- Location
- Carmarthenshire, West Wales
can you do that without damaging the stock fence? Or does the fence have to come down?
Question: What's stopping more farmers practicing silvoarable/agroforestry?
- Thread starter IFarmers
- Start date
- Location
- Essex
Have no experience but if it's fenced both sides it would be tricky. Next best thing would be to coppice at top of fence height.
Y Fan Wen
Member
- Location
- N W Snowdonia
I believe pollard was the traditional farm firewood supply. Trees were regularly harvested at a comfortable height for someone standing in a cart. The regrowth was safely above the reach of bovines. I would guess something like a 5-10 year harvesting cycle.
all you suggest is extremely labour intensive which would increase my fixed costs more than i could save or make from the benefits as far as i can tell
there are other, less labour intensive ways to increase soil carbon / fertility and ecosystem diversity that involve a lot less labour or capital input like cover cropping and rotational diversity
I get firewood from hedgerow and in field trees we already have. Home energy bills could be cut installing solar for less capital and zero on going labour. I can get PAS 100 compost and woodchip for free to spread on arable land (and do in qty)
I love the idea and see the advantages but the cost of getting them is far to high vs alternative sources if your paying labour vs buggering about yourself on a small scale with nothing better to do
- Location
- Essex
It's not feesable to add as an enterprise on existing farm labour. I think you need an investor to pay for the trees, do the work and give you a share of profits when they come.
Once they are planted, the money is invested and you can't change your mind though, without losing all the start up capital so you have to be sure that they layout will suit your machinery well into the future
i wonder if something low labour like Christmas trees could work ? 36m rows to fit between sprayer and work with our 12m. CTF ?
- Location
- Devon
I think we all have to be very open-minded to any ideas that make our systems more sustainable and I'm pleased that the OP recognised the importance of practicalities and local factors on the suitability of any new idea.
In many parts of the world, silvoarable/ agroforestry seems a perfect fit. Particularly where all the attributes of trees are positive.
I will be interesting to see the results of the Devon trials. Will the results be compared to large field arable systems or the small field livestock system?
In my warm and wet corner of Devon with a lot of hedges and wooded valleys, I'm quite confident that planting more trees would in many cases have a negative impact.
In many parts of the world, silvoarable/ agroforestry seems a perfect fit. Particularly where all the attributes of trees are positive.
I will be interesting to see the results of the Devon trials. Will the results be compared to large field arable systems or the small field livestock system?
In my warm and wet corner of Devon with a lot of hedges and wooded valleys, I'm quite confident that planting more trees would in many cases have a negative impact.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
How many spraying days are there where there is zero drift?... or will spraying not be an option between all these tree rows?
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
Thats not the point, the point is land that has trees planted on it in the UK can never go back to open farmland (other than orchards). Its a one way experiment. If the whole thing is a bust and costs you money then hard cheese, you're stuck with it forever.
In my experience of making hay on arable margins (which is in effect an example of agroforestry) the worst affected areas are the areas directly to the east of a north/south aligned hedge. While this area is in the sun until midday, the heat usually doesn't build up until later. By 4pm (which I always consider the hottest point of a sunny day) that eastern side of the hedge will be considerable shaded, just at the time the rest of the margin might be ready to bale.
I would think that north/south aligned tree lines/hedges would cause considerable issues with variable fitness of arable crops on their eastern side. The problem is bad enough with a fairly well maintained hedge, with mature trees it would be a nightmare. The shade would cover the entire cropped strip as far as the next line of trees. The entire field would be in shade far earlier in the day as the sun moved round to the west.
- Location
- East yorks
I have some down with the shear to 5ft at the moment on some new land we bought and there will be a fair old size heap when we are finished. Cannot beat tidying up hedges with the shear, my most favourite job
- Location
- Essex
I understand that you plant them in a 3m (say) strip of wildflowers and have your tramline in between. You can also stack other enterprises under the trees like pumpkins, fruit bushes or even bees. Xmas trees a good Idea for a quick return as part of a mix. All needs doing though...
If the system is set up right there isn't any need to spray.
Not sure about xmas trees. The point of the tree alleys is for beneficials to live and then move out into the crop to maintain low pest population. If memory serves the ecological value of xmas trees is low - however I could be wrong.
Well the WW yields at Wakelyns AF in Suffolk were 10t/ha, with almost no direct inputs. They had the alleys angled to optimise light capture, but that's arable and not grass.
they would still be pumping carbon into soil and associating with soul biology surely ? must feed or provide some insect habitat or food ?
clearly not a good as a proper tree but hoe do you take income from other tress workouts huge labour requirements or very long time scales ?
the idea is you no longer need such old fashioned equipment !
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I don't trim any hedges. Just coppice them down to the ground with a 7.5t digger with a shear. Do a stretch every year.
Maybe xmas trees could perform those functions, I don't know though. As a starting thought the pine needles create acidity don't they and the needles don't break down very quickly. BUT there are varieties that don't shed needles.
The tree's main value (imho) is the provision of benefits for the crop, so inputs are reduced to very little. The crop rotation would be more diverse as diversity drives these systems. IF we end up with payments for provision of ecosystem services the AF system would maximise that whilst maintaining food production.
I'm not saying this is the only solution but AF's got a lot going for it if food production and sustainability are to co-exist.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Perhaps not quite the same effect from ten years blackthorn growth. Spikey.