Farmers to lead pioneering trials of silvopasture
If you want to make changes to farmland, you need to involve farmers. A new not-for-profit research group Innovative Farmers is coordinating research into the idea that trees and profitable livestock farming can go hand in hand
FARMERS in the UK are, for the first time, getting the chance to co-design research to determine the benefits of integrating more trees on their farms.
A farmer-led agroforestry project launching this month will spend the next twelve years investigating whether the practice is a viable way to address the climate and nature crises while maintaining productive farmland.
The new field lab, involving seven farms in Devon, will be the largest participatory research project to date looking at silvopasture – a practice of integrating trees and livestock. The farmers, who produce beef, sheep, venison and dairy, are expecting the trees to bring a range of benefits to their farming systems by enhancing the natural processes that underpin sustainable food production. Research to date suggests that soil health is expected to improve, with increased soil carbon, earthworms, fungi and other indicators of soil biology.
It is also hoped to improve livestock health and welfare through providing shelter and additional nutrition, diversify farm income by providing extra crops of fruit, nuts and timber and boost the nutritional value of forage.
Agroforestry is recognised by researchers as contributing to a range of public goods such as carbon sequestration, increased biodiversity, water quality and flood mitigation. But robust multi-year research on working farms has yet to be accomplished – making this project a key milestone in convincing farmers and land manager across the UK to take up the innovative practice.
The data will also help farmers who are already pursuing agroforestry to benefit from the upcoming changes to UK agricultural policy, helping them to be rewarded for a suite of public goods which are yet to be fully measured.
Three different planting designs are being trialled, tailored to the farm and the balance they wish to strike between open grazing and tree cover. The research, will see farmers plant a mix of twelve native tree and shrub species, including oak, downy birch, aspen, alder and willow. The trees are chosen for their ecological associations with the local landscape, but also for the nutritional and medicinal properties they can provide to livestock, and their ability to flourish in an open woodland environment.
This Innovative Farmers field lab is a farmer-led collaboration across leading farming and research organisations. The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG South West) are coordinating the group and worked with The Woodland Trust and the farmers to develop silvopasture planting designs. FWAG South West will be monitoring biodiversity on the farms with Rothamsted Research at North Wyke, near Okehampton, researching changes to soil biology, health, in particular soil carbon, and the Organic Research
Centre (ORC) providing expertise in silvopasture design and research to optimise livestock health and welfare. The group was awarded a grant from Innovative Farmers, and farmers have received advice on scheme design including species selection and substantial support from The Woodland Trust which has provided all the trees and guards for the field lab. Alongside the practical on-farm trials, Rothamsted is replicating all three of the farms’ planting designs at North Wyke to take in-depth data within a more controlled environment.
Baseline soil sampling by Rothamsted has already begun on the farms with tree planting commencing at the end of this month supported by The Woodland Trust.
FWAG will start the biodiversity monitoring in May alongside ORC’s livestock assessments. All the details and findings from the field lab will be shared openly on the Innovative Farmers website as the trial progresses.
It is hoped to improve livestock health and welfare through shelter and additional nutrition