BURDEKIN graziers Barry and Leanne O'Sullivan won the rural section at the Premier's Sustainability Awards on Friday, May 31, for their leadership and innovation in the beef industry and commitment to the grazing best management practice (BMP) program.
The award, sponsored by Australian Country Choice and Coles, recognises the achievements of Queensland producers who have developed a sustainable agricultural business while demonstrating improved environmental and on-farm performance.
Mr O'Sullivan said the award was a fantastic result for the grazing industry, and demonstrated that anyone could turn any property around to become more profitable and sustainable by accessing the right information and support, which was freely available to Queensland producers.
"We are very excited about where BMP will take the grazing industry and we have learnt so much by
being involved in the process," Mrs O'Sullivan said.
The O'Sullivans purchased their 23,385-hectare property, Glenalpine Station south-west of Bowen, in 2003 and had since transformed the poorer parts of the property into productive and profitable areas in an affordable, considered and informed process.
"When we came to this property the cattle were grazing on the lower creek flats, resulting in low ground cover at the end of the dry season and soil being lost with the first rains," Mr O'Sullivan said.
"We commenced fencing by soil types to change the grazing pattern of the cattle and to rest the poorer condition country."
As more soil types were fenced and water points installed, the O'Sullivans commenced rotational grazing and they were then able to utilise previously unused land, including ridges.
"Commercially this has reduced supplementation costs, enabled higher calving percentages and heaver weight gains in the cattle."
The fencing and spelling process has also seen the cattle maintain a higher weight, while more than 80 per cent of ground cover was still kept at the end of the dry season.
To keep their business profitable and allow pasture to rehabilitate, the O'Sullivans took up a lease in 2010, 500km south, in fattening country.
This enabled the O'Sullivans to reduce the cattle grazing on Glenalpine Station while still maintaining cattle numbers for their business.
As a result, most of country on Glenalpine Station was now A and B condition (good to fair) and soil erosion on the property had significantly reduced. This clearly indicated graziers were doing everything they could to reduce sediment run-off to help improve water quality for the Great Barrier Reef.
AgForce general president Ian Burnett said the award acknowledged the O'Sullivans' leadership, not only in achieving better outcomes for their own property, but by providing solid feedback on the grazing standards being developed to drive sustainability in the grazing industry, particularly in regard to reef water quality outcomes.
"Barry and Leanne O'Sullivan have been instrumental to the development of the grazing BMP program," Mr Burnett said.
He said the O'Sullivans' involvement as members of the grazing BMP producer reference group had been critical to securing the broader grazing community acceptance of the grazing BMP standards and encouraged uptake of the program.
"Grazing BMP gave us the tools and training to identify steps to incorporate best management practices into our enterprise to improve our long-term profitability," Mr O'Sullivan said.
The program, a joint partnership between AgForce, Fitzroy Basin Association and the Queensland government, allows graziers to anonymously benchmark their current business practices and stewardship performance, and compare their results with the rest of the industry.
In return, the aggregated and de-identified data allows the industry to clearly demonstrate adoption levels of practices and performance, and areas requiring improvement.