Sandy soils, groundcover and what growers are actually doing: inside the Sustainable Solutions for Sandy Soils project

By Simon Kruger, WMG Project Communications Officer

Across the West Midlands region, pale deep sands and sandy duplex soils are among the most challenging country to manage. Shorter seasons, more variable breaks and declining rainfall reliability have made it harder to maintain groundcover, leaving exposed soils more vulnerable to wind erosion, moisture loss and declining productivity. Around 21% of farmland in the region lacks adequate groundcover during the periods of highest erosion risk, a figure substantially higher than comparable regions in the broader WA grainbelt.

The Sustainable Solutions for Sandy Soils project, is a five-year initiative running from 2025 to 2030 aimed at helping growers manage these risks in a practical way. The project is led by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) in partnership with WMG, the Mingenew-Irwin Group (MIG) and Edith Cowan University (ECU), and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund Resilient Landscapes Program with co-investment from the Government of Western Australia. The project area extends from Gingin in the south to Geraldton in the north.

Rather than promoting a single solution, the project is designed to look at how combinations of proven practices can be integrated into real farming systems on sandy soils, under local conditions and with the seasonal variability that growers in this region know well.

What the knowledge-gathering phase found

In early 2026, WMG, MIG and DPIRD conducted structured interviews and conversations with producers and advisers across the project area, covering localities from Regans Ford and Dandaragan in the south through to the Mingenew-Irwin district in the north. The interviews covered current practices, attitudes to groundcover, barriers to adoption and emerging approaches.

All interviews were conducted on the basis of anonymity. The findings below reflect the collective picture across the interview group rather than any individual producer or adviser.

How growers are thinking about groundcover

Across all enterprise types, producers described groundcover as a practical management priority with direct consequences for productivity, carrying capacity and long-term soil condition. The language used was consistently economic rather than environmental: cover protects soil, retains moisture, supports crop establishment and underpins livestock carrying capacity.

Adviser observations suggested that producer attitudes have shifted over time. Producers are now less tolerant of low cover than they used to be, a change attributed partly to a run of difficult seasons that made the consequences of poor management more visible and more costly. The 2021 season, which combined a false autumn break, the aftermath of Cyclone Seroja and a grasshopper plague, was raised in virtually every interview as a reference point for how quickly groundcover can deteriorate under compounding pressures.

What is working

Producers across the project area described a wide range of practices in use for maintaining or improving groundcover on sandy soils. No single approach dominated. In most cases, growers were managing cover through a combination of practices rather than relying on any one strategy.

In livestock and mixed systems, planned rotational grazing with defined rest periods and disciplined destocking windows were consistently identified as the foundational practices. Confinement feeding during high-risk periods was identified by advisers as a practice that had produced measurable improvements for clients.

In cropping systems, reducing stubble burning frequency was consistently identified as one of the most accessible and impactful changes available. Multiple producers described a target of no more than one burn per paddock per three-year rotation, though they were clear that this involved genuine trade-offs with weed management and pre-emergent herbicide performance.

Soil amelioration, including clay spreading, delving, mouldboard ploughing and deep ripping, was the dominant practice category across cropping and mixed enterprise interviews. Clay spreading at high rates was identified as the highest-impact available practice on pale deep sands. Identifying a suitable clay source and understanding what application rate is needed for a meaningful and durable improvement were consistently cited as practical challenges where producers wanted better guidance calibrated to local soil types.

Emerging approaches worth watching

Virtual fencing using GPS livestock collars attracted the strongest interest of any emerging practice across the interview group. The appeal is practical: excluding stock from the most vulnerable sandy areas within a paddock without the cost of permanent infrastructure, and adjusting exclusion zones as conditions change through the season. Two producers in the project area were already using the technology with cattle at meaningful scale.

Deep incorporation of clay through delving at depth was described as producing more durable profile improvements than surface application alone. One documented case involved a profile of 80 centimetres of sand over clay transformed through deep spading, producing what was described as above-average cropping country from previously marginal sandy ground.

Perennial C4 grass systems are well established on a number of properties in the northern portions of the project area and were consistently described as strong contributors to year-round cover. Reliable establishment on pale deep sands remained an unresolved challenge, with the fertiliser history of the soil identified as a potentially important factor.

What the barriers are

Cost was the most frequently cited barrier, particularly for soil amelioration. The difficulty of justifying capital investment with long payback periods within normal farm business planning timeframes was a recurring theme.

Technical uncertainty was a significant barrier in several practice areas. Uncertainty about clay assessment and application rates, unresolved questions about perennial species selection for local conditions, and the lack of practical guidance on post-fire erosion management on sandy soils were all identified as specific information gaps.

Social and behavioural barriers were described by advisers as at least as important as economic and technical ones. Producers most likely to have persistent groundcover problems were also described as least likely to attend group extension events, requiring fundamentally different engagement approaches. One-on-one contact framed around seeking producer input, very local peer role models, and well-designed demonstration sites with visible control strips were identified as the approaches most likely to reach this group.

What’s coming through the project

The SSS project is currently in its early stages. Demonstration sites and peer learning groups are being established across the project area, with trials and monitoring activities running through to 2029. WMG’s involvement covers the southern portion of the project area, broadly south of Eneabba, including localities around Dandaragan, Regans Ford, Yathroo, Badgingarra and Moora.

As demonstration sites are established and monitoring data becomes available, WMG will share findings through the enewsletter and website. For more information about the project or to find out how to get involved, contact Gabby Carrivick at eo@wmgroup.org.au or visit dpird.wa.gov.au.