A rehabilitation project on cropping country near Euabalong West in the south of the shire is almost complete.
Senior Local Land Services (LLS) Officer, Paul Theakston has been involved in the rangeland rehabilitation project working with the property owner, Steve Small.
Mr Theakston said the project at Illewong, which commenced in February, looked to find a solution to halt erosion from numerous gullies running through Mr Small’s cropping country which were affecting his crop yields and cropping activity.
“My role is to look at an erosion issue and work out a solution to fit in with what the landholder wants to do,” Mr Theakston explained.
“I designed this system, laid it out and supervised the grader operator.”
Water spreading banks were built up to stabilise the gullies and improve water infiltration and ultimately crop yields.
Mr Theakston said this project was a bit different to other water spreading projects that he’s previously designed.
“The gully erosion running through the cropping paddock was eating away productive land and depositing silt on the crops that were growing,” he said.
“The landholder wanted to farm over the bank, normally it’s parallel to the bank.
“He wanted to go up and down the paddock so these banks are broad and the tractor can go over the bank.
“This increases farming efficiency but at the same time controls the erosion,” Mr Theakston explained.
The $30,000 project has been funded by grant funding matched by the landholder.
“It’s part of 2015 grant funding and was a cost sharing arrangement. The landholder had to apply and went through an assessment process and was successful,” Mr Theakston said.
The grading work was to have been completed by the end of last week and Mr Theakston expects Mr Small will commence sowing his next wheat crop within the month.
