Wallaces Farmer

Resilient Ag Landscapes: Silvopasture systems bring additional benefits and revenue streams over conventional grazing systems, but add new layers of management.

Tyler Harris, Editor

March 11, 2021

5 Min Read
Cows in a forest
SITE SELECTION: When considering a woodland silvopasture system, decide if the site is suitable. Can it be improved by thinning out trees and opening up the canopy for more forage growth? Tyler Harris

Whether it's bur oak savannas, the wide-ranging oak-hickory forests, or the pine, spruce and fir forests of the Great Lakes, the Midwest has a wide range of native woodlands. When grazing livestock, all of these systems can fall under the silvopasture category, said Ashley Conway, assistant research professor at the University of Missouri's Center for Agroforestry

Conway discussed silvopasture system management and design in a recent Iowa Learning Farms webinar. She noted silvopasture differs from other agroforestry practices like windbreaks, riparian forest buffers and alley cropping, as silvopasture adds more layers of management. Silvopasture systems involve the intentional integration of livestock, forage and trees on the same land.

"This equation seems fairly straightforward and simple. But really what we're talking about is a complex web, a network of interactions that can all work together, because you have so many different options for what types of trees, what types of forage and what types of livestock to integrate together. I like to call this 'à la carte agriculture,'" Conway said. "It makes it very flexible and widely applicable to a lot of different situations. But that same nature makes it also very difficult to provide solid recommendations. It's not a very formulaic type of system."

In this sense, different systems can use different trees — timber trees like pines, hardwoods like walnut or oak, and specialty trees like pecans or chestnuts. There are also different forages — native warm-season grasses, cool-season grasses and mixes of both. And while cattle will likely be the first type of livestock to come to mind for most Midwest producers, any type of livestock can be used in a silvopasture.

Different kinds of silvopasture

The question is how producers are managing the spaces they're grazing. Silvopasture management must include intentional and selective management, Conway said. And for those considering grazing native woodlands, there's a question of how to turn those spaces into productive lands for forage and livestock production while keeping the ecosystem healthy.

Conway explained two kinds of silvopasture: native woodlands that are thinned to allow sunlight to hit the understory for more forage production for grazing, and open pasture with different kinds of trees seeded to create what she called a designated plantation-style silvopasture.

"When we're talking about these two different directions silvopasture can go in, we have a history of not wanting to include livestock on our woodlands. There are some very good reasons for this," she said. "When we let cattle graze in our wooded areas, it can be very destructive. If it's not managed properly, we just don't have any forage that grows in those areas. We don't see any good animal performance. It becomes sort of like a living barn, and damages the forest ecosystem ultimately."

This has led to an overall belief that livestock and trees simply don't mix — which is the opposite of what silvopasture means. As Conway explained, there can be a good, productive relationship between livestock and trees when managed properly.

The challenge is that there isn't a lot of research to determine how to do that in different scenarios. There is, however, ample research showing the potential benefits of well-managed silvopasture. This includes soil health benefits such as:

  • higher soil organic carbon

  • more biodiversity

  • improved livestock performance

  • reduced heat stress due to tree shade

  • better forage quality, but less biomass than open pasture

  • improved tree growth

  • revenue diversity

Silvopasture considerations

With different kinds of silvopasture, there are different considerations when starting out. The first question to ask when considering a woodland silvopasture system is if the site is suitable. In other words, can it be improved by thinning out trees and opening up the canopy?

It's also important to consider what trees to keep and what trees to cut to allow sunlight to penetrate the understory and allow for more forage growth.

"For woodland silvopasture to shift toward a savanna-type system, we're targeting 60 to 70 square feet (of basal area) per acre. What that translates to is about 40% to 60% canopy cover," Conway said. "It will look very open, very park-like, and it will offer more sunlight to grow the forage underneath, compared to 90% to 100% canopy cover that really chokes out the forage growth underneath."

Once trees are cleared, growers need a plan for managing any invasive grass or forbs species that will compete for sunlight. It's also important to consider how to replace trees or introduce young trees when older trees die, and manage and thin trees as they grow.

Keep in mind that in many states, the Natural Resources Conservation Service offers funding for silvopasture — but only planted silvopasture. Thinning woodlands to incorporate livestock is often not supported or encouraged.

Opportunities exist to develop plantation-style silvopasture in open spaces. For these systems, the forage and tree species should be chosen to balance the ecosystem needs with the needs of livestock, as well as the overall needs of the operation — whether it's trees for timber, specialty trees like pecans, or trees to shade and shelter livestock. These systems can even be designed to have fruit and nut trees serve as a fodder source to provide additional nutrients and diet diversity, while providing an additional revenue stream.

Like any grazing system, it's important to consider stocking rate and density when grazing silvopasture. Consider that some silvopastures may not be able to carry the same stocking rates as open pastures due to reduced forage availability.

"Management is the key to silvopasture success. It is a more intensive system because it is intentional," Conway said. "This is a complex system. It is a little more complex than open pasture continuous grazing. There is a little bit of a learning curve."

 

About the Author(s)

Tyler Harris

Editor, Wallaces Farmer

Tyler Harris is the editor for Wallaces Farmer. He started at Farm Progress as a field editor, covering Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. Before joining Farm Progress, Tyler got his feet wet covering agriculture and rural issues while attending the University of Iowa, taking any chance he could to get outside the city limits and get on to the farm. This included working for Kalona News, south of Iowa City in the town of Kalona, followed by an internship at Wallaces Farmer in Des Moines after graduation.

Coming from a farm family in southwest Iowa, Tyler is largely interested in how issues impact people at the producer level. True to the reason he started reporting, he loves getting out of town and meeting with producers on the farm, which also gives him a firsthand look at how agriculture and urban interact.

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