Nature stewardship and productivity go hand-in-hand

For fourth-generation potato and lamb producer, Garry Kadwell, a lifelong quest to build the environmental sustainability and resilience of his land, spanning 880 hectares near Crookwell in the New South Wales’ Southern Tablelands, has helped his business grow, with the two, for him, going “hand-in-hand”. 

“In this hand we have the environment, and in this hand, we have a working farm,” Garry explains. “And it can’t be there, or there. It’s got to balance.”

It is this ingrained ethos that has seen Garry undertake revegetation, water, and pasture works across his property, with up to 40 per cent of his land now in conservation areas and ecological zones, while simultaneously minimising the usage of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.

“The more country we have locked up, the more productive we have been,” he says.

Throughout this process, he has expanded his landholdings fivefold, transformed his business from an apple orchard into an 80-hectare seed and gourmet potato operation, and increased the productivity of his 5000-lamb enterprise to around 22 to 24 dry sheep equivalent (DSE) per hectare – well up on the “district average of 7.5”.

“It is all simple stuff,” he says modestly. “Sometimes we look too hard for the magic bullet. But, for us, it was doing all the little things right. And working with nature, not fighting it.”

A firm believer in “nature having all the answers if we take the time to stop, look, and learn,” was passed down to him from his father and his grandfather before him, with the property being in the family since 1901.

“When I was young, I spent a lot of time with my Dad and my grandfather. And I clearly remember when I was 8 or 10 years old, planting trees with my grandfather on a property that had lots of remnant vegetation.

“I said to Pop, ‘Why are we planting more trees? We have heaps of them’. He just said to me, ‘It takes a wise man a lifetime to grow a tree, but a fool five minutes to kill one’. Those words always stuck with me. How important the trees were.”

Recalling the last instance of ringbarking on the property, Garry remembers his grandfather saying at the time, “There is never to be another tree killed on this place”.

And this has seen Garry undertake extensive conservation plantings and shelterbelts, fence off remnant vegetation, build-up the soil biology and organic matter, and provide habitat corridors for wildlife.

“We are linking all the remnants together,” he says. “Eventually I want every paddock on the place surrounded by trees because that will help travel the insects and birdlife through the entire property on an equal basis.”

Garry says the wildlife has thrived as a result of his integrated approach to conservation and farm management as measured by Land for Wildlife.

“Land for Wildlife have done assessments of all the property and have lists of all the species that are here, the birdlife, and other animals,” he says.
 

The 13-hectare natural wetland Garry created on what was a “damp soak” has also provided a sanctuary for wildlife, with “migratory birds now stopping there” as well as mountain ducks, black swans, and platypus.

Inspired by his understanding of the chain of pond system as a way to hydrate the landscape, Garry has built a 27-chain of pond system on a recently acquired neighbouring block of 400-hectares. Citing the system, as “one of the most successful things that has a direct result that we have done.”

Effectively “a blank canvas,” Garry has been busily adopting many of his sustainability principles on the new block, with around 12-kilometres of fencing and the construction of 11 dams.

“The first thing we did was totally isolate all the environmental area by fencing it off,” he says. “We also had it surveyed and found critically endangered grassland species.”

Garry has also implemented pasture improvement works, which see him double sow the pastures to help get a “really dense pasture before the weeds can establish”. He also selects the clover and rye species based on their suitability to the various topographies on his farm to help ensure a “constant supply of clover throughout the year”.

Across his farms, Garry has switched from applying synthetic fertilisers on their pastures to manure, securing the contract to clean the manure from the chicken sheds in the region. While lime application is now via a “cardboard manufacturing by-product containing 30% lime”, as all the country has previously been limed at 2-tonnes to the acre.

“The difference is our place is really lush green and everywhere else seems to be burnt off, dry,” he says. “And I believe that’s because that water retention and all that organic matter is now building up into the soil where there is a big reserve of soil being alive and now it is self-sustaining.”

The use of pesticides on the potatoes has also decreased, with Garry citing it as a “total turnaround to what I was brought up with, where we sprayed every 10 days.

“We haven’t used a pesticide on the spuds for maybe the last five years, and I believe that is due to building all these ecological zones around the potato ground and having all the beneficial insects.”

Ensuring that they have the “nutrition right,” has also been critical, with Garry regularly sap testing the potato plants to understand the macro and micro elements.

“When you get the nutrition right, the plants don’t necessarily get attacked by the insects; they don’t get the fungal diseases as they can ward it off naturally,” he says.

Over the years, Garry has worked closely with the likes of the Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala link (K2W), Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and now Local Land Services (LLS), as well as Greening Australia and Rivers of Carbon (ROC). But he says it has “never been about the money but for the right positive reasons.

“With different organisations now saying how important it is, that’s why I am really excited about this. Because it is now promoting this in a really positive light.”

And so, it is Garry’s passion to share his story that sees him host fellow farmers, school and university students, and international groups regularly on his farm. Over this time, he believes, the interest in sustainable farming practices has increased.

“People thought I was absolutely mad when we started putting all this beautiful farmland into trees. But I thought if I don’t do something in my lifetime to change this remnant vegetation, it won’t be there for the next generation, or the next generation after.

“The mood has definitely changed. You could feel the change 10 years ago, but in the last five years it has really gained momentum.

“We have got to continue to have our land sustainable and resilient. Because it is going to have the droughts and all the things that are going to go wrong. But we can survive all those things with some good planning.”