200 years on and looking to the future

IN the heart of the Tasmanian midlands is the property St Peters Pass and Middle Park run by the Morrison family. 

The historical farming property has been in their family since 1825.

Today the expansive 7,900-hectare property is under the management of sixth-generation farmer Dougal Morrison and his brother Fergus.

The farm's diverse operations include running 17,000 sheep—split evenly between prime lambs and merino wool—and 350 cows. 

In recent years, the Morrisons have undertaken a series of environmental and agricultural improvements that reflect their commitment to sustainability and to leave the land (as many farmers hope for) in a better state than they found it.

“Practicing what we preach and trying to improve things is really important,” Mr Morrison said.

“We want to increase productivity without compromising on degrading the environment.” 

This is evident in the work the Mr Morrison has been doing with Natural Resource Management (NRM) North.

They collaborated with NRM North to revegetate and fence along Blackmans Creek, a waterway that runs through their property. 

Previously, the creek was only partially fenced, and Mr Morrison had noticed a decrease in biodiversity, bank erosion and degradation along the waterway.

“We thought it was time to exclude stock from the waterways because it was getting a fair bit of erosion from where they were going in and out.”

“We needed a bit of a buffer zone from where the stock and cropping was happening from the waterway and to reduce the runoff of cattle and sheep.”

Recognising the need for action, NRM helped to install 4.1 kilometers of fencing along the creek to exclude stock access to provide protection for the 5,100 stems that would be planted following its completion.

The fencing project took about a year and a half to complete.

“With the fencing we had to do a few areas that were plain wire instead of netting because we were worried about fencing being washed away during a flood but hopefully it’s set up now so that they won’t get caught up in a flood.”

During the fencing project they worked with Land Conservancy Tas who recommended plant species and varieties that would be best suited to the areas that they were replanting.

The species included, Black Wattle, Narrow Leaf Wattle, Silver Banksia, Prickly Box, Swamp peppermint, Teatree, Manuka and Lemon Bottlebrush.

This vegetation was planted to help stabilise bank erosion, build resilience to flood events, and increase biodiversity and habitat values for years to come.

Although the fencing project has only just been finished they have already noticed a difference and more biodiversity.

“It’s a pretty exposed open area and having some trees there will help the stock as well and give them a bit of shelter and shade.

“NRM were really good and supportive and some of those things wouldn’t have been possible without their support.”

“They had so much knowledge and were able to provide us with a couple of volunteers a couple of weeks ago to help with the planting,” Dougal said.

In addition to their fencing work, the Morrisons are involved in a carbon sequestration project with Private Forests Tas.

This has seen them move from harvesting eucalyptus nitens to planting radiata pines—a species known for its faster growth and higher carbon storage capacity.

Over the last 4-5 years Mr Morrison said they have been harvesting between 50-100ha of nitens a year and replanting with radiata pines which has seen them turn a short rotation plantation into a long rotation.

“The nitens were only there for fifteen years and the pines will be there for 28 years so it should sequester a fair bit more carbon.”

“We’ve always grown timber here whether it’s been native or eucalyptus niten so it’s just the next step.”

The wood harvested is predominantly turned into wood chips and sent off to China and Japan.

Overall for Dougal it is the ticking off of these projects and seeing things continually improve that is most rewarding. 

“It’s working on those small things that you don’t notice in the day-to-day and over the course of three or four years seeing the bigger gains and the bigger picture.”

Some of these include increasing ewe and cow numbers, improving their landing percentage and wool cuts while also improving the pastures.

Recently, the team at the farm finished shearing their sheep which was a two-week long labour for the shearers, wool handlers and people involved.

The shearing was done in their recently completed, state-of-the-art shearing facility. 

“We went from an old retro fitted shed that was almost 200 years old to one that’s brand new, and it’s made a big difference.”

“All the handling facilities are a lot better and it’s a lot more centrally located so instead of having to walk sheep from one end to the other it’s more central which makes it a bit easier.”

Now that shearing is done, Mr Morrison says the next thing for the farm is the lamb marking of their early ewes and getting eID’s onto all of their cattle. 

As well as the sheep and all their restoration work, they do a limited amount of cropping including fodder cropping for their own stock.

Mr Morrison said they will often grow a couple of paddocks of cereal grain to fill their silos with feed for their stock.

After a tough 12 months of dry conditions, the fodder crop was a saving grace for the farm to keep their cattle fed throughout the year.

“We’ll finish up feeding in the next couple of weeks and we started in October last year, so it’s nearly been 12 months.”

“Normally we feed a little bit leading up to joining and maybe a little bit throughout winter but this year it’s been basically the whole way through,” he said.

This has meant they haven’t got any feed left in their stores.

“We did plan it this way, and we’ve been buying it in for the last 12 months but that’s fine, it is what it is.”

With several projects underway, including ongoing carbon planting and farm road improvements, Mr Morrison says there is always another project ready to be started.

“After we finish our current projects, we'll take a bit of a breath and see what's next for the future.”