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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] The Loss of Our Trees

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  • From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] The Loss of Our Trees
  • Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:13:10 -0500

At 10:24 AM 8/2/02 +0000, you wrote:
>I find this post, while interesting, peripheral to the current
>tension between those who would manage for grass and those who would manage
>for trees. Obviously they both have value, but a strong case can be made
>in grazing situations to keep trees very limited. Trees tend to attract
>animals into the shade in the hot parts of the day, limiting their grazing
>time and concentrating manure, often killing the trees.

That's the widely held myth among many Ozzie graziers as well and
demonstrates an alarming degree of ignorance about the grazing animals
needs and welfare, especially with regards to cattle.
Cattle don't normally get out eating grass in the heat of the day (unless
they've got no choice) - that's when they need shade and shelter to rest
and chew their cud - a cow needs to spend at least 8 hours a day chewing
cud so it can digest the grass it's eaten. Cattle will do up to 40% of
their grazing at night, especially in hot weather. In Australia it is
estimated that 15-40% of potential production is lost due to
environmental stress, i.e. exposure to sun & wind, due to lack of trees
and shelterbelts in grazing lands. The phenomena of trees dying due to
excess manure and compaction under their canopy is because there aren't
enough trees in the system to spread that good shit around. Pays to
remember that cattle are decendants of the forest browsing cattle of
Europe & happiest/healthiest when 40% of their diet is browsings from
trees & shrubs.
(Basic PDC teachings - know your animal...)
Robyn

I agree with a lot of this. You certainly can have enough trees to spread the animals out, but cattle especially have a tendency to bunch up. My intention is to point out that there are legitimate concerns one needs to be aware of when mixing trees and cattle, one of which is tree mortality. Seen a few to many open grown oaks killed by the mob. Goats are even harder on trees, sometimes pealing the bark off of them. Shade is a tricky issue, especially in dairy farming. It's not so much the 35c/95f days, everyone agrees thats a good day for shade, its the 28c/75f days when they bunch up and fail to eat enough. This is especially a problem with dairy animals who may have issues of premature drop in production compared to where they should be in a lactation. Admittedly this is a relatively minor problem in the grander sceam of running a dairy. Keep in mind you have pasture production and harvest issues to keep up with in order to keep forage quality high, this is a major issue. All of this can be managed with good fencing, but the simpler it is to run a farm the better, anything that complicates matters is significant.

from gking:
its also called silvopasturing, an agroforestry practice. nature's
example of this is the oak savannahs of N. america, grazed and managed
by the buffalos and Native Americans, and fire

All good thoughts. I think there are many trees that mix well with sheep and cattle including many of the Savanah species, American plum, hazel nuts, oaks, locusts; all small or with relatively open canopy to grow grass underneath. Black Locust also make very fine fence posts, saving farmers money.

Is there a place for me to post my PC grazing document to? This could expand on a lot of the issues were kicking around here.



Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM





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