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Northern Australia irrigated agriculture

This $6 million initiative is a co-investment between the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration (WAARC) and several partners, including the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia (CRCNA) and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC).

The Cropping Enabled Cattle project is a great example of what WAARC was set up to achieve.

It will build enduring research capacity and capability in WA, deliver meaningful research outcomes, and help future-proof the pastoral beef sector by growing productivity and profitability.

The project aims to achieve this by:

  • looking to create better synergies between the diverse Ord River Irrigation Area and Western Australia’s long-running northern pastoral sector.
  • growing future beef production options in the State’s north, delivering benefits that could extend across Australia’s top end.
  • evaluating the potential for feed products generated from irrigated crops in the Ord (such as cotton meal and seed, maize and other grass silage) to contribute to local cattle finishing systems and produce a ‘universally marketable animal’.
  • testing a range of cattle backgrounding systems in the Ord Valley, potentially including a sterile variety of the fodder tree leucaena, which has been shown to reduce methane emissions from grazing cattle.
  • building research capacity with the creation of three new regional roles in Kununurra and the establishment of joint PhD appointments with WAARC partners.

Background

The Cropping Enabled Cattle project is part of WAARC’s Northern Agriculture program, focused on research and development to support expansion of irrigated cropping, intensification of cattle production systems, and rangelands regeneration.

The project was co-designed by WAARC members including the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, CSIRO, Grower Group Alliance, and WA universities: Curtin, Murdoch, and The University of Western Australia.

It is one of six projects funded through CRCNA’s broader Cotton, Grains and Cattle integrated production system program, which includes more than 30 research and funding partners.

Close-up of cotton plant

 

 

 

Enquiries

If you’d like more information about this, or any of our other projects, please contact the team.

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