School of Animal Biology

The population of the world is tipped to reach nine billion by 2050 and UWA is already working on developing the best farming methods to help feed that many people.

The University's new research farm near Pingelly will be developed as self-supporting, sustainable, clean, green and ethical – a best-practice farm for 2050, hence the name WA Future Farm 2050.

The 1,600 hectare property, officially opened at the end of 2009, has already started pooling expertise from across three faculties: Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Engineering Computing and Mathematics, and Architecture Landscape and Visual Arts.

Plant and animal biologists are working on restoring the farm's natural ecosystem; agricultural scientists are planning crop and animal enterprises; architects and environmental engineers are designing efficient buildings and water and energy management systems.

1. The farm of the future
2. Restoration
3. Cropping project
4. Clean, green and ethical
5. The farmhouse
6. 'Reducing emissions from livestock' research program

The farm of the future

The Future Farm aims to integrate the cropping, livestock and native ecology and to be carbon-neutral by 2020.

A high priority is to contribute to the community and to be a good neighbour. The School has been working hard on the same goal for almost 30 years at its other farming property, Allandale, near Wundowie. However, Allandale had become difficult to manage in recent years.

It was a successful research station, supporting dozens of postgraduate programs, but the world has changed: the surrounding farms have all been carved up into hobby farms, so that there are now 70 neighbours. This has been a problem when, for example, the distribution of fox baits at Allandale required the permission of all 70 neighbours – a management nightmare.

Further, the farm also became too small for the School's needs, and Allandale is in an area only suited to animals and not suited to cropping research.

The Future Farm is an exciting new project for UWA at a time when other universities and institutions are pulling out of their rural research stations.

Curtin University of Technology is closing Muresk, and CSIRO and the WA Department of Agriculture are backing away from regional research stations. Adelaide University is selling several properties.

It goes against the trend to buy a new farm, but the School needs to do the research to be able to make a difference to the community and to remain relevant in rural areas. This is a huge project that is full of potential, but it must be very different from the traditional research station.

In this case, the farm cannot simply become a black hole for money. It has to be fully self-supporting, making an income to support a manager (maybe even two managers and their families) and still generate enough to renovate itself.

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Restoration

Large tracts of the natural ecosystem will be restored, despite there not being much left. Fortunately, the original owners protected some areas and the property is next to Boyagin Rock Nature Reserve, from which we can learn what the land was like before it became a farm.

A team led by one of the best ecosystem restoration experts in the world on our staff, Professor Richard Hobbs, will oversee this part of the project.

Plant ecologist Rachel Standish and animal biologist Nicola Mitchell will be working with Professor Hobbs, advising the farm committee on ecosystem restoration.

The best news for this team is that a hatchling long-necked tortoise was recently found in the creek, proving that although the area looks totally degraded, animals are still living and breeding there. As well as the tortoise, many other sizns of biodiversity have been found, including seven different species of amphibians, four gecko species, carpet pythons, dugites and legless lizards, and plant communities that are under-represented in the region.

The first task will be to fence remnant vegetation to stop grazing animals from degrading it. The School has in place an arrangement with Carbon Neutral for Men of the Trees to plant a mix of trees on the property. Some of the trees may be oil mallees, which are a cash crop, although not so useful for biodiversity, but the farm must pay its way.

A/Professor Mitchell is taking groups of students studying ecology and conservation biology at UWA to the farm this year to begin collecting baseline data from which to assess changes in the biodiversity as trees are planted on the property.

If the trees to be planted are really going to make a difference as carbon offsets, the University must agree to have that land under trees for 100 years, a requirement of farming carbon. The trees to be planted were also selected because of their ability to regenerate after a fire; if there is a bushfire, at least the Univeristymeans we won't lose its carbon farming enterprise.

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Clean, green and ethical

The animal enterprise falls into the ‘clean green and ethical' production ethos that has driven all the teaching and research on animal industries at UWA. Clean refers to chemical-free animal production; green is about the ecological issues; and ethical refers primarily to animal welfare.

A big ecological problem for Australian and the rest of the world is methane produced by grazing animals. Dr Phil Vercoe has been working with the CSIRO, Meat and Livestock Australia and the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to develop management systems in which sheep and cows produce less methane.

This is not only good for the atmosphere, but the energy the animals would otherwise lose is retained in increased production of wool and meat.

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