Barkly beef
Northern Territory. Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries
Barkly Beef; E-Journals; PublicationNT; Barkly Beef
2016-06-01
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).; This publication contains many links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.
English
Agriculture; Tennant Creek Region; Periodicals
Northern Territory Government
Tennant Creek
Barkly Beef
Newsletter, June 2016
application/pdf
1325-9539
Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Northern Territory Government
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/266011
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/455034
DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRY AND FISHERIES Page 8 of 23 Barkly Beef Newsletter grazing categories: 1. Rotational grazing regime, heavy past grazing impacts (under four kilometres from an original water point) 2. Rotational grazing regime, light past grazing impacts (over four kilometres from an original water point) 3. Continuously grazed, heavy past grazing impacts (under four kilometres from an original water point) 4. Continuously grazed, light past grazing impacts (over four kilometres from an original water point) Results 1. Peabush supports a good diversity of flora and fauna: 115 plant species (in black-soil areas) nine native mammal species 32 reptile species three native frog species 127 bird species. 2. Over the studys three year time frame we found no clear differences in the distribution or abundance of native flora and fauna between rotational and continuous grazing regimes. There were no definitive declines attributable to rotational grazing. 3. Capture and observation rates for small mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds varied considerably over time, but variation was similar across all grazing treatments. 4. Fauna abundance appeared to fluctuate primarily in response to variation in Wet Season rainfall. 5. Perennial grass cover and abundance remained fairly constant at all sites for the duration of the study. 6. Growth of annual grasses and forbs responded primarily to variation in Wet Season rainfall and was not affected by the introduction of rotational grazing. 7. Perennial grass cover tended to be lower (and forb cover tended to be higher) at sites with a heavy grazing history. Recovery of perennial grasses following the switch to rotational grazing was evident at some of these sites toward the end of the study. However, sites with particularly heavy grazing histories (under one kilometre from an original water point) failed to recover. Recovery of perennial grasses at these sites is likely to take some time and may require specific management to assist in the recovery process. Recommendations While impacts of switching to rotational grazing were not evident in the three years of this study, longer term effects on biodiversity may yet occur. Continued, but perhaps less intensive monitoring of biodiversity at peabush will help to detect long term change and will enable the effects of rotational grazing to be distinguished from those attributable to natural climatic variation. Stripe-faced dunnart (Sminthopsis macroura) captures increased considerably toward the end of the trials