Thread by @IrelandsFarmers

A few thoughts on trees and farming.

I'm certainly no expert, but have been looking into it quiet a bit this last two years.

I said earlier in the week (aside from out hedgerows) trees have been pushed to the very fringes of the Irish landscape.

It's time to bring them back!

So, how do we do this in relation to farms?

Well first things first - instead of seeing trees as some kind of onerous obligation, I would like farmers to see them for what they are-an opportunity.

(I appreciate not easy given Irelands current forestry system mess)

On the face of it,there would appear to be fundamental contradiction in growing food and growing trees. Both require the suns energy, if one is to thrive the other must struggle?

Actually when you dig down into it, there are many ways they can coexist & even support one another

I think that is true down at field level and up at systems level.

@theapplefarmer showing that you can even grown food ON trees, in Ireland.

So, where are the opportunities?

Animal wellbeing

I was at an event in Cork a few years back, an experienced farm vet stood up and said the dairy animals he's looking after today are sicker more often and the illness are more serious than when he was young.

He felt the lack of ability to access diverse forage

was a factor.

At different times of the years animals will self select forage for various reasons. I'm sure farmers here have some great observations on this?

Animals also benefit from shelter both from sun and bad weather.

agricology.co.uk/resources/agro….

Regulatory compliance

Social and market pressure is going to force tighter and tighter regulations on farmers, especially the more intensive ones.

Basic minimum standards around water and biodiversity will have to be met.

Trees offer solutions here.

The days of stock in our rivers are coming to an end.

This will be a challenge, but also a great opportunity to create habitat, store carbon , host biodiversity and protect water quality.

Picture one shows the two contrasting scenarios

I was chatting to a guy in the UK recently and they have a forage harvester and are putting harvested willow and hazel straight into the silage clamp #protein

Income diversification. I'm sure farmers are sick of hearing about the need to diversify their income....but....there are nonetheless real opportunities, be they from payments for ecosystem services, timber production or firewood.

These French brothers run a nice little firewood business from their farms hedgerows
@olivierglinec

Im gong out the door, so lastly (for now) there will be opportunities and obligations when it comes to CARBON.