This is the recording of an online workshop hosted by the Organic Research Centre (ORC) in October 2021 and organised as part of the Farming the Future programme. It set out to explore how agroforestry could contribute towards the conservation and restoration of biodiversity, and the policy options that could support the realisation of these benefits. Chaired by Colin Tosh, Senior Agroforestry researcher at ORC, it features Tom Staton, University of Reading PhD researcher on agroforestry and biodiversity in arable systems (particularly focusing on natural pest control and pollination), Devon-based farmer Carolyn Richards, who reflects on her experiences of developing silvopasture with a view to better managing her herd and enhancing biodiversity, and Helen Chesshire – Senior Farming Advisor for the Woodland Trust who asks how the UK policy might help agroforestry achieve biodiversity goals. It also features a lively interactive discussion with delegates.
Wakelyns, surrounded by a sea of large-scale conventional arable production, is an oasis of trees, alive with bird song and insects. Integrating trees for timber, energy and fruit production into an organic crop rotation, this 22.5 hectare innovative farm was established by the late plant pathologist, Prof. Martin Wolfe, to put into action his theories of agrobiodiversity being the answer to achieving sustainable and resilient agriculture. Marking 30 years of agroforestry at Wakelyns, this recently updated publication celebrates the work of Martin and Ann, fellow researchers from the Organic Research Centre and the wider research and Wakelyns community; as evolved and expanded on by their son David Wolfe and his wife Amanda from 2020. It tells the story of Wakelyns and includes sections on diverse cereal populations, impacts of added diversity on insects and birds, food and energy production, enterprise stacking, ramial woodchip trials, pond restoration and creation, research focused on tree / crop interactions, and sustainability assessments.
Woodland Trust Research Briefing (authored by Jo Smith and Sally Westaway) reporting on studies carried out within an organic silvoarable alley cropping system in the UK (Wakelyns Agroforestry in Suffolk), where researchers have investigated the impact of trees on crops in the adjacent alleys. The main limiting resource for plants is usually light and some studies have shown that shading from trees has reduced yields in temperate agroforestry systems. The briefing divides the research into sections focusing on cereals and timber trees, fertility-building ley and short rotation coppice willow, cereals and short rotation coppice willow, and total productivity, and includes modelling calculations using an agroforestry model called Yield-SAFE. It can help look at productivity of an agroforestry system over time, by predicting daily growth of the trees and crops in a particular system using local weather, soils and management data.
Short film created by the UK-based Soil Association through their involvement in the FABulous Farmers project exploring some of the benefits that can be experienced from different UK agroforestry systems. It features the Soil Association’s Head of Horticulture and Agroforestry Ben Raskin explaining what agroforestry is and showing a field at Eastbrook farm that has 19 different species of trees and nuts, and an alley cropping field that will provide shade, shelter and browse for cattle. Organic Research Centre’s Senior Livestock Researcher Lindsay Whistance talks about the important part trees can play in helping to manage carbon sequestration, nitrogen sequestration and methane. Martyn Bragg of Shillingford Organics explains the many benefits that have come from combining alleys of trees with vegetable crops, and Jon Perkin and the Apricot Centre’s Martina Brown-O’Connell, talk about the advantages of the system run at the Dartington Hall Estate, where sub tenants have taken on a strip of land and planted their own trees which they can take produce from.
Three UK upland farmers talk about how they are integrating and using trees to their best advantage on their farms in this video by the Soil Association (supported by FABulous Farmers). They refer to the benefits of giving their livestock access to trees and hedgerows and give their insights in to why trees are good for the animals (through providing shelter, shade and browse/fodder), soil health, biodiversity, the environment (i.e. flood protection and carbon storage) and the farm income. The video features beef cattle and sheep farmer Andrew Barbour from Mains of Fincastle in Perthshire, sheep farmer Glansant Morgan from Pwllyrhwyaid Farm near Brecon in Wales, and dairy farmer Freya Meredith from Lower Withecombe Farm on Dartmoor in Devon. It also features Luke Dale Harris (Innovative Farmers silvopasture trial co-ordinator from FWAG SW) and Kate Still from the Soil Association Farming Team.
This Woodland Trust Research Briefing is based on a Natural Environment Research Council-funded PhD research project run by the UK-based Woodland Trust. It investigates the extent by which silvoarable agroforestry (planting trees in arable fields) can improve productivity, profitability and sustainability while simultaneously reducing the reliance on pesticides and ‘managed’ honeybees. This research can help provide farmers with evidence-based practical advice on how agroforestry systems should be designed and managed to get the best out of biodiversity by increasing the number of beneficial insects (e.g pollinators and predators of pests), while minimising problems (e.g. slug damage and increased weed numbers).
Seven farmers and a research farm in Devon, UK, are integrating trees with livestock on their farms and monitoring the impact on livestock behaviour, biodiversity and soil health metrics as part of a 12-year field lab through the Innovative Farmers programme involving the Woodland Trust, Organic Research Centre, Rothamsted Research and FWAG SW. Three designs are being tested, with a mixture of cluster planting, regular spacing and shelterbelts.
The farm enterprises are a mixture of dairy, beef, sheep and arable. The Woodland Trust have worked with the farmers to design planting systems. Each design has been chosen to suit the grazing requirements of the farmers as well as fitting into the natural environment surrounding the chosen fields. Over 12 years, the farmers are monitoring tree establishment and factors that may affect this (fencing, wildlife, livestock interactions and the use of decoy rubbing posts and ‘sacrificial willow’ to distract livestock from protected trees and shrubs). The aim is to provide the first ever set of long-term data practically grounded in the reality of commercial farms.
From this page you can access a series of short films featuring farmers explaining why there are researching silvopasture and detailed technical information on the three designs being tested.
Recording of a presentation given at International Symposium on Climate-Resilient Agri-Environmental Systems (ISCRAES) – featuring Jim McAdam, Eugene Curran and Ian Short. It focuses on two trials in Ireland comparing the performance of silovapasture with that of grassland and woodland.
This Paradigm Shift Film features some of Sweden and England’s agroforestry pioneers explaining how we can play a key role in restoring ecosystems through our food production…
Martin Crawford, Director of the Agroforestry Research Trust in the UK, focuses on agroforestry as a perennial intercropping system, equipping us with more food security and resilience to increasing weather extremes. He stresses the need to move from annual crops to perennial crops and become carbon negative through incorporating trees and shrubs in growing systems, showing some crops that can be grown in forest gardens. Professor Martin Wolfe, founder of Wakelyns Agroforestry Farm, Suffolk, highlights the many benefits of diversity and touches on tree management by coppicing and pollarding and calculating the performance of crops grown in alleys compared to crops grown in a large field or plantation using the Land Equivalent Ratio. The various cropping systems at Wakelyns are sequestering carbon, promoting cycling of nutrients and water, providing a haven of biodiversity, and helping reduce problems with pests and diseases.
Johanna Björklund from Örebro University, Sweden, explains the different kinds of agroforestry systems and the need for agroforestry; increased efficiency, reduced reliance on fossil fuels, and recycling phosphorous, nitrogen and other nutrients between plants and animals. She suggests some actions needed to increase food security and the use of agroforestry in the future, and what you could do if you were wanting to establish an agroforestry system. Philipp Weiss, Stjärnsund, Sweden, explains the principles of the forest garden, what we can learn from it and the deciduous forest, and how a forest garden can be built into an already established woodland. He explains that Bagarmossen Forest Garden, Stockholm is creating and maintaining its own fertility. He also explains the concepts and principles of permaculture and what it can offer as a way of helping to meet some of the global challenges, equipping people at the local community level.
These best practices case studies, produced as part of the BRANCHES project, showcase success stories regarding forest and agricultural biomass supply chains and provide useful practical information regarding economics and tree management
