Kylie Stretton at 'Red Hill Station'
In just six years since they bought their Charters Towers cattle station, Kylie and Shane Stretton have transformed the productivity of their dry tropics land through rotational grazing and increased land contouring.
The journey
Kylie appeared in Feedback in autumn 2013. Where she shared how she was connecting with red meat consumers.
At the time Kylie and Shane were running a small trade steer and bullock enterprise on 40ha, and Kylie was a year into managing the 'Ask an Aussie Farmer' Facebook group which she launched to connect consumers with food producers.
Today, the couple manage a livestock agency and own the 4,970ha 'Red Hill Station', and the 'Ask an Aussie Farmer' page has grown from 1,360 followers in 2013 to more than 19,000 followers.
Kylie has started a second personal Facebook page called 'Life on Red Hill' where she shares updates on their land and herd management strategies, seasonal changes and her on-farm highlights.
Building from the ground up
When they purchased Red Hill, approximately 25% of the land was significantly impacted by scalding erosion and overgrazing.
"We knew the land was in pretty poor condition and would require a significant amount of time, skill and money invested into its rehabilitation," she said.
"However, since Shane and I were both coming into this with producer backgrounds and experience working with soil and pasture constraints across Queensland and NT, we felt the biggest constraint we were up against was finding the time amongst our other business commitments."
When it came to dealing with land constraints, Kylie said Red Hill – the station's namesake landform located in the middle of the property – meant water and soil run-off quickly occurred whenever it rained.
"Any rain we received would simply run down from the top of the hill, gouging out soils and washing them off the property," she said.
"So, our first point of focus was to increase ground cover to slow the flow of water – starting with the top of the hill and working our way down.
"Once we were satisfied with the level of ground cover we had stretching from the top of the hill to our lower catchments, we started looking at land contouring to further slow that water flow."
Trial and error
While Kylie and Shane knew increasing land contouring would be the answer to making the most of their annual rainfall and ensuring the recovery of their grazing land, it was easier said than done.
"Creating the contours takes Shane about four hours on the dozer, but there's a lot of trial and error behind where we put them," Kylie said.
"We've had contour dams that haven't filled up at all and we've had others burst, we've even had a 'whoa boys' (low earth banks built to intercept run-off) that have been washed out within the first year.
"However, after investing in a bit of education and guidance from soil erosion control specialists such as Darryl Hill' and Bob Shepherd*, we really started reaping the benefits.
"Two years into increasing land contouring, we finally saw those really scalded areas start to establish some good ground cover. More recently, we've spotted wetlands plants popping up around some of the contour dams we have created.
"By default, we're also finding ourselves to be in a position where we are less prone to drought and flood, simply because we have control over the speed and direction in which water moves across the property."
Resting for recovery
Another critical step behind improving Red Hill's pastures was implementing a rotational grazing program to ensure pastures can rest and replenish.
Currently, Kylie likes to have about 75% of paddocks resting at any given time.
"We usually only have two mobs to our 10 paddocks – a ratio that means our recently grazed paddocks can be provided with enough time for both pastures and soils to replenish," she said.
During their wet season, they rest paddocks for 7–14 days, which increases to four to six weeks in the dry season.
"Using rotational grazing as one of our key land management strategies means we do have to invest in fencing, water infrastructure, working dogs and educating weaners to get them used to being around people, vehicles and dogs," Kylie said.
"However, we've got a good system in place and the benefits that come from the management strategy means it really pays for itself.
"We use buggies for our day-to-day movement across the property, only using bikes when we're doing a paddock shift, so our herd associates the sound of the bikes with that move.
"We're at a point where our herd will pick up their calves and come trotting over to us happily, calling down the line to others to send that message of 'we're moving to better pastures'."
Getting connected
As part of their on-farm goal of improving land condition and long-term productivity, Kylie and Shane have partnered with the NQ Dry Tropics groups and Three Big Rivers Indigenous-led employment group to help further repair erosion.
"Three Big Rivers is heavily focused on healing and caring for Country, with the members of the group working to obtain certificates in land conservation," she said.
"As part of that, they will come on-farm and help us with weed eradication, building infrastructure such as leaky weirs and even help spread hay when needed.
"However, the true value of this partnership goes beyond the physical help they provide. It lies within the relationships we've built with the group members and the ability to swap knowledge and insights about caring for the land and its environment."
Beyond the station, Kylie's use of Facebook to document their on-farm process has also opened doors.
"While I'm simply sharing what we're doing on our property, it does spark a lot of conversation form other producers and sometimes they'll mention something that makes us go 'maybe we should give that a go'," Kylie said.
"We are all people who share a common goal of wanting to ensure the longevity of that land so it continues to provide for the generations to come, so there's a lot of positivity that comes from the ability to connect."
