Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) program

The Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) program aims to improve land management and reduce soil loss and sediment run-off from grazing enterprises.

It is delivered by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) in partnership with 3 regional bodies:

• NQ Dry Tropics
• Fitzroy Basin Association
• the Burnett Mary Regional Group.

DAF services the grazing industry across all 3 Great Barrier Reef regions:

• Burdekin
• Fitzroy
• Burnett Mary.

What we do

We offer on-ground support to graziers to improve land management (focused on C and D land condition). We do this by:

• supporting graziers to develop and implement action plans for land management
• providing incentives funding
• one-on-one extension.

The program also helps graziers to:

• understand their obligations
• meet or exceed the minimum practice standards under the Reef protection regulations.

Benefits of the project

GRASS supports graziers to apply management practices that:

• improve land condition
• increase ground cover
• reduce the risk of soil loss
• improve the capacity of the land to respond to rainfall to produce useful forage.

These changes:

• improve the quality of water flowing to the Reef
• can increase the grazing business’ productivity.

GRASS will:

• engage grazing businesses in the 3 Reef regions (Burdekin, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary) and provide support to improve land management (particularly for C and D condition land)
• involve graziers in improving Reef water quality outcomes and land management
• provide graziers with opportunities to access funding for on-ground works that support practice change as well as water quality outcomes
• ensure graziers understand their obligations under the Reef protection regulations and are supported to meet, or exceed, minimum practice standards.
• ‘check-in’ with participating grazing businesses 12 –18 months after developing their plan to identify how they are going and what additional assistance might be required through GRASS or other programs.
• GRASS will also report on program impact and outcomes for graziers, delivery partners, investors and others to inform how the program can better support the grazing community into the future.