Is silvopasture a good fit for your farm?

Cattle and forests are often at odds, but they don’t always have to be. We can have our beef and eat it too.

Silvopasture is defined as the intentional integration of trees, forage, and livestock: it consists of either planting trees in pasture or cropland, or thinning forest to establish grass growth. The following of elements make for a successful silvopasture.

Trees are helpful to your livestock
Trees are profitable for your business
You have the bandwidth to manage the trees
Trees fit within your priorities

If you envision a verdant landscape, economically profitable and resilient from a production standpoint, made possible with cattle grazing beneath a managed tree canopy, silvopasture may be for you.

Locust, walnut, and thinned-forest silvopasture, *Angus Glen Farm*, Watkins Glen, New York.

The impact of silvopasture on climate and ecology is also significant. Published research shows that the Eastern United States could plant between 12 and 60 million acres of silvopasture on available pasture, grassland, and challenging sub-prime cropland – an area between the size of Vermont & New Hampshire combined, and Colorado. Carbon sequestration in these scenarios would offset 5 and 25 million tons of CO2e, or roughly 10% and 50% of all annual transatlantic flights. Profitability depends on tree species composition, with species such as chestnuts and black locust yielding market rate returns. Hybrid poplar and black walnut yield revenue and act like a savings account, but returns are below 7%. The price on carbon needed to yield a 10-year 7% IRR ranges between $0 and $505 per ton of CO2e.

Treed landscapes also absorb 4.5x as much nutrient runoff as grass cover alone, and 1 acre of parking lot produces the same amount of flood runoff as 36 acres of forest.

Shade value to livestock

It’s 11:00 am on June 10th in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and it’s already hot out. Farmer Hertzler’s cattle aren’t heat adapted yet, and they’re not eating. Down the road, John Stoltzfus’ cattle are crowded beneath the one tree in his pasture, concentrating manure in that one spot. Anecdotes like these are not only too common, but also reflect a missed opportunity. Beef cattle gain 60% more weight and produce 20% more milk when they have access to tree shade, and dappled shade across a pasture can keep livestock happy while the grass keeps growing.

Lowland silvopasture, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Planting trees in pastures brings us to ask how much shade we actually need, along with how that shade will affect grass production. An ideal scenario is to have enough shade to keep cows happy and productive, while maintaining growth of high-quality forage. A good rule of thumb is that 30% canopy closure won’t decrease grass growth, as long as you’re not too far north.

The ideal amount of tree cover on a farm will vary across climates. Syracuse, New York experiences 68 days with temperatures above 80 degrees per year, and 10 days with temperatures above 90 degrees, and thus want 10-20 grazing days worth of treed pastures. In Atlanta Georgia, temperatures are over 80 degrees on 147 days of the year, and rise over 90 degrees for 47 days per year, suggesting that 2-3 months of shaded paddocks would be worthwhile. White Oak Pastures, in Bluffton, Georgia thins pine plantations to create silvopasture, which greatly benefits the cattle while potentially generating timber revenue for the farm. Bluffton experiences 68 days over 90 degrees, and shade is a…hot commodity? But anecdotes from Ben & Jerry’s tell us that dairy farmers in northern Vermont lose more production to heat than they do to cold. Beyond ruminant weight gain, trees can generate non-livestock income: from timber products, to fruit and nuts for both human food and feed for hogs and poultry.

Tree are profitable

A cattleman or grazier’s main priority is their cattle, culturally and economically, and a silvopasture can produce fenceposts, sawlogs, and feed for pigs and chickens.

Black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, produces rot-resistant fenceposts in less than 10-years. In contact with soil, the wood will last 3-4 times as long as pressure-treated wood. If we value fenceposts at retail pricing, a stand of black locust can yield top-line revenue of $7,000 per acre, or an IRR of 8-16%. A stand can be thinned for fenceposts, which lets more light through the canopy, and then harvested for sawlogs after 20 years. Black locust grows in well-drained soil, and though it thrives in moderately-alkaline or limestone-derived soil, it also does very well in slightly-acidic soils.

Hybrid poplar silvopasture, *Loma de la Paisana,* Argentine Patagonia

Hybrid poplar grows extremely quickly, and can produce marketable sawlogs. The tree is in the Populus genus with cottonwoods and aspens, and is not directly related to tulip poplar. Hybrid poplar wood is not rot resistant, but can be used as a substitute for box store lumber (2x4’s), as interior panneling, and as flooring of a hayloft. The key advantage of hybrid poplar is it’s ability to tolerate wet feet and flooding. The tree can turn wet, low-production treeless pastures into valuable shade paddocks.

Loblolly, slash, and longleaf pine thrive in the Southeast United States. Seedlings and hybrid pines are a go-to choice for silvopastures in Argentina, especially in sandy soils. Pines benefit from established markets and buyer infrastructure that is familiar with the wood. We should note, however, that sawlogs from silvopasture, if pruned, will produce wood of a much higher quality than plantation forests, and landowners may seek a higher price for the timber.

Farmers that also raise hogs and poultry may consider tree species such as mulberries, full-sized apples, oaks, chestnuts, and persimmons. Cattle will eat the grass when the trees are not dropping, and the fruits and nuts can meaningfully offset feed costs for the single-stomach livestock. Handsome Brook Farms, the US’ largest organic pasture-raised egg company, has had success with planting mulberries, chestnuts, and elderberries in their pastures. All of these species are also used in food plots for deer. Hunters will rejoice, and landowners can charge between $5 and $10 per acre for hunting leases.

Chestnuts specifically can become a substantial cash crop, grossing $16-32,000 per acre at maturity, and yielding a 14-18% IRR. Markets for fresh nuts are currently centered around East-Asian immigrants, and we expect dried chestnuts, chestnut flour, and shelf-stable chestnuts to go mainstream in the next 15 years.

Different tree species require different amounts of management, across different parts of the year. Timber trees are lower-management, whereas chestnuts harvested for human consumption will take up October bandwidth.

Do you have the time?

With each new enterprise come new management hours. Core to silvopasture are the questions: Do you have the bandwidth to manage these trees? Or do you have the cash necessary to pay an employee or contractor to manage these trees? Often, the answer is yes. Timber trees are relatively low-management compared to fruit trees, but if neglected, their potential income will drop drastically. Growing crop trees consists of various small tasks that are vital to success, but easy to put off. Each 10 acres of black locust lumber will require between N and N hours per year, of management, mostly done in the winter months. Overyield is a software platform that can design a silvopasture system in short order and yield both financials and labor requirements.

Will we prioritize trees?

The most important key for success in silvopasture is that trees fit within a farmer’s set of priorities. Trees are only worth planting if they are going to survive. In our experience, the main element here is the tension between forage production and tree protection when the trees are young. From a simple, mechanical standpoint, trees can be spaced far enough apart that a swather can harvest hay from between the rows. This can fit with an organic dairy that both grazes and cuts hay. Similarly, the fibreglass stakes and tubes that protect trees can be used as fenceposts for single-strad polywire. Graziers that move their cattle daily will be no stranger to adaptive paddock arrangements. The more complex question for a farmer arises in the form of: “Are you willing to forego grazing ground, for at least 4 years?” During planning season, in January, it’s easy to romanticize trees. The cattle are grazing stockpiled forage and hay, or they’ve all graduated to freezer camp. But say it’s July, stockpiles are low, and it hasn’t rained in a month. The grass beneath those 2-year-old trees is lush, but if you put your cattle in that paddock, they’ll certainly eat and rub on the trees, effectively negating the thousands of dollars and the time you’ve put into them. If a livestock manager would definitely sacrifice planted trees in this situation, he or she will have a few options. First is to simply plant fewer acres of trees. Second would be to forego silvopasture. Some folks just want to manage infinitely-adaptable treeless pastures, and that’s totally okay.

The last ingredient for success in silvopasture is simple: a grazier should probably like trees. Forests and trees are appealing to many of us. All humans once lived in a savannah-like biome, and silvopasture is therefore pleasing to the eye. Adding a second story to the farm can be profitable both economically and in terms of non-salable happiness. If done well, silvopasture is a great investment, aesthetically fantastic, and undoubtedly worthwhile.

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Is silvopasture a good fit for your farm?