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 thinning in the "Guide to Silvopasturing in the Northeast", available at: www.forestconnect.info (publications page).
With that said, a forester member of this forum noted that in some of the recently posted pictures the silvopastures appear to have been thinned signficantly below 60 ft2 of basal area/acre. The reason that these silvopastures were thinned more heavily (~ 25 to 50 ft2/acre) is because they were understocked with trees of good vigor, value and quality that were worth leaving (foresters refer to this as "acceptable growing stock", or AGS). In each of these areas, a decision was made to remove all "unacceptable growing stock" (UGS) - or trees that had no hope of producing more than firewood or pulpwood now or in the future. Consequently, only AGS were left, opening up the silvopasture more than might be necessary to simply achieve acceptable forage growth.
Even though it might seem logical to remove all trees that don't have sawtimber potential (current or future) to allow even greater levels of sunlight to reach the ground, there are a number of reasons why we may want to retain higher stocking levels - even if it means leaving some UGS. Examples include: to reduce epicormic branching, sunscald or thinning shock on crop trees (AGS), reduce incidence of windthrow, to hold excess firewood/pulp trees until a more appropriate opportunity to harvest, or to reduce overall thinning costs or workload. Shading is also another very important benefit that trees provide to grazing livestock in silvopastures, so we want to leave enough shade - even if the trees don't necessarily fit our criteria for AGS.
Started by Robbie Coville May 24. 0 Replies 0 Likes
Hello folks. Are there any consultants here who advise and plan forestry thinning for silvopasture in PA? Or can you point me in the direction of anyone who provides those services in PA? Thank you!Continue
Started by Mark E. Kunnemann. Last reply by Mark E. Kunnemann May 15. 6 Replies 0 Likes
I live in south central Texas on 21 very wooded acres. I have a plan to thin the trees to open up the canopy for allowing grasses to grow. I have 31 large piles of brush which I had planned to burn,…Continue
Started by Brett Chedzoy. Last reply by Scott O'Bar May 14. 4 Replies 0 Likes
In 2020, a local grazier friend did an intensive thinning on 70 acres of mature woods to create silvopasture. Learning from other's past mistakes (including mine) of leaving too much logging debris…Continue
Started by Susan Skalak. Last reply by Scott O'Bar May 14. 3 Replies 0 Likes
Hi,I am in Central Virginia and interested in establishing silvopasture in prior cattle/horse fields with no trees or cover. I am rotationally grazing goats/sheep and horses. Anyone in mid-Atlantic…Continue
Tags: tree species selection, Virginia, planting silvopasture, establishing silvopasture, mid-Atlantic
© 2023 Created by Peter Smallidge.
Powered by
You need to be a member of silvopasture to add comments!
Join silvopasture