“Building Better Pastoralists: NT’s Trusted Rangeland Training Heads West”

The NT Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) has been delivering free Rangeland Management Courses (RMC) on the stations for over 20 years right across the Territory, from the Queensland border through to southern NT.

The DAF team has built a strong and warranted reputation for delivering practical, hands‑on training that generations of stationhands and land managers swear by.  The course is aimed mainly at first and second year station hands, but it has been beneficial to have managers, head stockman, senior station hands in attendance to draw on their local knowledge, such as the stations history and preferred practices.

The course covers;

·       Land and pasture condition & monitoring

·       Carrying capacity

·       Cattle nutrition

·       Poisonous plants and production weeds

·       Fire as a management tool

All are aimed at helping participants see how day‑to‑day station work fits into the bigger pastoral picture.

Participant feedback has been consistent: the course helps them better understand their production systems and landscape and make more confident, informed decisions.

In 2023, the Northern Hub partnered with DAF to further support and fund the program. Since then, the Hub’s funding has enabled the team to increase number of stations they visited, re-brand the course and improve and expand their course materials.  This also included the DAF team developing a Central Australian course and delivering it to number of stations in the Alice Springs region.

And now, we’re excited to see the team heading west into the East Kimberley working alongside our Kimberley Node Manager, Mel McDonald to tailor course content to Kimberley landscapes. Just last week, the team visited Ruby Plains and Christmas Creek!

 To learn more, (in WA) - Mel McDonald: manager@kpca.net.au | (in NT) email: Stacey Holzapfel: livestock.extension@nt.gov.au