#17 Trees in Pasture

Hello, I am Jim Elizondo, your host at Real Wealth Ranching where our goal is to help you reach maximum profitability while you improve your land the fastest

Today I am going to talk about trees in your pastures.

Depending on the environment, some people believe trees are helpful and some others believe that they deprive their forages of moisture. But, in truth, trees are needed for many reasons and a savanna type of pasture is higher-yielding and more resilient than a pasture without trees.

I have been from Canada to Colombia in America, to Africa and Europe, even Hawaii, and have not seen an environment that could not be made better with the addition of trees in a suitable manner.

Trees act as shade, ambient cooling temperatures by evapotranspiration where the temperature under a tree is much cooler than in the full sun, they can also act as windbreaks of cold or drying winds if planted in rows, they act as mineral pumps recycling nutrients from deeper layers than grasses can access to bring them back to the soil surface, they provide fodder for our livestock, habitat for multiple animal and insect species, many songbirds, game birds, and animal species are attracted by the food, nesting sites, and protection provided by trees that are added to existing pastures, shade for livestock and people, some give fruit which can be harvested by our livestock, some are leguminous which fix nitrogen to our soils, most have mycorrhiza which helps our soil life to produce more forage, shelter from noise, and beauty for our farm or ranch.

Water, trees break the fall of heavy rain allowing water to infiltrate into the ground, they also help reduce offensive odors and reduce airborne dust. Tree roots hold soil in place, trees create a more pleasing landscape, provide a source of income and economic activity, and create settings for recreation.

Windbreaks or living barns can significantly lower stress on animals and reduce feed energy requirements. You get better animal health, lower feed costs, and greater profits. During the Summer months, trees can reduce livestock stress by providing cooling shade and protection from hot winds.

With all these attributes, why don’t more cattlemen have enough trees in their pastures?

Animals need to be rotated, they cannot be under set stocking or continuous grazing as that would kill the tree’s roots. And the best type of grazing for a savanna setting is Total Grazing where you avoid overgrazing even with a very high stocking rate. Let’s not forget what overgrazing is: the re-grazing of an individual plant before it has fully recovered. If you are one of my Total Grazing students, you know that overgrazing is the largest culprit of low humus in most soils.

Now, let’s define what is enough trees: this will vary with environment, with around 20-30% of the area with trees the maximum accepted norm if the tree species have leaves that allow sunlight to come through.

Then comes personal preferences, livestock require shade and grasses grow better under diffuse shade due to a more efficient nitrogen cycle thanks to lower temperatures under the shade of trees.

My suggestion is to plant trees in rows, preferably by seed, and with a no-till drill, so they can be protected from livestock. It would be wise to plant a fast-growing legume fodder tree that can also be used to supplement your livestock in difficult times.

Protecting the seedlings and trees from livestock, I protect them with a high tensile wire electric fence on both sides, 6.5 feet wide so that livestock don’t kill the seedlings by grazing them or the trees by peeling their bark off. 

Row orientation, I prefer an east to west orientation so the tree row can also act as a windbreak for North and South winds but if on pronounced slopes go on a small angle to the slope to avoid or stop erosion.

Species, depending on the environment, there are many different tree species that can be used.

In Tropical and subtropical areas Leucaena and Guacima are preferred 

In more temperate areas, Mulberry is a great candidate, Albizia julibrissin is a legume tree with highly palatable forage that grows up to New York. Black locust, willow, poplars can also be used alone or in mixtures. Black locust leaves out late in the spring and then it casts a diffuse shade which helps grasses grow well in Summer.

Further north and west the Siberian pea shrub or caragana is a highly palatable legume tree that can be used with success.

I would suggest planting other taller species that can later be harvested for high-value wood wherever possible or practical.

By planting trees, we are utilizing more of the available sunlight. Then we can increase our productivity! It's like having another layer on top of the one we had! With proper management to ensure adequate sunlight for forage, we can produce much more than without trees.

About trees robbing moisture from forages, it is very important to be good observers. I have seen dry places where they were clearing all trees to allow the little moisture there was to grow more forage, when asked why there was green grass only under those trees, they stopped clearing out the trees. Trees have mycorrhiza in their roots which helps to source nutrients and water better out of the soil. This is also why cool-season grasses grow faster under the diffuse shade of trees.

Live oaks are some of the trees with the most abundant soil life under them, they are life-givers, while others like commercial pine plantations do not.

Having trees in your pasture is more complex than only having grass but it does pay with many good outcomes and in a natural way.

This is a very superficial review of creating a savanna where productivity is enhanced by the complexity achieved in nature. We can remember:

1. Grass grows faster under the diffuse shade of trees

2. There are many fodder tree species that can be used in different environments.

3. Plant by seed and in rows, this reduces establishment costs by 30 times!

4. Protect your trees with a high tensile electric fence on both sides

5. Plan on species that maintain quality when your livestock need them

6. Row orientation, east to west works well unless the slope is steep

7. Remember, the best time to have planted trees is 10 to 20 years ago, the next best time is today!

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