Chapter 1: What is the main focus of agroforestry in this episode?
So let us go all in on trees for today's programme. We have talked before about silvopasture, a kind of agroforestry that gets trees, grass and cattle working together as a resilient ecosystem. Cattle graze amongst the trees planted in the grassland. It's a system that is attracting new converts all the time.
And after four generations of Pattersons doing the same thing on their farm in Gran Lachan in County Roscommon, Gary Patterson decided to introduce trees into a little over half of the pasture for animal health, for soil health and for farmer health.
Chapter 2: How does silvopasture benefit animal and soil health?
Thrasa Vranach visited during the week to see how it all comes together.
There's three different kind of spaces that we've done. In here, there's eight meters between the alleys and three meters between the trees. So we can cut silage through here. These are individually planted trees, so they have two stakes and a tree guard. So we have sheep in this area because the cattle would
would graze the top of the trees and then out the front where we came in and down the back here they're planted in groups so kind of rectangular areas with four rows of trees planted and it's fenced off so we have cattle in those areas and I suppose like for most farmers when they think about forestry they think about
yeah, like losing their land whereas with this system the animals get to benefit from the trees and the trees benefit from the animals. I'm trying to like mob graze cattle so move cattle around. What I notice when I move them is when I move them onto fresh ground they always go to the ditches and they go to the sides and they'll browse on the trees that are here already.
We're really lucky to have loads of trees here already. But the different trees have different minerals and nutrients in them. So the animals are very intelligent. They like, you know, it's like us. I compare, you know, animals eating ryegrass to us eating porridge all day, every day. So if they have a variety in their diet, they're getting different minerals, different nutrients.
And yeah, they're a lot healthier and happier that way.
So I'm looking down into one of the tree protectors here and there's a little sapling down there, which looks tiny to me now. What would that be? A foot and a half, maybe?
A foot and a half. That's what they went in at. In about 10 years, what will happen is the crown or the canopy of the trees will start to touch and will probably start to thin out the trees. So at the minute they're planted at, I think it's 300 trees per hectare. And as they grow, as they come to maturity, they'll be thinned out and they'll be allowed to go to full maturity down, like...
towards 100 trees per hectare and less as they go to, say, the size of the trees that are here now. It will obviously, you know, take a lot of time. The trees that are here already are like, you know, maybe 150, 200 years old. So I probably won't see the best of them, but yeah, somebody will.
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Chapter 3: What innovative tree planting strategies are used on the farm?
And I think, you know, I suppose I was an ag science teacher and then myself and my wife, Gráinne, we took career breaks and we went travelling and we got to see different countries, different ways of farming, different ways of living. And yeah, before I went away, it probably wouldn't have been something that I considered. But yeah, having come back.
The way the grant system is, the way that the country is with tree cover, I see it as an amazing opportunity for farmers. We're in conversion to organic at the minute, so we have our normal farm grants, we have the organic payments and the trees are layered on top of that. There's definitely been head-scratching, like driving in, it looks...
It catches your eye and I'm sure lots of people are wondering like what is going on in there. But I suppose I can, I have a sense of like into the future of like what it will be like. And yeah. Yeah, so these are the kind of groups. This is the other kind of way of planting the trees that we've done. So they're planted in groups.
There's rows of trees inside each of these rectangles and then each area is fenced off so that the cattle can't access the trees and damage them.
And how much space do the cattle have to graze?
So it really varies on the time of year, the grass, how the grass is grown, how the weather is. But generally I'll try to move them on every day. We have 11 bullocks at the minute and they'll get maybe anywhere from an acre, half an acre. They'll graze that area quite well, quite intensely. They'll pare it down quite low and then they'll move on to the next section.
And they're all coming to say hello.
Yeah.
You call this holistic planned grazing. I presume then that you're looking at the entire farm then with that, is that it?
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Chapter 4: How does the introduction of trees affect cattle grazing?
Yeah. Lovely report there from Trassa Branagh. Trees and breathing. We will have you perfectly centred by nine o'clock this morning. Gary Patterson in Gran Lahan County, Roscommon. 51551 on your texts on the earlier report from Kirtlestown National School. Brilliant attitude there. Well done to Rosie.
And uplifting to hear of this Wicklow School planting native trees and of how collaborative and generous local church has been in sharing the field. Coming up after the break, trees that provide protection from climate change for fish.