Central Australian Self Herding (CASH)

Summary

To demonstrate the range of benefits that Self Herding can bring to grazing management for Central Australian pastoralists including better drought resilience, expanded feed base and improved animal production and welfare outcomes.

Objectives

By March 2025 across 10 properties in the Alice Spring region of the Northern Territory:

1. Demonstrate and validate in Central Australian pastoral conditions that greater production and improved landscape impacts can be achieved through redistribution of grazing using the application of self-herding techniques. Financial (productivity, labour costs etc) and environmental (ground cover, pasture utilisation) benefits will be obtained from a combination of:

a. Visitation to grazing areas not previously utilised by livestock
b. A change in the directional travel of livestock grazing patterns
c. A reduction in habitual overused areas associated with water points

2. 80% of the core producer and 50% of the observer producers will have adopted self-herding techniques leading to demonstrated changes in grazing patterns (data collected on livestock visitation and observed effects on soil surface and vegetation). Presence or absence of grazing effects before and after interventions (pasture utilisation, physical disturbance and deposition of nutrients) will be the observed factors collected during the project.

3. 100% of core producers and 80% of observer producers will have increased their knowledge and skills in relation to self-herding techniques.

4. A range of extension and communication products will be developed by NTDPIR staff with input from the project partners, to increase awareness across other pastoral areas including case studies, producer guides and stories for MLA publications.

5. Production of a cost/benefits analysis of all concomitant and ancillary benefits versus time, effort and variable costs incurred in the establishment of self-herding techniques.

Progress

The Central Australian Self Herding (CASH) Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project demonstrated Self Herding techniques to commercial beef producers in Central Australia. Self Herding consists of various techniques to passively influence the behaviour of livestock, using food rewards and other stimuli (visual stimuli, sounds and smells) to influence where stock choose to graze and to minimise stress in situations such as yards, new water points or when trucking. Self Herding can lead to a more even spread of grazing in paddocks and so can increase resilience to droughts. It has also been suggested to result in better feed availability, improved animal production and to have animal wellbeing benefits. 

Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (DITT) extension officers and Stress Free Stockmanship practitioner, Bruce Maynard, visited producers on their stations to develop tailored training and implementation, with a focus on influencing grazing patterns. Producers identified their own aims for applying Self Herding techniques. With assistance from the practitioners, the producers designed and implemented actions to change cattle behaviour. 

The project was successful in transferring knowledge of the technique to multiple producers, some of whom actively trialled Self Herding techniques. One family has incorporated Self Herding into the management of their various stations and promote the benefits.  

The intended implementation of Self Herding strategies was delayed for most participants due to a run of dry years, and a subsequent shortage of forage. Travel restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and staffing challenges contributed significantly to the project implementation and a delayed uptake. The project finished early due to these and other unforeseen factors.