Agro-forestry

Dinzee Conlee

Hello,

I found Teagasc are now doing an Agro-forestry grant, and was wondering does anyone know anything about it?

Link - you'll have to fix the link below, as I am not allowed post link yet (new user)
w ww.teagasc.ie/crops/forestry/grants/establishment-grants/agro-forestry/

Is it new?
Has anyone here any experience of it?

It seems like a good idea, but would the trees shade out any grass from growing once the trees get mature?

The fact there is only a 5 year grant, doesn't seem great - but I am comparing this to the 20year grant in forestry, which isnt fair either, as they are two different products I suppose.

Anyways, any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,
DC

JohnBoy

I've been looking into this, they originally spoke of 5m grid pattern for the trees but the thinking has moved on to 7m rows with the trees 3.5m apart.

That will give reasonable sized rows when the trees are young, as they approach middle age you will want smaller machinery if you're planning on cutting forage off the ground.

the aim is to thin to around 160 trees per hectare in time which should keep some control over shading.

it's ideally suited to sheep farming, cattle can be grazed too but need tight management until the trees are quite mature.

a big plus is for marginal ground the trees will open up the ground and improve drainage, so the reduction in productivity due to shading can at times be offset by increased utilisation of the ground being grazable for longer.

Siamsa Sessions

Looking into this ourselves here as well.

This is a good read with plenty info: http://fruitandnut.ie/agroforestry.html

There's plenty more reading out there too - just Google it and search on YouTube.

The one piece of info that stuck in my mind is that agro-forestry means you're farming in 3D rather than 2D. Deeper roots from trees extract nutrients from deeper in the the soil which grass or crops' roots can't reach. These nutrients then become available to grass and crops when the leaves fall off the trees and decay on the ground.

Shelter from the sun and from the rain can only be a good thing too for animals.

It depends on the land type and your own situation, but I can't really see too many downsides to agro-forestry; aside from the visual change in landscape and permanent change in land use (same as afforestation where there's a replanting obligation, but probably not as big an issue since you'd be most likely planting native species that take longer to mature and hence require re-planting)

Dinzee Conlee

Thanks for replies...

When I looked at this first, I was only thinking of the 'timber' side of trees...

I hadn't considered fruit trees. I only just started to look at hazel / cobnut, so your link above is very interesting Siamsa.

Were you considering going down the fruit road as well? I havent gone beyond a few googles myself at the minute, just toying with the idea in my head moreso...

Its hard to know how much work may be involved plus whether after the work, if the product would be easily sell-able, and after that, would it be profitable.

JohnBoy

15% limit on fruit and nut species btw

TooOldBoots

How do these grants run along side other schemes? Will you be able to collect the sfp on the land. What about ANC and Glas?
What I find off putting is the land is classed as Forestry and can never be returned to agricultural use. Also the fact that the grant only gets paid for 5 years and the establishment grants seem low for what is involved

fergus1001

as a forester who has done a couple of these schemes I'll say it is a very good option for someone who has a marginal field that they want to improve drainage in, the end result would be as stated a wooded area that resembles a parkland, all costs are covered under the grant

fergus1001

you can't put land currently under GLAS into this scheme, you will still be able to claim your SFP on the land just like all other forestry schemes