Mapping livestock grazing in large Mallee paddocks

The integration of cropping and grazing remains a major management challenge, as paddock sizes tend to be large to benefit efficient cropping practices. Furthermore, Mallee paddocks are also characterised by extreme soil variability and these variable soil types support different levels of feed availability and have different susceptibilities to soil erosion. Technology such as portable fencing systems and virtual fencing potentially offer a solution to the issue of grazing large Mallee paddocks with high soil variability. However, to effectively design and deploy these innovative grazing techniques, the grazing behaviour of livestock in these paddocks needs to be understood and quantified. This project has begun to address this knowledge gap by quantifying livestock (sheep) grazing habits in a large Mallee paddock with variable soil types.