Holistic management driving farming decisions

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A decision to consider ecological, as well as economic, outcomes is a major driver for Michael Gooden, who runs the 380-hectare property of “Willowlee” located 70 kilometres west of Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales.

Mr Gooden said they operated Old Man Creek Grass Fed Bulls Angus Cattle Stud and were implementing a range of measures to ensure the long-term success of the enterprise.

“Back in the millennium drought we tore up a heap of money and saw our landscape blow away,” he said. “It was difficult to see, and we just thought there had to be a better way of managing it.”

“Pasture budgeting was a big thing. We now do time-controlled cell grazing. It's a low-cost way of utilising the grass that we're growing and works in really well with the cattle operation.”

Michael Gooden, of Old Man Creek Grass Fed Bulls Angus Cattle Stud, west of Wagga, uses a holistic approach to achieve ecological & economic outcomes.

“The cattle respond really well to that grazing management; our landscape is improved immensely, and it gives a lot more control over the grass that we've got.”

He said they accurately know how much feed is on hand, at any point in time, which allows them to make decisions on whether they need more stock or less stock.

“It gives us a lot more control in an environment that's continually changing."

While the property has an average annual rainfall of 450mm, the actual number has varied dramatically from year to year with lows of 170mm and 150mm in 2018 and 2019, through to 830mm in 2022.

The variation has been very challenging with stock numbers fluctuating from 45 during the dry years, to 200 head going into 2023.

Mr Gooden said they have some clear goals on what they wanted to achieve from the business in terms of profitability and how the landscape on the property needed to look.

“From an ecological perspective, I think that it's really important to gauge an understanding of what the capacity of the country is and not try to get more out of it than what you can.”

“You've got to make sure that your production capacity can meet your financial commitments as well. We're in that position where those line up well.”

He said through holistic management they consider the ecological, economic and social outcomes of the decisions that are made.

“You make a decision not just based on finances, or not just based on ecology, or not just based on social but weighing up all those three factors.”

He said part of the path forward was a soil carbon project to record their carbon baseline which has been a massive undertaking on the property.

“I see it as an investment, rather than a cost because that's going to put us in a position in the future.

The soil carbon project will help them put a line in the sand and provide data for that space.

They are also using the RCS network with a profit probe to look at the financials and Australian Holistic Management Centre for an ecological perspective.

“Those three programmes are all third party, independent verified ways to help us manage our business,” Mr Gooden said. “That gives us good information about how the business is tracking.”

“I think if we embrace some of these techniques on a wider scale, we could actually really alter the climate in a positive way.”

“In agriculture, we need to be not just thinking about the next crop cycle or the next five years. We need to be thinking 10, 20, 30, 100, 1000 years if we're really serious about what's going on.

“We see ourselves as a blip on the radar managing this land for a very short period of time, and we're very lucky that we've got the opportunity to do that.

I just want to make the most of the opportunity that I've got. The cliche of leave the land in a better position when we finish, than when we started - and if every generation does that, well it's pretty cool."

Mr Gooden was recently recognised in the Corteva Agriscience Climate Positive Leaders program which is an international initiative to share experiences and accelerate the adoption of climate positive practices.

“It's great that a company like Corteva is interested in looking into it, rather than having their blinkers on and saying let's not worry about that,” he said.

“Looking at how they can make the world a better place by using better products that are going to meet those environmental, social and economic outcomes.”