Post by ffinlo Costain

🌳 🐂 🍎 Can farmers make agroforestry pay...? I spoke to two producers taking different routes to 'yes'. 🎧 Find out more below, or listen to Day 2 of 10 More Days of Groundswell. 🍎 Sam Beaumont, at Gowbarrow Hall Farm in Cumbria, is planting trees on contour to manage water and give his cattle willow browse, a natural flukicide. Fruit and nuts, sold direct, come later. The trees are there to strengthen a system he already has. 🍐 Helen Browning, of the Soil Association, is running two systems side by side: an experimental forest garden feeding her local pub, and 50 acres of Perry pears planted specifically because a cider contract made the economics work from day one. Wood pasture and timber sit alongside both, paying back in shade and shelter long before any harvest. 🌳 Neither is a single bet. And in both cases, the value starts flowing well before the trees are mature. 👉 Full piece below and podcast in comments - and all of Farm Gate's Groundswell content is sponsored by ADOPT Support Hub. Sophie Nixon Vicki Hird Martin Lines Jimmy Woodrow Dr. Nikki Yoxall Pasture for Life Nature Friendly Farming Network Tom Pycraft Tamara Giltsoff Thomas Gent Thomas Slattery Alex Caraffi Groundswell Agriculture Harriet Cherry Alexander Cherry