Bottle Tree Bulletin Bottle Tree Bulletin - February 2020 | Page 11

Hold em’ or fold em’
events support grazier
resilience
11
Mitchell Landcare supported the Mitchell
event and chair, Jane Maudsley commented
“It was an excellent program with all speakers
relevant and on topic and Landcare was
pleased to be a part of the day.”
Ms Toms-Morgan said both events also
included other specialist speakers whose
message resonated with the audience. David
Hanlon from “The Right Mind” and Mary
O’Brien from “Are you Bogged Mate?” “We
are losing too many of our people, and we
need to check in with our mates, empty the
emotional ‘scrap bucket’ and just lend a hand
when we get a bit stuck or ‘bogged down’” Ms
O’Brien
3.
said.
There are
plans to
bring Cam
Nicholson
back to the
region in
March
2020 due
to popular
demand so
please
contact
ConnectAg
for further
details.
As the drought keeps digging in deeper than
living memory across the Maranoa, recent
workshops in Surat and Mitchell, 13 th and 14 th
November were hosted to support good
decision making helped almost 70 graziers
walk away with strategies to be more
confident in whether for them it is best to hold
or sell remaining livestock.
Councillor Cameron O’Neil, Portfolio Chair for
Events, said Council received funding for
these events through Queensland Health’s
Tackling Regional Adversity Through
Integrated Care Program.
“With the Maranoa region being drought
declared since 2013, this funding has
provided a way of bringing people together to
share challenges and consider new ideas on
how to prepare for and deal with these
challenges.”
Event co-ordinator and ConnectAg Principal,
Rhonda Toms-Morgan, said speakers had
been carefully selected for their relevance to
the information people needed right now.
“We knew from talking to graziers across the
region that many had made some good
decisions early in the year, selling down their
core herd, pre-purchasing fodder and doing
their best to keep stock watered and the
pastures in good condition,” Ms Toms-Morgan
said.
“And, well, the winter rain didn’t come either
and I saw good people stuck and getting
anxious as they had to make their next
decision.”
Keynote speaker, Cam Nicholson from Nicon
Rural Services in Victoria, introduced the
audience to a ‘Decision Matrix’ approach as a
process to help them make better decisions
across all parts of their business.
Added to this, participants also heard from
FeedCentral’s Tim Ford on fodder supplies
and values, Andrew Wilkie from Objective
Livestock Marketing on options for meeting
the market for stock on hand, Roger Sneath
from Department of Agriculture Grazing
Futures’ project provided animal nutrition and
drought feeding advice.
Applied Ag’s Jillian Alexander summarised the
season to date in the context of historical
weather patterns but also pasture and land
condition recovery factors to be considering
for when the season does break.
“From the feedback, we definitely put the right
people in front of our region’s graziers at the
right time,” Ms Toms-Morgan said.
“We had people who planned to make
changes before they fed their stock the next
morning, set cut off dates to make decisions,
lower their stocking rates further, and plan for
what to do when it rains.”