"Kolonga" In brief..

Property:

Kolonga

Address:

Narromine

Owners:

Gordon Robertson

Phone:

Area (in hectares)

1600 ha

Rainfall (mm/pa)

470 mm

Oldman Saltbush area (hecatares)

116 ha

year of first Planting

1988

Q & A: an interview with Gordon Robertson

Why OMSB planted?   

Have seen the benefits of OMSB in the Riverina  years ago.

What grazing and pasture benefits have been observed? 

Feed reserves, and to use at shearing time. Freshly shorn ewes have shelter. Rams are conditioned before  joining. It does allow more water to get into the soil. This shown by the point that we have a dam at the end of the paddock that is now hard to fill.

What financial benefits have been observed?  Saves feeding stock, although it is to small an area to say what the big benefits could be. If we had more Im certain the economic benefit would be easier to work out.

Biggest OMSB impact?   Shearing time is easier to handle because we have more feed close to our shed.

Any problems with OMSB?  Sown too thick (3,000/ha) and we did not graze the plant hard enough in the first couple of years.

Do you / if you had a salinity problem, do you think OMSB would help with controlling deep drainage and/or lowering the water table?  Yes, I have seen it fix salinity on other properties.

Would you like to increase your area sown to OMSB? Yes

What limits your planting of a larger area?  Finance

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