Subsoil Amelioration - Unlocking Red Gum Plains Soil Capacity

Healthy soils are the foundation of productive, profitable and resilient farming businesses. This project is working with Gippsland producers to demonstrate, at commercial scale, how scientifically proven soil amelioration practices can improve soil health, increase pasture productivity and strengthen farm resilience to increasingly variable seasonal conditions.

The Producer Demonstration Site supported by Meat & Livestock Australia is running from 2023 to 2027 and is establishing four 10-hectare demonstration sites across the Gippsland Red Gum Plains at Bengworden, Winnindoo, Giffard and Toongabbie, alongside the existing pilot site at the Gippsland Research Farm. These commercial-scale sites have been selected to represent local soil constraints and showcase practical solutions that can be adopted on working farms.

The project will evaluate a range of soil amelioration treatments to determine their impact on soil organic matter, water infiltration, nutrient holding capacity, pasture yield and quality, and livestock production per hectare. Just as importantly, it will assess the economic viability of these practices through detailed cost-benefit analysis, providing producers with practical information to support informed investment decisions.

Knowledge sharing is at the heart of the project. Through field days, workshops, on-farm demonstrations and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, producers will build the skills, knowledge and confidence to implement soil improvement practices within their own farming systems and Gippsland’s red meat industry.