Would anybody consider planting trees on their land?

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
I did back in the 90s ... 20 acres of mixed broadleaves

Partly to create small copses for shooting (no longer done) but mainly as the grant paid better than arable back then and allowed me to straighten field boundaries.
Decent sized trees now although I don’t know the current value of timber
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
Lots of my land is under trees. I love encouraging nature, I like being able to say my carbon footprint is insignificant compared to my capture, I enjoy ragging vegans and eco-freaks about what they are doing rather than what they are shouting about from a position of moral certainty. Prairie farming of crops without wildlife corridors and visual breaks looks abhorrent to me.
If saying you produce food is good enough justification for your farming operation is good enough for you then I have no complaint however the wind is changing and even if they are wrong, the urban massive are forcing ecological change on this island and I'd rather have what I want rather than what some pr*ck with a PHD and no idea decides is best for my land.
 
We did some under the woodland premium scheme for the corners, but these days I don’t think there is any payment other than the cost of planting and maintaining the trees. Edit - maintained for a limited time as they are being established.

I meant really field scale, planting significant areas of good land, what ever grade. Sorry I wasn’t clear about that.
 
I would
1 if the money was right and I had long enough tenure
2 for no money if I could restructure the fields so we had 90 acre fields with 10 acres of woodland
in stead of 10 fields with hedges
the 90 acre would produce more than the 10 Fields of 10 acres And cost 1/3 less to work in machinery costs

my father planted 10 acres next to his house 18 years ago now has all manner of wild life including grass snakes several species of butterfly
 
I looked into planting 50 acres or so under the native woodland scheme, it would have pretty much built a house with the payments. But, thinking way ahead all the scheme does is buy control of your land for ever, or until someone has enough cash to repay the grants and reconstitute the land. Glad in the end I didn't go for it.

On the other hand, I aim to plant 200-250 trees just as a start in February. I will end up planting thousands over time, but they will have multiple purposes and if they don't directly generate income they will assist income in other enterprises indirectly.
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
I am planning a few acres under Forestry Grant scheme. Payment for planting, fencing, 5 years maintenance and ongoing SFP. It will give shelter as we are near the sea and take out areas of fields which are less productive or awkward to keep stock.
Hopefully count towards carbon mitigation too. The output overall will not change much and it might add value in the longer term
 

Raider112

Member
It's all the rage for Environmental reasons but I would rather wait until someone decides to look properly into the carbon benefits of permanent pasture properly first. We put a man on the moon 50 odd years ago but they say that is complicated to work out, I don't buy that.
Maybe they know but don't want to announce that grazing livestock isn't so bad after all.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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