They’re working on new ways to improve the production off their land, while ensuring natural assets are maintained and protected. Here, Janelle explains some of the practices she saw on the farm.
Mitiamo has been in the family since the late 1880s and was previously used for cropping for wheat and sheep grazing, but now it is only used for cattle grazing.
We looked at some very productive tropical pastures and some native pastures. Some paddocks have been turned from old cropping paddocks to pasture to improve the production of the land.
There are around 70 paddocks on the property, with the best paddocks 50-70 hectares in size. The cattle are left in the paddock about four to five days, and biomass isn’t eaten down too far. The paddock is then left to regrow until grasses are long enough to bring the cattle back in.
Some old cropping paddocks have been improved with oats sown first, followed up with seeding with arrowhead clover and vetch.
Landscape rehydration is also being trialled on the property.
An eroded gully which was severely impacted by the 2022 flood has been repaired by adding four ponds, and further ponds will be added downstream.
To encourage bird life, all dead trees are left standing. The property sits within the endangered ecological community Box Gum Grassy Woodland, and there are many opportunities for enhancing natural capital.
Licks are used for the cattle and on the day of my visit, we moved 250 head of cattle on from one paddock to the next, by simply opening the gate and towing the trailer with the licks on to the next paddock. The lick contains dolomite, copper sulphate, sulphur and seaweed meal.
We are looking forward to taking a bus-load of local farmers to Mitiamo in April 2025. We would like to thank Don, Gay, Jason and Breanna for their time and hospitality in showing.