The Climate-Smart Agriculture Program, under the Natural Heritage Trust, has announced the recipients of the Small Grants Round, which supports individuals, farming and community groups to carry out sustainable agricultural projects that support farmers and landholders to improve the management of natural resources and increase sustainable on-farm productivity and resilience to climate change.

Weddin Landcare has been named as one of the 26 recipients of the grant for their project titled “Over the Fence - Connecting farmers with farmers and other experts to increase local adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the Weddin district”.

Melanie Cooper, Local Landcare Coordinator for Weddin Landcare., said they are thrilled to be one of the recipients of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program Small Grant.

Weddin Landcare’s project extends on the concept that great ideas and practice change often result from the conversations that occur between farmers 'over the fence' and when farmers are prepared to look beyond their farm gate.

The project will connect farmers with leading or early adopting farmers and experts to gain the practical advice and guidance they need to adopt climate-smart agricultural production systems.

“Over the past five years, working for Weddin Landcare, I have discovered that we have some innovative and forward-thinking farmers in our district, achieving great results for both production and the environment.," Melanie said

"This project will help to share some of the great ideas and work that is being done within the Weddin district as examples to other local farmers of what can be achieved locally."

As part of the project, six field days will be held to demonstrate the viability of various best practice methods in a local context.

“Through this project, we will be able to connect farmers with other local farmers who are leading the adoption of new farming methods and attract sought-after experts to provide technical knowledge and advice on farm,” Melanie said.

Two bus trips will be run to encourage farmers to think more broadly and expose them to other, proven ideas that could be adapted locally.

“More and more, farmers are becoming quite insular and there are fewer social interactions such as sport, church and Landcare itself that provide opportunities for farmers to share what they are doing, solve problems and spark ideas."

"Farmers learn best from other farmers. We can provide as much advice and information as we like but it’s often not until a farmer sees something working practically for another farmer that the cogs of change begin to turn. We’re hoping that this project will help to bring farmers together to discuss topics on a casual basis and instigate that change,” Melanie said.

Six visual stories that showcase some of the great outcomes being achieved by our local farmers in the Weddin district will also be created to cater for the increasing number of farmers who gain their information online. Weddin Landcare will be working on the visual stories with Grenfell boy, Stuart Walmsley, one of Australia’s most multi-faceted content producers who has worked for the past 20 years as a photographer, reporter and film maker in Australia, the US and UK.

“We’re really excited to have Stuart involved in this project," Melanie said.

“Stuart lives in the bush and cares about the bush, with much of his work these days focusing on stories from rural and remote areas.

We think he’ll be able to pull together informative content that will really appeal to our local farmers,” Melanie added.

Anyone interested in being part of the project is urged to contact Weddin Landcare on 0417963475 or weddinlandcare@outlook.com

“We will be relying on farmers to come forward for this project to participate in the field days, bus trips and the visual stories so, if there’s a project you have done or an aspect of your farming operation that you think others could learn from, please get in touch,” Melanie said.

This project, is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.