Geographe Soil Testing Program
The latest round of the Geographe catchment soil testing program is now well underway, with soil testing being undertaken across 39 farms covering over 7200ha of farmland. As global fertiliser prices continue to increase, the program is critical not only in reducing nutrient input into our waterways, but also for farmers trying to save on […]
25 Years of GeoCatch
Our achievements over the past 25 years are definitely a collective effort, with contributions from our farming community and urban residents, all working towards a better environment in our local catchment. At our recent AGM, we shared our achievements over the past financial year – we’ve definitely been busy!
Garden Guardians are superheroes
Bussleton’s Vasse-Wonnerup wetlands provide the most significant breeding habitat for black swans in Western Australia, and regularly supports over 20,000 waterbirds. One of the major threats facing these important wetlands is excess nutrient run-off from surrounding households and farms. With funding from the National Landcare Program , South West Catchments Council (SWCC) worked with GeoCatch […]
Community learn about the Vasse Surge Barrier
Around 20 community members have taken the opportunity to hear from managers of the Vasse Wonnerup wetlands on how the surge barriers operate and are managed. GeoCatch hosted the event at the Vasse surge barrier in response to community members asking how the surge barriers worked and how management decisions are made. The surge barriers […]
Dairy farmers benchmarked against new code of practice
The latest review of dairy effluent management on South West farms by Western Dairy has shown considerable improvement in the areas of storing and reusing effluent since the last review in 2016. The review provided the opportunity to revisit benchmarking of effluent management across Healthy Estuaries WA catchments following upgrade work completed under the Dairycare […]
Industry expert explains nutrients in your garden
If you are gardening in the Geographe Catchment, tune into this informative recording from the Bay OK workshop “Gardening on Sandy Soils”. Shannon White from Baileys Fertilisers informed participants about products they can use in their gardens to ensure plants are getting the nutrients and water they need to thrive. He explained that gardeners with […]
Nutrient best management practices guideline Guidance For beef, sheep and dairy grazing enterprises in south-west Western Australia
New guidelines to assist farmers and reduce environmental impacts Best practice guidelines to assist South-West grazing farmers with on-farm management of nutrients New guidelines will help farmers maximise stock productivity, while reducing nutrient runoff and environmental impacts on our local waterways Guidelines part of the McGowan Government’s $25 million Healthy Estuaries WA and Revitalising Geographe […]
July Grazing Matcher farmer meeting
The sun was out for the July Grazing Matcher meeting at the Payne Farm in Metricup last week. A healthy discussion on the influence of soil type and residual phosphorus in south-west soils was led by Joel Hall, from Department of Water & Environmental Regulation. The group had lots of interesting questions about how fertilising can […]
New trials to provide insights for best practice soil management on sandy soils
Two new trial sites on dairy farms in the Vasse and Scott River catchments have been launched to demonstrate how top-dressing applications of Iron Man Gypsum (IMG) can keep phosphorus on farms where it is needed, instead of being washed into our estuaries where it can cause algal blooms and water quality issues. IMG is made up […]
Bay OK Winter tips for the garden
The winter solstice has now passed and the lengthening days signal our plants to start growing. So, what should we be doing in our gardens this winter? We have received a reasonable amount of rain in June and July, but it is still less than the long-term average for the South West. This means that […]
