Trees for Graziers - Using Silvopasture to Boost Your Farm’s Profitability
The NC Soil Health Coalition had an information packed meeting with the Founder of Trees for Graziers, Austin Unruh, for our March Soil Health Hour! Austin described the main benefits of silvopasture, including improved livestock performance, and also explained how Trees for Graziers works with farms in Southeastern Pennsylvania to successfully fund and manage silvopasture projects.
There are multiple sources of funding available for farms to implement silvopasture projects in North Carolina. Both CSP and EQIP funding are available through NRCS for establishing hardwood trees in an existing pasture. Austin has found that CSP contracts are easier for folks to manage and will provide annual payments, but both CSP and EQIP are viable options. Currently, EQIP funding ranges from $462 to $554 per acre for establishing hardwood trees in an existing pasture with adequate forage. Reaching out to your local NRCS office is the best way to learn more about this funding.
The Grasslands Partnership is another NRCS-funded program that is open for enrollment at this time for farms in western and central NC. The program includes an $800 enrollment stipend and a payment of $580 per acre for silvopasture. You can contact Dr. Miguel Castillo (mscastil@ncsu.edu), Dr. Matt Poore (mhpoore@ncsu.edu), or Johnny Rogers (jrroger3@ncsu.edu) with NC State if you are interested in participating.
Besides those NRCS resources, Austin has found that private funds are also available from local conservation groups for silvopasture projects. Colby Lambert is an Extension Agent with NC State who focuses on forestry and silvopasture-related projects and may be able to assist with identifying other funding. Colby has also participated in projects to thin or utilize pine stands for grazing.
Austin covered an array of topics during his presentation. Here are some of the highlights:
Planting trees into existing pastures has many benefits to livestock, including shade, shelter, feed, and improved soil health. Each of these benefits can be maximized with proper planning, management, and tree selection.
Austin advocates for the right kind of shade, which is dappled shade from tall tree canopies. This allows some sunlight through to the forages below while protecting them from intense heat. Tall canopies cause the shade to move throughout the day, which encourages livestock to move with the shade to spread out manure and grazing impact.
Shelter, like wind breaks, is not as critical in the Southeast, but can still benefit livestock during extreme cold or when calving, lambing, etc.
Trees can increase summer feed availability in several ways. Planting and planning ahead, such as planting trees like hybrid poplars that provide palatable fodder, can provide an alternative to feeding hay during droughts. The shade provided by trees can also encourage cool season forage growth when it would otherwise be limited by sunlight and heat.
Many farms focus on winter feed when considering silvopasture projects. Trees like honey locusts and persimmons drop high-energy, high-sugar pods and fruit during the fall and winter when forage growth has slowed.
Trees provide livestock with a broader range of micronutrients and compounds, like tannins, than pasture forages alone. Tannins in particular can provide antiparasitic effects and have been shown to bind alkaloids from fescue and other forages.
Trees provide major benefits to soil health in pastures by cycling nutrients from deeper in the soil profile and promoting soil microbial diversity. Legumes, like honey locusts, have the added benefit of fixing nitrogen.
Austin sees the largest benefits of silvopasture coming through poultry and hogs rather than ruminants. Silvopasture can provide significant reductions in feed costs and provide feed from a perennial system, using species like mulberries, rather than a grain-based system that imports feed.
Silvopasture can lead to increased profitability in a variety of ways depending on your goals. Trees can make feed available when it is needed most when pasture forages have slowed production. Additional shade can add a significant boost to weight gain and can reduce the required feed intake for livestock.
Austin’s advice is to start small and start now. You can get started on your farm by planting ten trees that are cheap and easy to establish. After you gain experience, you can move to larger silvopasture projects with funding from NRCS or other sources and focus on species that meet your specific goals.
You can learn more about Trees for Graziers and silvopasture project planning on their website. There are a number of resources and articles available there to help you learn more about successfully implementing silvopasture projects on your farm, including Austin’s book, The Grazier’s Guide to Trees. Trees for Graziers also offers an in-person course each fall that is designed to help people start silvopasture businesses, like Trees for Graziers, to meet the growing demand.
