Small Property Landholder Guide Resources
The following links are referenced in the Hunter small property landholder guide.
The below resources from the guide are available to help you manage your small farm or property:
People and planning
- Find your local Landcare group
- Contact your nearest Local Land Services office on 1300 795 299
- Check out the Hunter Local Land Services Facebook page
- Sign up for the Blockie’s Bootcamp Newsletter
- Check out the Every Bit Counts Quick Guide to Property Planning
- Use the FREE NSW spatial mapping tool Sixmaps to get a close-up satellite image of your property
- Know your responsibilities:
- Local Land Services Rates Annual Land and Stock Return
- Check out the section on cultural heritage in the Rural Living Handbook
Farm safety and emergencies
- Contact numbers for Emergency Services handy Do you need first aid training or first aid kits?
- Undertake the five-minute Bushfire Survival Plan Reduce bushfire risk and prepare your property: Prepare your home HERE
- Prepare your Farm HERE
- Undertake a Farm Safety Assessment Get Farm Safety advice from Farmsafe Know your responsibilities for Farm Safety
- Prepare for floods with the Farm Flood Readiness Kit
Biosecurity
- More about biosecurity and what it means for small property landholders HERE
- Small farms biosecurity guide HERE
- Use the NSW Weedwise tool to identify weeds HERE and use the Weed Control Handbook to get tips on control options
- Report exotic plant pests via the Exotic Plant Pest Hotline: 1800 084 881
- To report a suspected outbreak of animal disease, call your local veterinarian or the Emergency
- Animal Disease Watch Hotline: 1800 675 888
Understand your legal obligations when buying, selling and moving livestock:
- More on the National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS) HERE
- Watch a short YouTube video on the National Vendor Declaration System
- More on buying, selling and moving livestock in NSW HERE (including private sales)
- Check out the Livestock Section
- More on transporting stock, including horses, HERE Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline 1800 675 888
Stay up to date with local and regional weeds, pest and disease information:
- Visit the Every Bit Counts Website page HERE Connect with the Peri Urban Biosecurity Network
- For comprehensive information on best practice for controlling pest species,
- visit www.pestsmart.org.au or get the FeralScan app.
Biosecurity planning:
- Create your own Farm Biosecurity Kit Complete the Farm Biosecurity Action Planner
- Meat and Livestock Australia Farm Biosecurity Plan
- Let visitors know that you are serious about biosecurity.
- Visit your Local Land Services office to purchase a biosecurity sign for your property
Water
- Ensure your property plan identifies:
- buffer areas where stock and farming are restricted.
- areas to enhance, restore, or repair, along waterways
- waterways, wetlands, and water points
- Check out the Every Bit Counts Quick Guide to Property Planning HERE
- Find out about water testing for stock, irrigation and domestic use HERE
- Tips for maintaining farm dams HERE
- Tips for watering system design and watering points (stand alone, in-dam and in-stream) HERE
- Tips to be waterwise, manage water through drought and calculate how much water stock require HERE
- Undertake the quick riparian health check HERE
- Information and designs for riparian fencing and creating riparian buffer strips HERE
- Information about chemical application and chemical safety around riparian areas HERE
- Information on building farm dams in NSW HERE
- Find more information on licences, approvals and landholder rights HERE
- Visit the Rural Living Handbook HERE
Biodiversity
Get involved. Find out more about local wildlife, vegetation, conservation, and protection programs:
- Native Vegetation
- Wildlife
- Search BioNET Atlas to find species lists of:
- native wildlife (including animals and birds)
- native vegetation (trees, shrubs, and grasses)
- threatened and endangered plant or animal species and ecological communities for your local area.
- NSW species sightings search HERE
- Find threatened and endangered species lists for your region HERE
- Find “What Bird is that?” HERE
Find out more about biodiversity and why it is important to small property landholders:
- Contact Hunter LLS
- Contact Landcare NSW.
- Contact Land for Wildlife.
- Check the health of your bushland with a quick remnant vegetation assessment
- Tips for designing a revegetation project HERE
- Find more information on planning a revegetation project in the Rural Property Guide HERE
- Find contact details for local wildlife rescue and have them on-hand.
- Find your nearest wildlife rescue group HERE or contact WIRES
- Find out more about obligations regarding protecting and clearing native vegetation and about threatened species HERE
- Find out more about farm forestry through the Hunter Farm Forestry Network
Soils
- Find out more about soil types, capabilities, and limitations HERE
- Undertake a DIY field soil test or soil health assessment to understand the soils on your property
- For more, check out the Rapid Assessment of Soil Health (RASH) Manual and accompanying HOW TO videos
- Find out about soil testing through the Department of Primary Industries Soil Testing Service HERE
- Check out the Every Bit Counts Quick Guide to Property Planning HERE
Find out more about:
- Soil erosion and factors that increase soil erosion risk
- Salinity
- Acidity
- Sodicity
- Acid sulphate soils
- HERE
Find out how to assess groundcover and set your targets. Check out the RASH Manual and video on groundcover assessment HERE
Contact Hunter LLS and local Landcare to sign up for a grazing management or soils workshop Contact Hunter Local Land Services
Livestock and grazing
Ensure your property plan identifies:
- Shade and shelter in each paddock
- Stock watering points
- Areas for future tree planting if I need more shelter for stock
See the Every Bit Counts Quick Guide to Property Planning HERE.
Stock Water:
- Tips for maintaining farm dams HERE.
- Tips for watering system design and watering points (stand alone, in-dam and in-stream) HERE.
- How much water do stock need?
Make a program to monitor regularly:
- Stock health
- Boundary fencing
- Stock water
Managing stock through emergencies:
- Tips for managing stock through drought HERE.
- Download the Drought Management Plan HERE.
- Check out the Hunter Farm Flood Readiness Kit for landholders, which includes a Flood Readiness Checklist and Flood Plan.
- Find out more about your responsibilities and animal welfare HERE.
Buying, selling or moving livestock:
- What you should know before buying or selling stock on Facebook and Gumtree HERE.
- Understand the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) HERE.
- National Vendor Declaration
- Find out if you need a PIC (Property Identification Code) HERE.
- Submit your Annual Land and Stock Return (ALSR) HERE.
- Find out more about the Livestock Production Assurance Program (LPA) HERE.
- Find out more about what you need to know if you have pigs, poultry and/or honey bees HERE.