Darryl-Domer-Carlos-Meier

[Music plays and images of award participants flash by on screen. Text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Image changes to show Darryl Domer and Carlos Meier getting into a white ute and driving]

[Image changes to show Darryl seated and smiling at the camera]

Darryl Domer: Hi, I’m Darryl and I attend the Danthonia Academy, I’m in Year 12.

[Image changes to show Carlos seated and smiling at the camera]

Carlos Meier: Hi, I’m Carlos, I also attend the Danthonia Homeschool Academy and our report is entitled Global Food Security Guaranteed.

[Camera pans out to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and then changes to show an aerial shot of the community that Darryl and Carlos live in]

Darryl Domer: Carlos and I live on a community, about 200 people, it’s a Christian community and our lifestyle is based around Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament. We have something that we call the Common Purse, which put simply, means that we share everything in common,

[Image has changed back to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera]

obviously not things like clothes, but definitely our homes, our cars and our income, it’s definitely a major part of our life.

[Camera zooms in on cow grazing]

Carlos Meier: So our project actually began ten years ago when our farm manager noticed that land health was deteriorating, animal production was in decline and our bank balance, was simply, unsustainable.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos walking amongst a herd of cows]

In looking for answers he stumbled across an agricultural system known as Holistic Grazing Management, where ruminant herds are used as a tool to stimulate plant growth through cell or rotational grazing.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos driving off in the ute and the cows scattering]

We started to collect data comparing the two forms of management on our farm. We measured data and soil moisture content,

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera]

plant biomass productivity and plant biodiversity in eight paddocks across our farm.

Darryl Domer: So the results demonstrated cell grazing has a variety of ecological and economical advantages for landholders. The results, when applied on a larger scale, were truly astonishing.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos standing together overlooking their cows]

We took the data from our farm, reduced it by half and then applied it to see what cell grazing would look like if applied on a larger scale.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera and changes to show cows scattering]

So for example, if the Australian cattle grazing industry were to implement cell grazing nationwide, it could generate over 4.6 billion dollars, in additional annual revenue.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera and then changes to show Darryl and Carlos walking through a gate and Darryl collecting a soil sample]

So I would say that our biggest difficulty would have been in soil sampling. In total we had to take over 360 perfect soil cores, and we only settled for samples within a small range of accuracy. So much of the time this meant up to at least ten attempts to obtain one perfect core. So I would say that collecting valid data was our greatest difficulty and we only overcame that through persistence.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera]

Carlos Meier: I moved to Inverell here when I was six years old, so I would say, definitely the minute I stepped off the plane I was in the agricultural world, essentially. We had to develop our own farm, I helped my Dad on the farm for the last ten years, I’ve enjoyed it a lot and before that I didn’t really have any prior exposure to agriculture.

Darryl Domer: Growing up, I come from a long line of builders, so I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands. In my spare time I like doing a lot of things outdoors,

[Image shows Darryl and Carlos throwing a football to each other and then shows Darryl fishing]

basketball, cricket, soccer, footy, things like that. Also, I like enjoying nature out on our property, fishing, bike riding, driving the ute around, building my own fishing lures, they’re custom crafted and built to target Murray Cod, which are found in abundance in our local rivers.

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera]

Carlos Meier: So I enjoy a range of outdoor activities, camping, fishing, hunting. Another thing I enjoy is training cattle dogs. I’m currently training a young kelpie who will, hopefully, be ready to work on the cattle in approximately three months time.

[Image changes to show two dogs jumping off the back of the ute and headed towards the herd of cows]

[Image changes to show Darryl and Carlos seated together on a the bonnet of a ute and talking to the camera]

Darryl Domer: I think, in the future, science and engineering will become a lot more digitalised and computer based, but I think as that happens, the need for basic principles of science will become paramount, so I can see that in the next decade or so, science will have to start looking for simpler solutions to the complex problems facing society today.

[Image changes to show an aerial show of the herd of cows]

Carlos Meier: So I think, as technology advances there will be a lot of room for simpler research such as we have conducted, they’ll have far reaching advantages and consequences to the world.

[Music plays and text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Sponsors logos appear on screen]