Agroforestry - A Study - Intercropping Black Locust with Barley

Here's the link. The conclusion is on page 252. Basically they found that the barley yields were less when intercropped but that total yield was much greater when you add in the biomass yield of the locust.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k69rx7p0g53823g5/

Isn't that exactly what you would expect? Growing the barley in the shade of trees and the trees with grass on their roots is suboptimal for both. I guess that explains the fact that a 15 year old paper only has two citations.

Trees and grasses don't really like each other very much.

That was my instinct to but I try not to assume. It often blows up in my face when I do. I think it feasible to theorize that if you coppice the black locust enough, at the right time of year, shred the locust prunings,  and use them as a mulch for the barley, you could see an increase in barley yield over the sole barley crop.