Jonathan Bates

Profile Information:

State where you live or work?
NY
County where you live or work?
Tompkins
What is your occupation relative to silvopasture? (for example, owner/producer, extension specialist, agency specialist, etc.)
consultant
Please describe, with two or three sentences, why you are interested in silvopasture. Your answer helps us ensure that only those people truly interested in silvopasture are added as members.
Good silvopasture design has the potential to energize a cascade of regeneration, manifesting true wealth for local economies, including clean water and food, healthy soil, increased biodiversity and good work. Conversion of tilled landscapes to intensive silvopasture has been shown to increase animal productivity and welfare while sequestering atmospheric carbon.

Comment Wall:

  • Emily Macdonald

    I do not have experience with Paulownia but I'm very interested in the concept of growing/using trees for forage. I look forward to following your research. I am in SW Michigan in Zone 6a and am compiling a list of potential forage trees.

    Tree prunings I have fed to my sheep (after checking for toxicity, of course) are autumn olive( this agressive plant is already growing here but is too invasive/agressive to plant as a forage tree, in my opinion), mulberry, apple, and poplar. All were relished by the animals.

    I suppose some of the characteristics one looks for inĀ  good forage trees are similar to what one would look for in selecting grasses, legumes and forbes(does it grow on my site, is it palatable, nutritional value, yield, tolerance of repeated harvest etc.) but what criteria are particular to selecting trees for forage?

    What trees have been used historically for forage?

  • James Pollard

    Good Day,

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    Have a nice day
    Thanks God bless.