An estimate of the financial benefits from feeding willow/poplar, was attempted by applying results from a three-year trial at Massey University’s Riverside Farm, near Masterton, to a typical Wairarapa hill country farming situation using computer modelling. The model assumed poplar and willow planting started ten years ago, and results for Year 10 and Year 20 were compared with a control where sheep were grazed only on pasture typical of Wairarapa farms in late summer/early autumn. After repairs, maintenance and wages were accounted for, the difference in gross margins was $4,755 between the ten-year model and the control model, and $10,236 between the twenty-year model and the control model. While a drought will always affect costs on a hill country farm, protecting the following year’s income is crucial. Feeding willow and poplar foliage to ewes during mating can help to sustain lambing percentages and is a drought management option available to farmers having this supplementary feed resource on their properties. Keywords: economic analysis; financial benefits; poplars; willows; feed supplementation
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(22 KB)Use of trees for drought feed on New Zealand farms has been practised sporadically for many years, after farmers found that tree prunings were useful as supplementary feed during summer droughts. The Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) Sustainable Farming Fund recently funded a farmer-led team to develop the concept of tree fodder use on livestock farms in the southern North Island. Livestock farmers in Hawke’s Bay, Rangitikei and Wairarapa who are already using tree fodder were interviewed to generate practical guidelines from their experience. Additional experience from Otago has been included here. Farmers obtain tree fodder by pruning and pollarding soil conservation trees, and by coppicing or grazing livestock on fodder blocks, or by taking advantage of natural leaf fall from poplar trees. The most common practice was pruning willows and poplars originally planted for soil conservation, during summer using a chainsaw. Most farmers found tree fodder feeding a valuable practice and well worthwhile. Over a three-tofour week period, two farmers reported taking 1.5–2 hours per day to feed 1,000 sheep, or cutting five or six trees per day to feed approximately 1,000 ewes. Keywords: tree fodder; poplars; willows; coppicing; pruning.
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(43 KB)Since the early 1980s willow and poplar trees originally planted for erosion control have been cut and fed to hungry livestock during droughts, with impressive results. This involves shaping trees by cutting them to develop an operating “nest” that enables the farmer to prune regrown branches with greater safety, provided forestry training has been undertaken. More recently, trees have been planted specifically to grow supplementary fodder and some types have performed better than others. The concept is, in our opinion, quite cost-effective and the benefits of growing these trees far outweigh any drawbacks.
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(106 KB)Grazing experiments were conducted in late summer/autumn of 2001 and 2002, at Massey University’s Riverside Farm, Masterton, to determine the effects of poplar and willow supplementation during drought on ewe reproductive rate, when grazing low quality drought pasture. Ewes (55–57 kg live weight) grazed drought pasture in a rotational grazing system, with pre- and post-grazing pasture masses of 1040– 940 and 530–550 kg dry matter (DM)/ha. In 2001, poplar trimmings were offered at the rate of 1.50 and 0.75 kg/ewe/day (fresh), to the high and low treatment groups, respectively (n=100 ewes/group). In 2002, 1.40 kg/head/day (fresh) willow and poplar trimmings were offered to the willow or poplar treatment groups (n=95 ewes/group). The poplar trimmings offered to ewes in the 2002 experiment were severely contaminated by poplar leaf rust. Poplar and willow consumed was higher in mean nitrogen content and organic matter digestibility, and lower in average neutral detergent fibre content, than the low quality drought pasture consumed by the control ewes. Control ewes lost live weight (82 and 104 g/day) during the mating periods in both experiments. Supplementation with poplar and willow slightly reduced live weight loss and loss of body condition, however these differences disappeared in the post-treatment period. Reproductive rate was low in the control groups of ewes (121 & 131 lambs born/ 100 ewes mated). In the 2001 experiment, poplar supplementation increased ewe reproductive rate by 20% units (p<0.05) and 34% units (p<0.001) for the low and high treatment groups, respectively, as compared to the control group. In the 2002 experiment, willow supplementation increased reproductive rate by 15% units (p=0.01) compared to the control group, with the advantage increasing to 21% units (p<0.05) at docking. Poplar supplementation had no effect on reproductive rate in the 2002 experiment. Increases in reproductive rate in supplemented ewes were mainly due to increases in the number of multiple-births. It was concluded that poplar and willow trimmings are beneficial supplements for increasing the reproductive rate of ewes grazing drought pasture during the premating and mating periods, providing the tree fodder is not contaminated with rust. Poplar and willow supplementation increased intakes of DM, metabolisable energy (ME) and crude protein, and increased protein intake as a proportion of ME intake during the mating period in the 2001 experiment. All of these factors could be involved in explaining the increased reproductive performance of poplar and willow-supplemented ewes. Keywords: Drought feeding; Poplar (Populus sp.) supplementation; Reproduction; Willow (Salix sp.) supplementation
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Alternatives to the traditional treatment of effluent, irrigation back onto pasture, may prove valuable for farmers. Here we present the results from the first two years of a trial set up to test the potential of cut-and-carry coppiced hardwoods (poplars and willows) in taking up nitrogen from fresh effluent and providing fodder on a dairy farm. Three blocks each of Argyle poplars and Tangoio willows were planted as 1.2 m stakes on a dairy farm in southern Wairarapa in September 2001. One block of each species was irrigated with fresh farm dairy effluent at a high rate, about 5 mm per week, the second was irrigated at a low rate of about half that amount, and the third control block of each species was left unirrigated. The first coppicing, conducted in March 2002, yielded 6, 13, and 24 t DM/ha from the Willow-Control, -Low, and -High treatments. The corresponding yields from the poplar blocks were 6, 14, and 11 t DM/ha. The depressed yield of the Poplar- High was due to a rust infection. Growth was much slower in 2002/03 due to a cold October and dry summer. The yields were about a third of those measured in the previous year. The amount of nitrogen in the harvested biomass of the Willow- High treatment was 440 and 100 kg N/ha in the two years. Coppice blocks are likely to be most useful where the amount of land suitable for irrigation is limited, where there may be heightened concerns about the effects of nitrate leaching, or where wet weather storage of effluent is limited. The coppice blocks accumulate a large amount of animal fodder in late summer when many farms experience feed gaps and the fodder from coppice blocks may also have animal health benefits. Keywords: willow, poplar, forage crops
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(884 KB)Poplar and willow on farms are a potential source of supplementary forage during summer. To incorporate poplar and willow into farm feed budgets, a method is needed to non-destructively estimate the edible forage yield of the trees. Also needed is an estimate of the nutritive value of the forage. Previously uncut trees on hill farms in the lower North Island were measured and a relationship between tree forage yield and diameter of the trunk at breast height (DBH, 1.4 m) was developed. The DBH was from 5 to 32 cm and the forage yield from 1 to 66 kg dry matter (DM)/tree. Nutritive value of poplar and willow (metabolisable energy 8–9 MJ/kg DM) was similar to that of normal summer pasture, but was lower in fibre and higher in soluble carbohydrate, and of higher nutritive value than drought pasture. The concentrations of the secondary chemicals condensed tannins and phenolic glycosides were high in poplars and willows, and they have some positive effects on livestock performance, but their role requires further research. It was concluded that poplar and willow provide forage of sufficient quantity and quality to warrant using them as supplements to pasture for feeding to livestock during summer droughts.
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(56 KB)New Zealand is a windy country with extremes of temperate climate. Cold southerly and warm sub-tropical winds ensure a varied existence for farmed livestock. There are good examples of livestock shelter throughout the country, yet few farmers actively manage their animal enterprises to include shelter. Research results indicate there are production responses in milk production, liveweight gain and lamb survival to the provision of shelter. However, welfare and animal stress benefits have been difficult to substantiate. Caring for livestock should be the top priority, with an added bonus of satisfying marketing requirements. Strategically planted shelter will enhance our countryside, our image and our economy. Keywords: animal welfare, livestock, shelterbelts, trees
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(35 KB)Tree willow (Salix matsudana x alba) clone ‘Tangoio’ has potential as supplementary feed for livestock in summer/autumn drought. A trial was conducted in Hawke’s Bay to determine the effect of planting stock (1.1 m stakes, 2 m poles) and cutting height (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m) on edible (leaf + stem < 5 mm diameter) and total tree biomass in 2002 and 2003. Tangoio was also established progressively in high density (4,000–6,900 stems/ha) browse fodder blocks in Wairarapa using 0.75 m stakes, and the trees were browsed with sheep in summer 2003, when the blocks were aged 1–3 years. Total tree yield in all trials ranged from 0.12 to 2.29 t DM/ha/ yr, of which 30-50% was edible. Trees cut to 0.5 m above ground often yielded more (P < 0.05) than those cut at 0.25 m. Tangoio established well in the browse blocks but its biomass was < 20% of that of the understorey pasture. Best management techniques for coppice and browse blocks are recommended. Keywords: willow; supplementary feed; soil conservation; defoliation; tree-pasture systems
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The more commonly and successfully grown species of timber trees, grown in New Zealand as alternatives to radiata pine, are briefly reviewed, with emphasis on site requirements and timber end uses. Their silviculture and marketing is considered. The groups covered are Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menzesii), the cypresses (Cupressus species and hybrids), eucalypts (Eucalyptus spp.), acacias (Acacia melanoxylon and some others) and more briefly redwood (Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum) and poplars (Populus spp.).
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(40 KB)The objective of this programme is to provide farm foresters and others with knowledge about sustainable and profitable land use with commercial tree crops. Initially the study examined the role of trees in stabilising soils when planted on eroding hill country pasture. Three species – radiata pine, Douglas-fir, and poplar – were compared for effects in reducing erosion. Tree size, tree stocking per hectare, root tensile strength, and rate of decay of roots after harvest were found to be important. Erosion control becomes effective once a stand of trees reached the equivalent of 30 tonnes/ha of radiata pine root biomass. Silviculture, and choice of species, determines to what extent this critical threshold is achieved. Decision support software, developed in this programme as “calculators’, estimate the ‘Equivalent Farming Gross Margin’ of crops of radiata pine, and Douglas-fir, compared to the livestock previously grazing the land. The calculators, which run under Microsoft EXCELTM, also allow the identification of the most profitable silviculture for the tree crop, and generate yield tables. The calculators are being applied in two case studies; the first involves calibrating the radiata pine calculator for Hawkes Bay and the Wairarapa against actual tree data. Calibration of the calculator for bare land is also being studied. The second study will investigate how well tree crops can compete financially with pastoral farming systems in the Lake Taupo catchment, where there are increasing concerns about nutrient in-flows from pastoral farming. Further enhancements of the calculators are planned which will permit calibration against younger stands, and evaluation of a much wider range of silviculture. Keywords: farm forestry, erosion, root biomass, root strength, financial return, IRR, PNW, farming gross margin, Pinus radiata, Douglas-fir, poplar
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(26 KB)Farm planting can be improved visually by using principles of landscape design to organise both site layout and planting. Principles of site layout include unity, patterning, and manipulation of mass and space, views, focal points and circulation. Planting design should make best use of the visual characters of plants namely line, form, colour and texture. Individual areas of planting are organised using principles of planting composition, while over the whole site principles of balance and sequential development are used. Planting should make best use of interesting plant species and seasonal effects.
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