Gosh this sites or forum is long.
Here in Spain there is a sylvo pastoral tradition. Though it wont be the same as permicultural methods it may have points of interest.
The principal tree in it are oaks, and to simplify here I'll i wont mention all the trees that have a minor role.
The Spanish evergreen oaks bares both the cold of fairly high altitudes and an extreme climate and the heat of the Province of Extremadura for example.
The distribution of trees is normally between 50 trees to 150 a hectare, in some provinces tradition establishes that they have more and in some less trees a hectare.
I believe that one reason for combining trees and pasture land is that a thick forest is a fire hazard and as exploiting trees in open formation, for fire wood or beams, would not be very profitable they combine the exploitation of trees with that of pastures to make an open wood profitable.
Of course trees help with live stock they protect them from the weather, their fruit feeds them, berries of junipers, junipers are used for beams, and of celtis australis, arbutos unedo. The acorns of oaks, oaks are used for fire wood.
In a climate with two off seasons for pastures, winter when pastures stop growing and summer when they dry out die down completely, if we except buds both at ground level, in some species, between the dry leaves of the plant, and on
roots and rhizomes in others, the leaf of trees is an important supplement to the diet of live stock and in the case of poor shepherds essential, feeds are very expensive.
In drier countries, in some parts of Africa for example, the dependence on forage from trees and bushes must be complete.
I have the government book on Spanish livestock species and the section on "moruchos" one type of
cattle says that in poor farms the only supplement to their diet in winter is leaf cut from the evergreen oaks for them.
The pieces on other races of cattle are often not so complete, but they say things like that they eat an woody, leñosa, diet while with other breeds they say they like tender forage or that they live where there are lots of trees. I sustpect each section is wirtten by the agricultural expert of the district and some give very detailed accounts of the diet of animals and others more summary accounts. There are races of sheep described as feeding on time and such, the rest of vines leaves, the shells of almonds leaf from olives the rest of banan plants and cactuses cut up for them, one race will eat rotten oranges.
In the Pedroches in Cordova where the number of trees a hectare is high, 150 trees a hectare they are pruned, if the grass is effected by their shade. The branches on the south side of th trees being cut off. So they go by eye as concerns tree to pasture ratio. "Encinas in the centre and south west of Spain", Encinas en el Centro y Sur Oeste
de España" Cesar Fuentes Sanchez.
In other parts of Spain the trees are kept low, the main arms are formed just above the heads of cattle at 2'8 metros and the head that grows on these main arms is, i would say, about the same height again. They look mushroom shaped . They can be very wide. The lack of height reduces the shade to pastures as well as helping them beat the trees for acorns where the acorns would be ruined by frost if left on the trees.
Of course in a country with as much sun as Spain some shade is good for pastures, also the fact that trees tap roots, draw up water and feed it to their superficial roots, hydraulic lift, or hydraulic redistribution, when the superficial roots start to lose a lot of water to hot dry summer soils, means that pastures last longer at the feet of encinas than they do in other parts.
They make these wooded farms by thinning down naturally occurring woods.
That they thin woods traditionally, for fear of fires i suppose, both oak woods and juniper woods. This maybe a model worth following in California where people say their houses burn down every ten years.
That farmers can use trees protects them, the trees start to suffer from accidents when they stop being useful. There are people here who feel they should not be pruned and i don't know if there are provinces that make this law. I would say that when farmers and shepherds are prohibited form using them, the trees start suffering from accidents an the woods disappear. This is one of my reasons for liking this system it assures the presence of trees. Anio¡other is that leaf is healthier and nicer tasting than feeds.
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