Hello all,

I work for the USDA National Agroforestry Center, and we are looking for a few farms that would be willing to host a visit from policymaker-types in DC in the future - to show what silvopasture is, and the role agroforestry can play in providing food/products as well as addressing economic, social, and environmental challenges of today. If you would be willing to host such a visit - and are located 2 hours or less from DC, please email me at…

Peter and I recently had the opportunity to present a day-long workshop on silvopasturing at the Stone Barns Center in the lower Hudson Valley.  The Stone Barns Center (www.stonebarnscenter.org) is located on the former Rockefeller dairy farm, and today serves as a showcase of "sustainable food systems". …

Thank you to the 40+ who were able to attend the workshop last Friday in McVeytown.   The handouts used for the workshop are attached below as .pdf files.  -- Brett

• Silvopasturing.pdf…

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that MING needs to perform some simple but necessary maintenance on this site on Wednesday, March 27. They will need to take the site down at 10 pm Pacific for about 3 hours during which they will simply show a message asking folks to check back later. Thanks in advance for your patience while they tune up the site!

During the "silvopasture day course" trainings last August, we expressed the need to reduce forest stand stocking levels to about 60 sq. ft./acre of basal area (approximately 50% relative density, depending on the stand type) in order to achieve "good" forage productivity of the more shade tolerant cool season grasses.  For more information on this, refer to the .pdf file attachment titled "Creating Quality Silvopastures" from the August blog post on the day courses - or read the section on…

60 people attended "Working Trees in Agricultural Landscapes: An Introduction to Agroforestry" on November 16th at the USDA NRCS Plant Materials Center in Big Flats, NY (and 120 people attended the 3rd annual Cover Crops Field Day at the PMC on the prior day!)  This inaugural agroforestry event at the PMC featured NRCS soil health advocate Ray Archuleta.  Some of Ray's key messages throughout the two days were: "Farm in the image of Nature"; "Feed the soil"; and "Nature hates monocultures". …

Thank you to everyone who attended the two "Silvopasture Day Courses" at Black Queen Angus Farm in Berlin, NY on August 24th, and at Wellscroft Fence Company in Harrisville, NH on August 25th.  Also, thank you to the Hudson-Mohawk RC&D Council, the Granite State Graziers, NY GLCI, Albany CCE, Albany SWCD and others for helping to organize and make those events possible!

85 graziers, foresters and agency folks participated in the two workshops.  This was the first time that we have…

FREE Agroforestry Training Workshops Offered in Central Pennsylvania.



The PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry, Penn State and Shaver's Creek Environmental Center will host two agroforestry workshops in May.

Agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees and shrubs in combination with crops or livestock to create a system that is managed to provide economic, environmental and social benefits to landowners. The 5 key practices of agroforestry are Silvopasture – the…

Check this out...some nice publicity about silvopasture via Cornell University's "Chronicle."  The story page has useful links.

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Hey everyone,

I thought some of you might be interested in a 2012 SARE Farmer Grant I received to experiment with silvopasture systems on my farm in Riverview, Saranac, NY.  Here's a link to the project overview:

http://mysare.sare.org/mySARE/ProjectReport.aspx?do=viewRept&pn=FNE12-762&y=2012&t=2 

I'd be very interested to receive input from you all…

Hi everyone!

Here are two interesting journal articles about silvopasture in the hardwood regions of the United States-

Hardwood silvopasture in North America by H.E. Garrett, M.S. Kerley, K.P. Ladyman, W.D. Walter, L.D. Godsey, J.W. Van Sambeek and D.K. Brauer

The University of Missouri completed research to try to minimize the gap in silvopasture management of hardwoods in the US. This article discusses the short-term positive effects of grazing trials, and how…

I was recently asked the following questions regarding animal and tree species for silvopastures: 

"... is silvopasture just suitable to beef breeds? Or would dairy and dual purpose breeds be equally suited to Silvopasture?  I was also wondering about tree species composition. Obviously allelopathic species like Black Walnut are not conducive to growing good forage, but could you use a super dense Hemlock grove for a living barn (relying on hay for feed…

A friend recently inquired if it would be possible to convert her low site-index oak/white pine woods into silvopatures to expand the grazeable acreage on her cattle farm.  Most any site can be managed to grow forages and browse for livestock grazing, but not every site can grow enough food to make the investment worthwhile.  Another consideration is the senstivitiy of the site, particularly in the case of steep slopes or poorly drained…

There are two ways to create silvopasture, add pasture to woods or add trees to pasture.  Adding pasture to woods involves manipulating the existing woods to allow enough sunlight to the forest floor to stimulate the growth of desired forage species.  Always seek input from a forester when manipulating woody vegetation (either planting or cutting).

In the most general sense, the process of adding pasture to forest will remove some trees while leaving other trees. The goal is to…

This is from Purdue University regarding walnuts and climate change.  Walnut aren't a major forest component here in Western Mass but this may be more of a concern for those of you in NY and PA.

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/111128JacobsWalnut.html

One of the NE Silvopasture Conference attendees has provided a nice description of the conference, but even more so, the concepts of silvopasture. The key points offered in that blog recognize that silvopasture is more than just releasing livestock into the woods, but rather is a deliberate and intensive process that provides benefits to trees, livestock, farmers and the…

An interesting story about a livestock farmer who is adding trees to the pasture.  He has focused on creating swales and establishing fruit trees.  The farm is based in Bloomington, IN.  The story (see the link) has some nice photos and diagrams of the design. 

The author mentions films by Geoff Lawton, but I have not seen these. 

I found this story about an application of silvopasture to both use the pasture of the woods, but to do so and deliberately control undesired vegetation....the plant we love to hate Rhamnus cathartica (European buckthorn).  This farmer is aware of the concerns of silvopasture, potential for compaction and damage to residual trees, but also alert to the value that it brings. The…