The Finlaysons at Bokhara Plains
Resilience in the Rangelands | Updated October 2024
‘People would like to get more rain in this country, but what we need to do is have the ability to capture more of the rain. We can’t change how much we get, but we can change how effective it is.’ – Graham Finlayson
In 1999, when Graham and Cathy Finlayson acquired Bokhara Plains, they accepted the property was run down and degraded. Roughly 50% of the area was claypan or bare ground, and they needed to often cut scrub as fodder to keep their sheep alive. They grew tired of feeling helpless in periods of drought, and after reading Allan Savory’s book on Holistic Management, they became determined to create a more productive, resilient landscape on their property.
Early on their journey to rehabilitate the landscape and improve production, the Finlaysons observed that new plant growth happened in disturbed areas of the claypans. To facilitate this landscape response, they began by using machinery and eventually stock to break up the claypans, allowing water to penetrate and seeds to germinate.
Reflecting on their 20 years in the rangelands, Graham emphasises that enterprise resilience requires having the goal of ‘100% ground cover, 100% of the time’. Although difficult to ultimately achieve a goal like this, particularly in a landscape such as the rangelands with highly variable and relatively little rain, Graham reiterates the importance of at least being ‘rain-ready’. Rain-ready means having the plants, animals and soil health in place to help the landscape absorb, hold and efficiently use any rain when it comes.
As Graham says, it’s not about how much it rains, but rather ‘how much rain goes into and stays in the soil’.
In the time they have owned their Brewarrina property, Graham and Cathy have experienced significant variations in twelve-month rolling rainfalls, ranging from 100 to 850 mm. They use simple and reliable practices to be ‘rain-ready’, such as intensive rotational grazing, matching stocking rate to carrying capacity and mechanical interventions to rehabilitate claypans. These practices harness the ability of plants and livestock to help rebuild soil health and animal productivity on the rangelands.
‘Early on, we had the Millennium drought, and we thought that was about as bad as it could get, but this most recent dry period from 2013 to 2020 was statistically and consistently worse, with a consecutive 96 months well below the average rolling twelve-month rainfall,’ Graham said.
The Finlaysons learned hard but valuable lessons during the Millennium drought, and planning for the inevitable dry spells is now part of their overall strategy. When droughts last beyond two to three years, their focus is to minimise damage so their country can respond when it does eventually rain. The Finlaysons attribute getting through the latest drought to two things: their rain-ready strategies for ecology and business diversification.
(L-R) Cathy, Graham and Harriet Finlayson with Chad Brash. Source: Grow Love Project.
Farm Facts
Location
Ngemba, Ualarai, Murrawarri and Wailwan Country, Brewarrina, NSW
Climate
Hot dry summer, cold winter
Average Annual Rainfall
404 mm average*
Agro-ecological Region
Dry**
Property Size
9,300 ha
Elevation
115 m
*Sourced from MyClimateView.com.au. Farmer reported 385 mm.
**Extreme variability of rainfall is a defining feature of southern rangelands and has a significant impact on the challenges and solutions being explored at Bokhara Plains.
Social Structure
Family-owned and operated
Enterprise Type
Self-replacing cattle and sheep
Landscape
NSW rangelands
Soils*
Heavier deep cracking black soil floodplains through to lighter clay areas
*Learn more about soil classifications at Soil Science Australia
Practices for Improving Soil and Landscape
Early days
When they bought Bokhara Plains, Graham and Cathy were daunted by the amount of hard bare ground, so they set out to address degradation to develop healthier and more productive land. They drew on their knowledge from holistic management programs, such as those delivered by Resource Consulting Services (RCS), to increase overall groundcover and create maximum diversity.
They initially used mechanical strategies by ripping lines to catch water and stimulate the seed bank, but in recognition of the beneficial role of livestock, they combined these two methods to drive their long-term progress forward despite tough seasons. They now manage cattle to provide strategic ‘disturbance and rest’ in which animal biological processes can disturb and fertilise the soil and trigger plant growth to fill the moisture void in dry landscapes.
‘It’s not just the drought, but it’s the land’s capacity and ability to be able to respond after the drought,’ Graham said. ‘The best and most economical way to create positive change in these dry, brittle environments is to utilise biology, and the most consistent biology we have available is in the rumen of domesticated livestock.’
Rotational grazing with more paddocks
Graham shares that ‘the best investment to be made in any grazing business is wire and water infrastructure, second only to investing in our own education’. Over the past 20 years, the Finlaysons have built on Graham’s experiences as a Nuffield Scholar and with RCS’s Grazing for Profit course to refine their holistic management techniques. Evolving from a six-paddock extensive layout, they have developed about 170 paddocks in a traditional cell grazing wagon wheel design (Images 5 and 6), with the watering points in the centre. Paddock sizes range from 20 to 400 ha and average 50–60 ha.
Having more paddocks allows their management to be more intensive. After finding the landscape improved after running some agistment cattle on Bokhara Plains, Graham and Cathy realised the beneficial role of cattle in the environment. They began to incorporate cattle, and later camels, into their enterprise mix.
Graham and Cathy now move 700 cattle regularly with grazes that can be from half a day to a few days in length, in accordance with their 12-month grazing plan across the property. With such regular movement, ease of handling is critical and they use low-stress stock handling, select sires with calm temperaments and cull any animals that do not match their goals for grass efficiency and good handling. An added benefit of the resulting calm herd is that paddocks can be fenced using a single electric wire.
‘[Cattle are] a giant biological vat that breaks down dry cellulose and turns it into high-quality protein and the best fertiliser known to man and puts it back out on the paddock. The plants love it. The biodiversity loves it, the wildlife loves it. It’s incredible how many things turn up in paddocks where the cattle are. Life just creates more life.’ – Graham Finlayson
Image 1. Cattle on Bokhara Plains. Source: Grow Love Project.
Image 2. Cattle help to stimulate growth and fertilise the landscape. Source: Grow Love Project.
Image 3. Daughter Harriet Finlayson has started a pastured poultry enterprise. Source: Grow Love Project.
Image 4. There are two camels in the Finlayson’s herd, which play a similar role in the landscape to cattle. Source: Grow Love Project.
How they measure
The Finlaysons measure dry sheep equivalent (DSE) days or livestock unit days (LSU) monthly. As the landscape is a fixed measure in this equation, these indicators identify if cattle numbers are increasing or rainfall is decreasing. Whilst they can’t change the rainfall, they can make decisions about livestock numbers and available feed in order to match stocking rate to carrying capacity. As a result of monitoring in this way, they have entirely de-stocked half a dozen times between 2001 and 2019. This responsiveness is critical in their system, with the long-term goal of improving the land condition enough to reduce this necessity.
Graham believes ‘well-managed livestock’ are the key to reversing many environmental problems, particularly in the rangelands, and says that a flexible approach is essential to managing complex grazing systems.
Using cattle and pasture rest (intensive planned rotational grazing) primarily, they have increased carrying capacity per hectare from under 8 LSU days per hectare per 100 mm of rainfall (LUS/ha/100 mm) to 9.4 LSU/ha/100 mm, with a lot more consistency in feed availability. In combination with the intensive rotational grazing system, they have utilised mechanical interventions such as ripping and ponding to convert over 700 ha of claypans to productive, pastured rangelands (Image 7). While these carrying capacity benchmarks are used by Graham and Cathy to monitor the long term productivity of their land and match stocking rate to carrying capacity, they are quick to note that it is critical to assess and react to on-ground assessments of landscape condition and pasture availability.
Image 5. Aerial imagery of wagon wheel design. Source: Grow Love Project.
Image 6. Close up of wagon wheel design. Source: Grow Love Project.
Sharing what works for them
The Finlaysons have decided to participate in the Rangelands Living Skin project to generate data for the rangelands context and to encourage ‘more science and farmer collaboration’. They can see that the practices they have used over the past 20 years have achieved beneficial outcomes, but they want to be able to demonstrate the ‘why and how’ with scientific data.
In addition, Graham sees potential in the carbon and biodiversity markets. He says undertaking a carbon project requires a more intensive management approach and that these projects ‘can bring people back into the landscape’ if designed well. The Rangelands Living Skin project provides an opportunity for producers to investigate these options through the assessment of soil carbon and on-farm biodiversity.
The peer group interaction that is central to the project is something Graham values. He said, ‘There’s so much to gain and nothing to lose. We’re not competing with each other, you know. As successful as my neighbour can be, it’s not going to take anything away from us also being successful.’
Image 7. Aerial imagery of previous claypan rehabilitation. Source: Grow Love Project.
Rangelands Living Skin trial practices
As part of the Rangelands Living Skin project, producers are running low-cost trials of various scalable practices that they hope will offer multiple benefits. The trials include a trial chosen by the farmer (demonstration site), as well as replicated trials across the farms and remote sensing data to reflect grazing management.
Farmer-led demonstration site: mechanical intervention and biostimulants
The Finlaysons used additional practical and inexpensive methods to rehabilitate claypans and clay (not salty) scalds. Together with the project partners, the Finlaysons designed an experiment for testing three practices, creating one plot for each practice and designating a fourth plot as a control in which no actions were undertaken.
The three practices can be summarised as 1) ripping, 2) ripping, planting saltbush seed and applying biological stimulants and 3) applying hay and creating herd disturbance. The trial plots 1 and 2 tested whether mechanical disturbance of the claypan, with and without the addition of saltbush seed and biostimulants, would increase water absorption and allow plants to establish and increase ground cover on scalded areas.
‘What we are really lacking is a seed bed. There’s a seed bank, but there’s not a seed bed. There’s not an ability for the ground to absorb moisture and hang onto it enough and for that hard capping of the surface to be broken up so that plants can actually grow.’ – Graham Finlayson
Plot 3 tested the impact of intense herd disturbance on the claypan. To prepare the third plot, hay bales were spread throughout the area to introduce organic matter, increase excitement among the entering herd and ensure the herd dispersed across the plot. A herd of around six hundred 450 kg cattle (and two camels) disturbed the claypan overnight with as much continuous herd movement encouraged during this time as possible. Reflecting on the trial, Graham said, ‘We had a really good mulching impact, a lot of dung deposited, and then we were lucky to get 60 mm of rain. I’ve been toying with doing this for over 20 years on this claypan.’ His reflection reinforces the challenge of running these trials, as the weather can have a strong influence on the outcome. Graham plans to run the herd through the areas again to create more disturbance.
Image 8. The three trial plots compared to a control plot. Source: Kirsty Yeates, ANU.
Replicated plot trials
In addition to the demonstration site at each farm, a set of three replicated plot trials of biostimulants were undertaken across the four participating Rangelands Living Skin farms. The replicated plot trials provided an opportunity to investigate the soil and plant benefits of various treatments on a small scale in a scientifically rigorous manner.
The treatments were selected by core producers in collaboration with the project partners, and in this case included biological inputs (bioprimers).
The treatments at Bokhara Plains included:
- Control: no application of treatments or sowing of new species. This is the reference site to which the other treatments were compared.
- Bioprimer (Solid): application of a solid biological stimulant material to existing vegetation/soil. The solid bioprimer was applied by hand at a rate of 250 kg/ha.
- Bioprimer (Liquid Foliar): application of a liquid biological stimulant material to existing vegetation. The liquid biofoliar spray was applied using a 15 L knapsack sprayer at a rate of 5 L/ha.
At each site, three replicates of each treatment were established in late July 2022 in a randomised, blocked design.
Image 14. Trial design for Bokhara Plains. Source: NSW DPI.
Remote sensing of grazing management
Changes in ground cover in response to improved grazing management (managing stocking rates and resting paddocks) on Bokhara Plains over the last 24 years were assessed using remote sensing data. Landsat satellite imagery was used to compare the total ground cover on Bokhara Plains with similar land types within 10 km of the property (benchmark areas) for every season since 1989. This method allows the impact of management to be separated from some of the temporal and spatial variability associated with seasonal conditions and different land types. A positive trend in the difference in cover between Bokhara Plains and the benchmark areas from the time of changed grazing management would indicate positive impacts of changing management practices.
Insights and Observations
Grazing management and ground cover
The Finlaysons have reported an almost doubling in carrying capacity since changing their grazing management. They are currently running off a more conservative benchmark, notwithstanding that extra carrying capacity still exists. These observations are reflected in ground cover data. Based on 30 years of satellite data, Bokhara Plains has had historically low and variable ground cover (between 30% and 60%), well below that of the surrounding region. Ground cover at Bokhara Plains was decreasing compared to the surrounding region prior to management changes, but that trend has been significantly reversed since management change, taking the property in the direction of Graham’s goal of 100% ground cover.
Figure 1. Ground cover trends between 1989 and 2023 on Bokhara Plains. From top: Percentage ground cover for Bokhara Plains (solid line) and the surrounding 10km region (dashed line), with smoothed trendline for Bokhara Plains; Difference in percentage ground cover between Bokhara Plains and the surrounding region, with smoothed trendline; Seasonal rainfall (mm). The vertical dashed line indicates the beginning of management change. Source: NSW DPI.
Scald and claypan restoration
The Finlaysons have been experimenting with scald and claypan regeneration practices since taking over stewardship of their property and also as part of the Rangelands Living Skin project. This project specifically compared the effects of intense cattle impact (600 cattle held overnight on <1 ha of claypan + hay) with deep ripping (a single tine, to 30 cm depth width, 1 m between row spacings), and in another plot, deep ripping plus seeding of old man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia), across three replicate scalds claypans on Bokhara Plains. All of these claypans initially had close to zero ground cover and no biomass.
The impact of the practices on soil, pasture and biodiversity are being monitored by measuring surface soil condition, soil carbon, soil biology, ground cover and pasture composition. So far, in observing the four claypan rehabilitation trial plots, the Finlaysons have noticed that after rain, the water was absorbed much faster in the plot of herd disturbance rather than in the plots with mechanical ripping, where the water was pooling.
According to Graham, ‘When we create disturbance, we get growth, and sometimes it’s very early succession plants, which is quite often what people would call weeds or less palatable or less desirable species, but they’re the plants that do a good job for us.’ Early succession plants can also help to establish roots in the soil and create an environment where more desirable species can become established.
Analysis of these claypan restoration trials validates these observations, showing that both ripping and high intensity animal impact for a short duration had a positive impact on the restoration of degraded scalds across Bokhara Plains, increasing a) ground cover up to 40% (from an initial 0% cover), b) biomass up to 1 t/ha and c) plant diversity (Image 15). Both the ripping and cattle interventions delivered similar levels of increased ground cover and biomass, but with differences in species composition. Unfortunately, the saltbush did not establish and was therefore later excluded from the monitoring. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted management actions in restoring scalded areas.
Image 15. Drone imagery of the demonstration site area in May 2024, 2 years after the start of the trial. Clockwise from top left: Untreated area; Ripping only; Ripping + saltbush; Cattle.
The Finlaysons have been using mechanical interventions, including water ponding and deep ripping, to increase water infiltration and restore over 700 ha of scalds and claypans over the last 30+ years, alongside planned grazing management. Analysis of satellite imagery across these areas shows a strong trend of increasing ground cover following the mechanical treatments (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Response to ponding and ripping on Bokhara Plains (1989–2023). Each line represents one of the 22 claypan areas included in the claypan restoration trial. The red dotted horizontal line represents the average groundcover for the untreated control scalds over the 30 year monitoring period. The vertical dotted line represents the time at which the interventions were undertaken.
Replicated biostimulant trials
The results of the biostimulant trials highlighted the challenges of using biostimulant products in a rangelands environment, and indicated that management approaches that instead aim to support and grow indigenous soil biology may be more effective. The biostimulant trials replicated across the four core producer properties sought to explore whether foliars, solid vermicast, and biochar changed soil biological function and vegetation biomass, compared to a control site with no treatment. In order to monitor the impact of the biostimulant trial, a series of 25 cm² cotton strips were buried and monitored at 8, 12 and 14 weeks after applying the biostimulants. Soil biology breaks down cotton, so this test is commonly used to measure biological activity.
The application of biostimulants did not show a statistically significant change in soil biology or vegetation biomass after 5 months. This result needs to be understood in context. Soil biology and biological activity in rangeland environments is significantly influenced by soil moisture levels, and the variability of these can potentially outweigh any effect of biological stimulants. The trial highlighted challenges in applying the biostimulant products at scale and at optimal times to maximise their success in vast, diverse and climatically variable rangeland grazing systems. In addition, the high sensitivity of biostimulant products to seasonal conditions (e.g. soil moisture and temperature) may be difficult to avoid in a rangeland context, which may make it difficult to make biostimulants commercially effective in a rangeland environment.
While the biostimulant treatment did not show any effect, a Soil Food Web analysis showed that the soils on Bokhara Plains had reasonable indigenous biological activity. The cotton strips at Bokhara lost on average between 44 and 74% of their tensile strength in the first 8 weeks (after which, no samples could be found at 12 and 14 weeks). Graham was still heartened by these observations, reflecting, ‘Even with variable seasons, our soil biology is present and arguably resilient.’
Greenhouse gas emissions and soil organic carbon
Greenhouse gas emissions for Bokhara Plains were calculated using the Sheep and Beef Greenhouse Gas Accounting Framework1https://carbon-calculator.mla.com.au/ based on cattle numbers. This analysis can help understand potential opportunities for graziers to contribute to climate change mitigation efforts. This analysis estimated an average of 880 tonnes of CO2e emissions per year between 2020 and 2023, with methane as the major emission source. The emissions are equivalent to 240 tonnes of soil organic carbon (SOC) per year. Bokhara Plains would need to sequester 0.033 tonnes (33 kg) of SOC per hectare per year in its soils to offset these emissions.
The project team advises that there are challenges to verifiably sequestering carbon in rangelands environments. SOC levels are low in the low and variable annual rainfall environment of the rangelands, exacerbated by an inherited legacy of degraded and eroded soil. A number of constraints in rangeland soils, such as salinity, acidity and sodicity, can make permanently shifting soil carbon levels difficult. In addition, assessments of SOC at a number of monitoring sites on the property revealed relatively high variability in carbon through the soil profile, making it difficult to verify small changes in SOC levels. The project team advised that the remediation of highly degraded areas such as scalded claypans might provide more easily measurable increases in soil carbon.
Despite the challenges in measuring soil carbon, the types of management changes trialled through this project, such as enhancing plant growth with remediation and grazing management, and encouraging a functioning soil ecosystem, can be effective strategies for land remediation even if SOC levels are difficult to increase in a measurable way.
Profitability
Over the 4-year period of the project, all four core producers including Bokhara Plains maintained a positive return on assets (ROA), with an average ROA across the four businesses of 3.76%. This is despite some challenging weather and industry conditions, higher than industry average transport costs for remote producers to get animals to market, and their decisions to sell stock at less than ideal prices during dry periods in order to maintain ground cover. These decisions are intended to build the soil and land condition and support ongoing future profitability.
Reflections on the project
Reflecting on the overall project, the Finlaysons appreciated the passionate and broad range of scientific interest in the rangelands. Graham described the project as a ‘great effort at getting people together in a positive forum, with room for a wide-ranging discussion’, and stressed that communication across such a diverse group of parties is essential.
In particular, the Finlaysons are excited about the potential for remote sensing to continue strengthening their decision-making, with Graham adding, tThere are a lot of benefits in technologies that can save time and money, and remote sensing will only get better and better. Picking up eventually on actual quality and quantity of biodiversity could be a game changer.’
Graham also appreciated how the Rangelands Living Skin project provide scientific evidence to support the landscape improvements that the Finlaysons have observed for many years.
Summarising some of his key insights over the past decades in terms of achieving these landscape improvements, the main insight is that ‘creating change takes energy and effort, particularly on the really degraded country’. In particular, Graham has learned that ‘rest’ is a great tool, but it is much more effective with beneficial impact (animal or mechanical) up front.
‘Using biology through the controlled use of animal impact is better again, but the more degraded country definitely needs a mechanical intervention to kick start the process. This process can be justified economically on those areas, but where country is in reasonable condition then I think cows are the far better option. If controlled.’ – Graham Finlayson
Acknowledgements
This case study was prepared as part of the Rangelands Living Skin Project. The Rangelands Living Skin is a four-year project in the NSW Rangelands co-designed by farming families, scientists and collaborators to evaluate cost-effective practices – chosen by producers – for fostering a productive rangeland system now and into the future.
In this project, four core producers trialled a range of practices to improve landscape health, livestock production and business performance to ultimately achieve greater resilience from year to year. The project will create an evidence base to inform the widespread adoption of practices that benefit soil, plants, animals and people – the living skin of the rangelands.
Led by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and funded by Meat & Livestock Australia, this project is a significant investment in the southern rangelands. The Rangelands Living Skin project is a truly collaborative project involving producers, industry, government, academia, researchers, educators and extension specialists, and carbon aggregators.
Soils for Life gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions of the partner organisations in this project. We also acknowledge that the contents of this case study do not necessarily reflect the views of these contributors.
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