The Gippsland Water Agribusiness operates across six broad-acre land assets including Dutson Downs, Eastern Region Irrigation (Maffra, Stratford and Heyfield) and Western Region Irrigation (Drouin and Mirboo North). These assets are managed in conjunction with Gippsland Water's wastewater treatment facilities.
A mix of farming enterprises are supported at each of our facilities. These include plantation, grain and fodder production and livestock programs. Each of these programs provides a complementary function within Gippsland Water's provision of sustainable water and wastewater services.
Livestock
Of all of Gippsland Water's facilities, Dutson Downs represents the principal farming operations. At present, Dutson Downs currently accommodates approximately 3,000 head of Angus and Hereford cattle.
Gippsland Water's livestock program is managed to produce cattle that meets a variety of premium markets.
Land degradation and agroforestry
Gippsland Water manages plantation estates in the region. Harvesting programs for this resource began in 2004 at Moondarra and Dutson Downs. We actively manage our activities to enhance the biodiversity value of Gippsland Water's broad-acre land assets.
Plantation forestry has been identified as a sustainable land use for Dutson Downs. Further investigations have been performed as part of developing a plantation/farm forestry management action plan for the Dutson Downs property with the objectives of:
- identifying the most suitable species of tree to meet land rehabilitation and/or production for forestry needs;
- determining optimum forest management practices to maximise merchantable timber volumes for the preferred tree species; and
- ensuring Gippsland Water is informed and well positioned to take advantage of opportunities presented by carbon credit trading and to guard against risks.
Crops
Gippsland Water is the largest producers of bulk mixed fodder products in Gippsland. These products include pasture, lucerne (cereal hay and silages), coarse grains and cereal straw. |