New parklands and wood pasture

[Lucyw3088]

I’m a university student in the UK and I’m designing a holistic farming system. I’ve come across parklands and want to know how many hectares of new parkland would support 100 cattle.

 

[onesiedale]

Hello @Lucyw3088 welcome.
You ask a very open question. 100 hectares of parkland will happily support 25 cattle..... depending on management, this could easily be 200 cattle.
What are the goals? What resources available?
I guess, this is a uni project for a 'farm' that you have to assess as a case study. If it is true parkland, does the farmer mind having sub-division by fences?
If yes then you'll comfortably stock towards the higher numbers.
If no then numbers will be lower

 

[martian]

Well Lucy, it depends. Whereabouts? So how much rain do you get, what's your soil like, what sort of cattle (big breed? cows? youngstock?) are you running acorn eating pigs with them, density of trees, are you using fertiliser, grazing techniques etc?
The answer is somewhere in the range onsiedale has given

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Didn't I read that Joel Salatin does not want trees in his paddocks, as he feels they cause the fertility to move to the shade area of the tree, as the animals choose to lay in the shade and defecate in that area. Having said that, I quite like the permaculture idea of growing food vertically as well as horizontally, however, I would not like to farm with lots of trees dotted about in the paddocks, as a compromise I have planted a few in the hedgerows (mind you Ash die back has meant that we have lost far more than I have planted).

 

[ShooTa]

Didn't I read that Joel Salatin does not want trees in his paddocks, as he feels they cause the fertility to move to the shade area of the tree, as the animals choose to lay in the shade and defecate in that area. Having said that, I quite like the permaculture idea of growing food vertically as well as horizontally, however, I would not like to farm with lots of trees dotted about in the paddocks, as a compromise I have planted a few in the hedgerows (mind you Ash die back has meant that we have lost far more than I have planted).

you can always fence them out temporarily.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

you can always fence them out temporarily.

that sounds like putting tree groups in field corners!

 

[ShooTa]

stuck some electrified net around some infield trees and used a long jump cable for a small bit of normal polywire too. both work.

 

[Lucyw3088]

Hello @Lucyw3088 welcome.
You ask a very open question. 100 hectares of parkland will happily support 25 cattle..... depending on management, this could easily be 200 cattle.
What are the goals? What resources available?
I guess, this is a uni project for a 'farm' that you have to assess as a case study. If it is true parkland, does the farmer mind having sub-division by fences?
If yes then you'll comfortably stock towards the higher numbers.
If no then numbers will be lower

Hi onesiedale, the design is all hypothetical. No particular farm in mind but you bring up another point I was wondering about. I’ve read a lot about rotational grazing and it seems to be very beneficial. Is it common to use mob grazing on parkland type pastures? Would mob grazing he more beneficial to the ecology than planting the trees in clusters?

 

[Lucyw3088]

Didn't I read that Joel Salatin does not want trees in his paddocks, as he feels they cause the fertility to move to the shade area of the tree, as the animals choose to lay in the shade and defecate in that area. Having said that, I quite like the permaculture idea of growing food vertically as well as horizontally, however, I would not like to farm with lots of trees dotted about in the paddocks, as a compromise I have planted a few in the hedgerows (mind you Ash die back has meant that we have lost far more than I have planted).

Thank you for your comments. Can you please explain why you wouldn’t want the trees dotted about in the paddock? Hedgerows and shelter belts can have many benefits too, do you think these would be better than a wood pasture type cluster planting?

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Have you ever tried driving a tractor in a field with trees dotted about in it? I think, that is one reason why not to have trees in the pasture, as well as branches falling off into the field, shade stopping the grass growing, and probably the biggest reason, it just is a pain in the backside and does not look "right". I think a halfway house is smaller fields with trees in the hedge line. I also think, permanent pasture is a better carbon sink than woodland. Having said that, I have planted lots of hedges here, with trees interspersed with the hedges.

 

[zero]

We have a few infield trees. The older ones are a bit of a pain when putting fert on but the younger trees were planted to fit with spreader width. I think the shelter and shade they give stock outweighs the loss of grass growth under the tree..

 

[onesiedale]

Hi onesiedale, the design is all hypothetical. No particular farm in mind but you bring up another point I was wondering about. I’ve read a lot about rotational grazing and it seems to be very beneficial. Is it common to use mob grazing on parkland type pastures? Would mob grazing he more beneficial to the ecology than planting the trees in clusters?

I wouldn't say mob grazing in parkland is common. Parkland tends to be managed more by conventional means such as set stocking mainly because of ease of management.
I'm sure there are some doing it, and I would think that there is an ecological benefit to it over and above the planting of trees in clusters. .... but what would be wrong with doing both?