posted 11 years ago
The first time I heard the word was in a handful of Agroforesry classes I took in college. I know that the University of Missouri Agroforestry department has done a bit of research on different types of Silvopasture. I doubt you would be super impressed though. My experience was a combination of traditional ag inputs rowed between single file crops of walnuts (for timber) or chestnuts (for nuts). It was my thinking for many years that Agroforestry really only worked in the tropics. After learning a bit about permaculture I have changed my mind. I think that silvopasture and the work of folks like Mark Shepard are a great way to go in the temperate midwest (the only place I have enough experience with to comment on).
My land is naturally divided into 6 fields of about 10-20 acres each by strips of woods that grew up along streams and draws and wet spots that were never mowed. I have started thinning the trees in the narrowest of the wooded strips and have planted a mix of fruit and nut trees and shrubs,grapes (wild and domestic), blackberries, currents, gooseberries, apples, plums (wild and domestic), pears, cherries, elderberries, persimmons (wild, hoping to graft domestics someday), hazlenuts, shell bark hickories, walnuts and pecans, along the edge of the strips sort of widening them and trying to keep a core of useful timber species in the middle and more sun loving food trees on the edge. I am planting the trees in varying densities trying to see how much shade some of the fruits will tolerate and still be productive. My existing treed strips had a mix of mature persimmon, wild plum, and mulberries already present so I have been playing with thinning around them and even very lightly pruning a few to see if I can increase some fruiting.
It is my plan to keep planting strips on 100-200 foot centers across several of the pastures to allow for grazing/haying in between the rows of trees. The closer I get to the center of a field I am thinking I'll drop out the tall timber species to maximize sunlight and fruit/nut production. It is essentially a silvopasture, but with a wider strip of trees than the single rows I am most familiar with. My thinking is to keep the wooded strips 30-50 feet wide and pruned/thinned enough to promote an open understory (open enough to keep a heavy herbaceous layer). I live in oak country, but am planting Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron Tulipifera) as a faster growing lumber species in the middle of my existing wooded strips. A row of those in the center of a strip, then some hickories and pecans beside those. Then an edge of the succesively shorter fruit trees and shrubs on the outermost edges of the rows. The way my property lies it made the most sense to run my rows east/west so I am thinking I will get decent sunlight on the south facing side of the rows and can plant fruit trees more densely. On the north side of the rows I am planting fewer fruit trees and more shrubs and vines.
Sadly my project is far to young to give you any good ideas as to efficacy. I have put 500-600 trees in the ground over the hast 2 years, most aren't dead yet, so maybe someday I can show some pictures. I have yet to create a row completely, so far I am only filling in bare/thinned spots in existing treed areas.
Putting the treed strips on contours sounds like a perfect plan. Swales also seem like an ideal addition to the system. What are your thoughts on species to plant and width/spacing of tree/non-tree strips? This is the sort of info I have found very little practical advice on. The Missouri Agroforestry folks have some decent data on crop productivity at varying width spacing of treed rows, but their overall approach was so different that it is not fully applicable. Any thoughts are appreciated.
R Scott: Did you just say that Highland Cattle eat cedar? As in Eastern Red Cedar? I think I am beginning to like those beasties more and more!
J
1
