Changes in practices and decisions resulting from the paired-paddock model used in the Grassland’s Productivity Program

Summary. A detailed survey was undertaken in the spring of 1995 with 20 wool producers in south-west Victoria and the south-east of South Australia to determine the impact of their participation for 18 months in a program called the Grassland’s Productivity Program. This program involved groups of producers establishing paired-paddock comparisons on their own farms with guidance from an experienced facilitator. Productive pasture practices (increased fertiliser rates, responsive pasture species and high stocking rates) were used in one paddock, while the remaining paddock was managed with existing practices. A second group of 15 producers from the same districts who did not participate in the Grassland’s Productivity Program were selected at random and also surveyed. Although the 2 groups of producers had similar pasture productivity parameters (phosphorus fertiliser, stocking rates and pasture resowing rates) in the autumn of 1993, the Grassland’s Productivity Program participants had significantly (P