Agro-forestry, Farm starter fuel.

As some of you may know my background apart from growing up on a farm is as a forester. I worked/ studied in the industry for about 20 years, both in Ireland and abroad. One thing that i was most proud of being involved in was helping Coillte adopt alternative silvicultural systems. (systems other that clearfell replant)

Now a few years of the perspective of a forest/farm owner I have a few different tools that I can use as a forest manager with a larger scope for thinking outside the box.

The farm and the forest are seen as being distinct. I believe this is a relatively recent fashion that stands at odds with nature itself.  Of course the timber men are rightly nervous of the effect of livestock on tree health but ecologically forests didn’t evolve with a string of barbed wire around them! Periodic disturbances both large and small were most certainly part of the life of a forest. However its only within the last few decades that we have the technology to control grazing with precision. (mobile electric fencing)

The first step in merging the farm and the forest for me was two years ago. I had a beautiful stand of Alder (5years old top height 6m), It had a lovely bit of grass in it but would the cattle damage the trees? I was nervous but I gambled that if the animals had enough forage in front of them they wouldn’t do any harm. I could pull them out if it wasn’t working. It worked out great! 3 grazings maybe .3AU’s acre in year one, (€65/acre est. value ) same maybe a little better last year. That utterly changes the financial outlook for an Alder plantation but more importantly it shows the principle of stacking ecologically compatible enterprises.

Another project on the cards for this year I have a about 2 acres of clearfelled (last year) pine. Instead of replanting immediately and having to spray for weevil and fight weeds I plan to engage the “ecological services” of a couple of pigs let them turn over the brash for me while growing some bacon. Plus they wont charge me €40/hr to do what they love doing. Savings; I can’t remember Re-for costs maybe €300/acre? (please comment if you know current machine costs)

Those are 2 examples in my small context. When you consider A. The shortage of land for young farmers B. The amount of never to be financially viable broadleaved or just isolated plantations . C The business model changing cashflow to a Forest operation, D. The badly needed Social kudos for forestry companies in certain parts of the country. E The Potential to address growing shortages of food.

The potential for well planned and executed agroforestry in Ireland and the UK is enormous! I nearly wish didn’t have a farm so I could get at it bigly!

Hopefully by accurately diagnosing problems and encouraging those moving in the right direction we all can enjoy the fat of the land while making our environment healthier and more resilient.

Regards

Murf