At last! Some fencing for pasture improvement

Where last week we had 23 paddocks in the front section of "Uamby", from next week we will have 55 paddocks... Thanks to a plan by Daniel (pictured with Lucy, the apprentice sheepdog) and a wonderful contractor (to be profiled next week), and some advice from Col Seis (the pasture cropping guru) and some funding from the Catchment Management Authority (thanks guys), we will finally become a true time-controlled grazing operation.

Time-controlled grazing (not rotational grazing) limits the amount of exposure each plant has to grazing and trampling to give it a chance to recover from a grazing incident. By concentrating the animals in a smaller paddock we force them to graze evenly (avoid 'patch grazing') on desirable and lesss desirable species. The tilling effect of their hooves and the fertilising effect of their dung and urine is maximised when they are bunched together in smaller paddocks - and the effect is miraculous. Graziers using these techniqaues commonly report 300% improvements in groundcover and species diversity and feed volumes.
But all that fencing is expensive and we also need to have waterpoints in each paddock, so we have a mammoth taks ahead of us running water through the new layout. All up the entire process will cost $70 - $80,000. But the rewards are: better, healthier native pastures, better water retention in top soil, less erosion, less runoff and silting in waterways, less salination, faster sequestation of carbon in the soil, more and healthier microbial and microfauna communities in the soil, higher resistance to drought... the list goes on and on.
When we do the back 700 acres, we will have 80+ paddocks. And a lot of grass!