The potential for a rehabilitated coal mine soil to support livestock grazing in south-east Queensland

The potential for a rehabilitated coal mine soil to support livestock grazing in south-east Queensland

Land that is disturbed by mining activities is required to be suitably rehabilitated. A trial was initiated to compare the performance of livestock grazing pasture sown on land that was rehabilitated after coal mining activity with that of livestock grazing pasture on unmined land. Pasture biomass, and soil structural, nutritional and hydrological properties important for pasture production and sustainability were intensively monitored on three sites rehabilitated at different stages over the last 10 years, and one unmined Control site. A further 18 unmined grazing sites were monitored for benchmarking purposes. Preliminary results for soil ammonium, nitrate and potentially mineralisable nitrogen suggest little difference in terms of benefits or constraints to pasture production between the rehabilitated and Control sites. Plant-available phosphorus was sufficiently high in the two oldest rehabilitated sites that a fertiliser response would not be expected. Subsoil and rooting depth of the rehabilitated sites was within the range observed across the benchmark sites and shallower than in the Control site. Higher pasture biomass in the rehabilitated sites compared with the Control at the initiation of the trial was attributed more-so to differences in grazing history than differences in soil attributes. Analysis of year one monitoring data is ongoing.

© 2014 Soil Science Australia. This publication is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for the purposes of study, research, or review, but is subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgment of the source. Presented poster.