Removing Trees from our farming landscape has been common practice for years but look to an ancient woodland and you will find some of the healthiest soils on earth. Profitable nature-friendly farming is about finding ways to mimic nature to avoid the costs of battling against it, although livestock needs open grasslands, the advantages of having trees strategically incorporated into our farms are many: improve soil organic matter, permeability and biology as well as providing shelter and varied forage for livestock. Come and hear from from two agro-forestry enthusiasts, one working in the field for decades and leading on Northern Ireland's largest agroforestry study, the other studying the theory and putting it to practice on his farm. Lunch will be included.
Jonny Blair runs a suckler beef farm on 300 acres close to Limavady, over the last years he has been working to minimise costs on farm by implementing mob grazing, encouraging multi species swards and improving his herd resilience through breeding. Constantly focusing on soil health is at the core of his farming system and the latest work on this has been to incorporate trees into his farming landscape. The planting is done with commercial modern farming in mind, ensuring modern equipment can fit within rows with hopes to improve soil permeability, reduce flood risk as well improving resilience for when droughts do occasionally come.
Dr Jim McAdam is from a small family farm in Co Down. Jim had a research career in DARD/ AFBI and QUB specialising in the introduction of agroforestry systems on farms. He initiated and led the Agroforestry research programme at Loughgall from 1986, retired in 2018 and continues to promote uptake of agroforestry systems on farms across the island of Ireland. He is a past chairman of the UK Agroforestry Research Forum (now Farm Woodland Forum), a director and founding member of the Irish Agroforestry Forum and promotes introducing trees into productive farms through GrowIN and other projects.
FUNDING AND PARTNERSHIPS:
This Farm Walk is part of a series that has been funded by the Shared Island Civic Society fund. The project is being delivered in partnership with the Nature Friendly Farming Network and Farming For Nature. We encourage farmers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to attend. For more info on networks, events, resources & programmes - go to www.nffn.org.uk or www.farmingfornature.ie