|
Name: Kristy
Title/role: Soil Health Project Officer
Location: DPI Wodonga
Description of work undertaken
Kristy's job involves working with landholders, Landcare, school groups and the wider community to improve land management from a paddock to catchment level. This is done through raising awareness of soil health, soil conservation and whole farm planning.
Highlights of the Job
The best parts of the job for Kristy are the amount of time she gets to spend outdoors working with community groups. She also has the opportunity to network with other staff from a variety of areas, learn new skills and see some of the beautiful areas in the North East and Victoria. Kristy's job has enabled her to learn many new skills, travel extensively, work with different agencies and make some good friends.
Course studied
Kristy studied a Bachelor of Natural Resource Management at the University of New England in Armidale. Some of the topics that she studied in the course included vegetation management, park and wildlife management, aquatic ecology, soil science, habitat evaluation and rural extension in agriculture.
Advice to students
Kristy suggests following your passion and trying some work experience in the areas that interest you. Make sure you keep an eye out for doors that may open and build your networks.
Current happenings in the "soil scene"
Soils in Australia are old, fragile and easily degraded. Organic matter in soil assists with aggregation and stimulates better crop growth due to higher amounts of nutrients, better root growth and increased water supply to plants.
At the Department of Primary Industries, Tatura, there is work on a number of projects researching the benefits of improving soil health in agriculture. One project involves investigating the ability of farmers to increase soil organic matter (soil carbon) levels by changing practices (eg. reducing tillage, growing green manures, applying compost, retaining crop residues). This is done using replicated experiments on farmers' properties and using farmer paired paddocks (where they take measurements from farmer's paddocks with vastly different management methods used).
The DPI team are trying to ascertain whether increasing soil carbon:
- improves soil health ( meaning increasing soil biology, improving soil structure and protecting against erosion, suppressing weeds and disease, improving soil fertility, improving water infiltration and soil water holding capacity)
- reduces the need for use of agrochemicals (high analysis fertilisers, fumigation, herbicides) and therefore reduce costs
- increases yield and/or long-term sustainability.
Results from these projects are passed back to farmers to help increase crop yields and reduce costs of production. The other key benefit of the research is to protect soil from degradation and improve the sustainability food and fibre production for the future.
Information provided by Nick O'Halloran - DPI Tatura
next»
Professional Development Update
|
