Grassroots project

Resource Consulting Services (RCS) worked with 25 grazing businesses from 2018 to 2020 in the Fitzroy and Mackay Whitsunday regions to reduce soil and particulate nutrient losses into waterways and improve their business through the Grassroots Project.

RCS provided skills training and tailored grazing management advice on practices to suit individual circumstances as well as access to grants. The project was funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program and provided a pathway and resources for land managers to improve their bottom line while also improving their land condition.

Outcomes achieved by the Grassroots project include:

  • 149,212 hectares under regenerative management
  • 116 landholders directly involved in project activities
  • 62 kilometres of poly pipe laid and 54 livestock watering points installed to remove cattle from riparian areas
  • 74 kilometres of fencing erected to protect riparian areas
  • 24,670 hectares targeted for erosion mitigation through on-ground works.

Eighty percent of businesses also saw an increase in their Return on Assets. Furthermore, as reported in social monitoring at the end of this project in 2021:

  • All landholders felt that changing their pasture management was a positive thing to do on their property.
  • Landholders were mainly motivated by financial benefits (such as increased production and profitability) and environmental benefits (such as benefits to the environment and improving the health or condition of the land).

One of the landholders commented:

“If we didn’t do the Grassroots Project in 2018, we would have lost one of our properties. Over the calendar year, the property got 98 millimetres of rain. There’s no way we could’ve handled that drought without the knowledge from RCS. If we weren’t constantly looking three months ahead with our forage budgets, we would have had to sell all of our cattle and eventually the land.”

More information can be found by visiting the RCS website.