QCAA Agricultural Science Evaluation of an agricultural enterprise’s sustainability

Advantage: Long term planning allowing for the maintaining of family legacy.

Disadvantage: Original owners need to accept new business ideas for the enterprise (potential for conflict between family members regarding decisions about future direction of the enterprise).

Land is often cleared to prepare new ground for cropping.

A short-term effect could be soil erosion. A long-term effect could be decreased fertility.

The ownership structure is a company.
Characteristics of a company include that:
• it is a legal entity formed by a group of individuals to manage and operate a business enterprise, e.g. ‘The owners of this business’
• profits of companies may be distributed or withheld and are taxable, e.g. business is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

One strategy would be to improve fencing around the creek to limit cattle access. This would reduce overgrazing and soil erosion, decreasing the turbidity of the water.

Another strategy would be to reduce water allocation for irrigated fodder crops and rely more on using irrigation for improved pastures for pasture production. This strategy would allow greater flow in the creek and decrease salinity in fresh water.

A cooperative is a type of agricultural enterprise.
An example of a cooperative in Australia is the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative.
One feature of this cooperative is that it brings together many smaller farms to buy their required farm inputs (e.g. fertiliser) in bulk, therefore decreasing the price.
A second feature of this cooperative is that the volume of saleable products increases, meaning the cooperative can access new markets that need to supply greater volumes of product.

The two systems receive the same income per tonne of canola (＄460/t); however, the irrigated system produces 0.5 t more per ha than the dryland system. The significance of this is that the total income is higher for the irrigated system.

The most profitable system is the irrigated system. However, the variable expenses are higher for the irrigated system in contrast to the dryland system, so in terms of environmental sustainability, the dryland system is more environmentally sustainable with less inputs required, and its gross margin is similar to the irrigated system.

Therefore, the dryland system is the more financially and environmentally sustainable enterprise.

One way that natural resources are influenced by land clearing is through an increase in the productivity of grazing land. Land clearing would result in more grass for grazing animals, but less trees for native wildlife, i.e. decreased biodiversity.
A second way that natural resources are influenced by land clearing is through increasing the amount of land available for cultivation, which would result in a higher risk of erosion and soil loss in contrast to uncleared land.

Diversification is one risk management strategy the producer could use. This could involve adding another egg production system, such as barn-laid or free-range eggs, to the production mix to access higher financial returns for the end product.
Additionally, to prevent financial loss, the producer could attempt to secure a new market by arranging a new marketing agreement with another retailer.

Following the start of the Korea–Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) in 2015, the amount of fruit and vegetables exported to South Korea increased.
For example, in 2014, only 245 tonnes of oranges were exported to South Korea; however, in 2015 after a full year of KAFTA, 1015 tonnes of oranges were exported.

KAFTA caused an increase in cherry exports between 2014 and 2015.
The Korea–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (KNZFTA) would have allowed New Zealand growers to sell their cherries in Korea. This would have increased supply and therefore reduced demand for Australian cherries.
The lower than expected yield of Tasmanian cherries would have reduced the local supply of cherries and therefore reduced the amount of cherries available for the export market.

Considering beef production:

Physical resource management

1. Fencing (strength): Fencing off creeks helps to prevent soil erosion and maintain soil fertility and high water quality.
2. Whole-farm planning, e.g. wildlife corridors (strength): This increases on-farm biodiversity, provides shelter for stock and sequesters more carbon in the ground.
3. Land care, e.g. cell grazing (strength): Increasing the amount of time the pastures are spelled between grazing events will increase pasture productivity and carrying capacity of stock.

Biological resource management

1. Genetic selection of animals (strength): This improves animal growth and helps retain heterosis in future generations under the same environmental conditions.
2. Vegetation management (strength): This includes having excellent vegetation management practices for conservation and biodiversity, including small paddocks for cell grazing to maintain pasture productivity and creeks that have been fenced off to reduce erosion.
3. Biosecurity control (strength): This includes purchasing stock from known producers, obtaining health declarations for any incoming stock, and keeping new animals in the quarantine paddock for a minimum of 10 days before introduction to new pastures, flocks and herds.

Waste management

1. Solid waste (weakness): Removal of solid waste from the feedlot should happen on a regular basis. This would assist in decreasing the number of flies on the property and assist in reducing flystrike.
2. Water run-off (weakness): Management of the water run-off from the feedlot should be improved to avoid further contamination of other areas on the farm, e.g. controlling water run-off to avoid reducing the quality of water in the creek.
3. Vegetation management (strength): This will improve nutrient cycling carbon sequestration due to greater retention of vegetation on the property.

Conclusion
Currently, the company is operating in a sustainable manner. It has solid biological and physical resource management that demonstrates sound sustainable practice in fencing, land care, cell grazing and wildlife corridors.
There is room to improve the company’s waste management practices, as its solid and run-off feedlot waste currently does not use sustainable practices.

The lamb producer should consider diversifying into other enterprises. For example, they could grow dryland wheat.
This will result in a secondary income stream for the producer. If the dryland crop fails, it can still be used as a source of feed for lambs.

A dairy farmer can diversify their income by growing a dryland grain crop that can be used to supplement available feed for cattle or sold if feed prices are high or milk prices are low.