The Green Sheep Project has moved into its field phase across the Wheatbelt, with demonstration sites selected and field monitoring now underway on participating farms.
Led nationally by Sheep Producers Australia and delivered locally by Wheatbelt NRM, the project is working with sheep producers to better understand, measure and showcase the environmental role of well-managed grazing within broadacre and mixed farming systems.
Over the coming 12 months, the Wheatbelt NRM team will visit demonstration sites to monitor a range of indicators, including soil condition, ground cover, pasture performance and other measures of natural capital. This monitoring will help build a clearer picture of how grazing timing, intensity and management influence pasture recovery, soil function, and overall farm resilience under Wheatbelt conditions.
A key focus of the project is nature-positive farming, which are practices that maintain productive grazing enterprises, but also support the improvement of biodiversity, soil health and landscape function.
The Green Sheep Project combines both on-farm monitoring and practical grazing strategies. The aim is to demonstrate how well-managed sheep enterprises can contribute to:
Healthy soils
Strong ground cover
Landscape function
Resilient farming systems
A ground-cover assessment being undertaken in a sheep-grazed paddock.
Once the information has been collected through the project, it will be translated into insights that can be applied practically for farmers, decision-support tools, as well as resources that can be used to help make informed decisions. These resources will also support farmers in understanding their farm’s natural capital and communicating their environmental outcomes with buyers and supply chain partners.
With field monitoring now underway, Wheatbelt NRM will continue working with participating producers and sharing emerging insights with the region’s farming community.
The goal of the project is to help demonstrate how productive sheep enterprises also contribute to climate-smart, resilient, and nature-positive farming systems across the Wheatbelt.
To learn more about the project, please visit the Green Sheep Project page.
The project is supported by Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation, Integrity Systems Company, AUS-MEAT, the Australian Meat Industry Council, the Southern Australian Livestock Research Council, and the WA Livestock Research Council, bringing together on-farm action with whole-of-supply-chain expertise.
The Green Sheep Project is supported by the Australian Government through the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.
Published eNews #419, October 2026
