How can we better bridge the gap between research and livestock producers?  With this in mind, a group of livestock producers, research, extension and other specialists in northern NSW established the Cicerone Project to identify and resolve the important issues.  This paper describes the background and design of the project as well as providing the context for the 24 related papers which report the project’s findings.

Before commencing a novel livestock research and adoption project in northern New South Wales, a detailed survey was conducted to find out what were the most important problems producers had experienced. The results showed the most important problems related to the pasture feed supply. These findings helped set the direction for a collaborative program of farming systems research over the next eight years.

When sheep producers thought they were seeing false positive diagnoses of virulent footrot, they sought answers through producer-led research. Over two years, field trials of sheep infected with different strains of the footrot bacterium were tested for virulence at two locations. The results, complemented by DNA tests, led to an improvement in the reliability of footrot testing in NSW.

Planning a whole farmlet experiment to compare three different management systems required that any bias in the starting conditions was minimised. This paper describes the process by which each farmlet was allocated similar areas of land with respect to soil type, topography and fertiliser history. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that the initial conditions of each farmlet were similar to each other.

The Cicerone Project was a collaborative effort by livestock producers, researchers and extension specialists, which aimed to explore the profitability and sustainability of grazing enterprises on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia.This paper provides details of the general methods used in the farmlet trial, of relevance to a series of related papers which explore all aspects of the farmlet experiment and its findings. It also reports on the selection and definition of the farmlet treatments and describes how the guidelines evolved over the duration of the trial in response to the practical realities of conducting this complex, agroecosystem experiment.

Investigating different farming systems in a way that is credible to farmers and scientists is challenging because the farm size has to be sufficiently large to represent reality and this can prevent replication. This paper examines statistical inference of data from unreplicated farmlets and concludes that the differences that developed were most likely due to farmlet differences rather than chance. Appropriate statistical methods were exploited to allow practical and scientifically valid research on a scale seen as credible by farmers.

There are many ideas about what drives productivity in grazing systems. This paper confirms years of research demonstrating that phosphorus and sulfur fertility are critical. Therefore assessing soil phosphorus and sulfur levels should be the first thing producers address.

Farming systems research is subject to the vagaries of the climate during the experimental period. The Cicerone Project’s farmlet experiment, conducted in the summer-rainfall, temperate region of Australia, experienced more severe frosts and significantly lower rainfall and soil moisture than expected. These findings show that the experimental results need to be interpreted in the context of longer term climate data.

Livestock producers have questioned the relative impacts of pasture renovation, soil fertility and grazing management on long term productivity and sustainability. This paper reports on the changes in pasture species groups that occurred over 6 years in a whole farmlet trial. Higher levels of pasture renovation and soil fertility had more impact on the retention of desirable species than did intensive grazing management.

The quantity, quality and growth rate of pastures are fundamental to the success of any grazing livestock enterprise. As part of a multi-disciplinary farmlet study of different management systems, changes in herbage mass, quality and growth rate were more affected by higher levels of pasture and soil inputs than by grazing management. While season and climate dominated the production of quality pasture, pasture renovation, soil fertility and grazing management were all found to be significant contributors.

Estimating pasture growth over all paddocks of three different 53 ha farmlets is a challenging task. Satellite imagery was employed to provide estimates of pasture characteristics over numerous sampling points of each farmlet over 7 years. Significant differences in potential pasture growth and botanical composition were detected together with the effects of soil fertility, grazing management, climate and season.

Balancing the pasture feed supply with the feed demand of livestock is a challenging task. Experimental data from a complex farmlet trial was used to compare the energy supply in the pasture growth and supplements and the energy demand of livestock over 6.5 years. Nutritional stress levels were similar between farmlets but the rate of consumption of green herbage differed.

This experiment aimed to describe changes in livestock weights that influence profitability and sustainability of different grazing and pasture management systems. Liveweights of most animal classes varied with year and were generally heavier on the farmlets that used flexible rotational grazing with moderate soil fertility or higher sown pasture and soil fertility inputs than those with moderate soil fertility and intensive rotational grazing management.

Successful fine wool Merino enterprises depend largely on the quality of nutrition of their breeding ewes. A whole farmlet study of three different management systems found that ewe fat scores were best maintained with flexible grazing management and adequate levels of green and legume herbage. The experiment demonstrated the complex challenges involved in achieving improved reproductive performance.

The effects of higher pasture inputs and intensive rotational grazing on superfine wool quality and income were compared with typical management at a farmlet scale over 6.5 years on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. The three management strategies significantly affected wool production, quality and value per head, per hectare and per farmlet. Wool income per hectare was most affected by stocking rate.

Gut worm infection of sheep is costly and difficult to manage. This study evaluated the effects of grazing management system on worm control in a long-term farm scale experiment in northern New South Wales. An intensive rotational grazing system profoundly reduced worm burdens and the number of treatments for worms relative to a typical grazing system with limited rotation, whereas a high input system with improved pastures and limited rotation did not.

Annual gross margins alone aren’t enough to indicate the profitability of an investment. A representative farm approach was used to include overhead costs, which can differ significantly between management systems. Whole-farm level budgets are essential for comparing the overall profitability of different livestock management systems.

Risk, as well as profitability, is important in assessing investment. Several scenarios were used to estimate the commercial-scale returns and risk profiles under different rates of pasture improvement and stocking rates for a 20-year period. Moderate rates of pasture improvement in a variable climate are more likely to improve net worth than high rates.

How can managers of grazing enterprises balance trade-offs between animal production, profit and pasture persistence? This study developed a method of identifying the optimal tactical and strategic decisions in grazed systems under climatic uncertainty. In its application to a farmlet study, it demonstrated how the state of pasture and soil resources, and their interactions with climatic uncertainty influence the optimal decision.

Although fertiliser applications have long been used to enhance the production and quality of pastures in Australia, recent increasing costs have again brought into question the value of pasture fertilisers. Taking into account the effects of fertiliser prices and the relationships between soil fertility and pasture composition, a bio-economic model allowed the identification of the conditions under which fertiliser applications are viable. The study provides an example of the utility of bio-economic modelling for identifying risk-efficient strategies under climatic uncertainty.

Shade and shelter are important for sustainable livestock production. The 5-year survival and growth of trees planted in exposed paddocks on the Northern Tablelands, NSW, were strongly affected by position in the landscape. Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus nitens show commercial promise for timber production upslope, while E. acaciiformis and E. dalyrympleana are recommended for shelter or biodiversity in low-lying situations.

The Cicerone Project was a partnership between livestock producers, researchers and extension specialists on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia that investigated several complex grazing enterprise issues between 1998 and 2006. It was conducted as a Participatory Action Research project, which first surveyed livestock producers to learn of their problems and then carried out investigations according to the Project’s chosen motto of ‘compare – measure – learn – adopt’. The Project included research into footrot diagnosis and an investigation of whole-farmlet livestock and pasture management systems complemented by a multi-faceted extension and education component, which delivered findings to a wide array of stakeholders across the Northern Tablelands and adjacent regions.

Enhancing our understanding of grazed agroecosystems is a great challenge because so many factors interact in complex ways. An integrated overview of a whole-farmlet study is presented which demonstrates how the performance of different components of the farmlets changed over time. More profitable and sustainable systems are those which focus on flexible grazing management and improving pastures and soil fertility.

The Cicerone Project was a unique learning partnership that aimed to improve the sustainability and profitability of grazing enterprises through practical and scientifically valid research. Through producer leadership and collaboration with research and extension specialists, it achieved success in solving problems relating to animal health and understanding complex grazed farming systems by using whole farmlets. The success of this learning partnership, which enhanced the trust between all participants, provides a valuable example to others.