Over the Fence Visual Story - Maslin Pastoral Co.

The fourth film for our series of visual stories for the Over the Fence project features Bec and Charlie Maslin from ‘Caragabal West’, situated 50 km west of Grenfell. Once again, Stuart Walmsley has managed to capture some real truths of farming. The film highlights the vulnerability of farming – sometimes no matter how well we manage our enterprises, our groundcover, our livestock, our crop health, we are still at the mercy of the elements and there’s nothing like hearing that rain on a tin roof when it is needed…. We can’t control the water that falls from the sky but what we can do is create an environment that will optimise the amount of rainfall that is stored by our soils and plants to manage through climate and rainfall variability as best we can. This is exactly what the Maslins are doing. ‘Hope is not a strategy’ for them. Firstly, they have identified that their floodplain country is best suited to a grazing enterprise, with opportunistic cropping of some paddocks when possible. This is contrary to what others are doing around them, which can be isolating, but benchmarking has backed their decision up and proven the profitability for what they love doing. Secondly, they have set their farm up using wire and water to divide paddocks up to improve grazing management which has maximised groundcover and improved species diversity in pastures while allowing them to carry higher numbers of healthier livestock. Thirdly, they are acutely aware of the broader ecosystem that their farm is part of and actively embrace that ecosystem to support the natural cycles occurring on their country. Lastly, Bec and Charlie are setting their business up for success by keeping a close eye on what’s happening with their business and production through benchmarking and involvement in supportive farmer groups while also looking to the future - involving their kids and ensuring the whole family is on board with decisions that are made. The film also touches on the importance of community. Sometimes this is not necessarily the immediate community living around you. Sometimes it is seeking out like-minded people or advisors and farmers you respect to learn from and share with as Bec and Charlie have done. This is a big part of what the Over the Fence project is about – connecting farmers with farmers for ideas, information and support. This project is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust. Videography: stuartwalmsley.com