Birds on Cotton Farms Field Day

Did you know?
Stress prior to defoliation (70% open or 4 Nodes above Cracked Boll (NACB)) can cause a reduction in yield and fibre quality.

Home

Industry

Catchments

Communities

Back

New page

SiteWideSearch

Media Release 4th September, 2007

Birds on Cotton Farms Field Day

Birds were the hot topic of last week, with over 30 participants including landholders from the Namoi valley, Namoi Catchment Management Authority staff and Cotton Catchment Community CRC researchers attending a “Birds on cotton farms” field day.

The field day commenced with an insightful presentation from David Carr from Greening Australia. Mr. Carr is renowned for his extensive work in revegetation projects in a variety of landscapes across the country. The presentation covered a range of management tips for conserving birds in cotton landscapes.

A highlight of the presentation was the specimens of Australia’s rare woodland birds which were used to explain their habitat requirements. Birds such as the Speckled Warbler and the Eastern Yellow Robin require large woodland remnants with different habitat elements such as grasses, shrubs and trees.

Mr. Carr suggested management strategies to increase suitable habitats for these birds, including maintaining large and diverse areas of remnant vegetation, establishing corridors between vegetation patches and maintaining vegetated riparian zones and diverse natural wetlands.

“It is much easier then many would think, it’s a matter of keeping areas of the landscape messy and creating vegetation corridors for wildlife”

The group visited a number of local properties including “Belapaise”, west of Wee Waa. Cotton grower Terry Phelp’s spoke about how he had revegetated a floodway integrated into his tail water system.

Evan Cleland (Cotton CRC researcher) said there was great value in having vegetation corridors like this as it’s a simple and easy way to increase on-farm bird life with dual benefits for the environment and the sustainability of cotton production.

Following this, the group traveled to “Lammermoor” and “Havana”, located at Merah North, Wee Waa where there was an opportunity to see different management styles of native vegetation. This prompted a fruitful discussion on the importance of native grasses as a food source for many birds and the benefits of rejuvenating native pastures for the longevity of bird habitats.

Jane Macfarlane from the Namoi CMA and Cotton Catchment Communities CRC said it was fantastic to see so many people interested in and willing to take action to increase their on farm bio-diversity.

The Cotton CRC in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, fisheries & Forestry and Namoi CMA are working together to support growers in the region with on-ground incentives and there are a range of helpful publications available on the Cotton CRC (www.cotton.crc.org.au) and Namoi CMA websites (www.namoi.cma.nsw.gov.au).