Steak ‘n wood: demonstrating livestock productivity and environmental service benefits of trees on farm in northern systems

Silvopastoral systems (SPS) involve the combined management of trees, forage, and livestock on the same unit of land in an integrated and mutually beneficial way. It incorporates various production practises such as alley cropping, windbreaks and shelterbelts, scattered trees in pastures, intensive management of livestock, and rotational grazing.

Implementation of these production systems have numerous benefits such as improved water quality, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat conservation. They can improve the resilience of farms to climate change through income diversification, ameliorate the annual cash flow problems inherent in timber growing and increase farm incomes in the medium and long-term.
Silvopastoral systems can be established in native forest or with hardwood and softwood timber species:

Spotted Gum private native forest in Wonbah, QLD

Photo: Nahuel Pachas

Mixed Hardwood species system in Sextonville, NSW

SPS with 12 alley planting configuration at Super Forest Plantation.  Photo: Nahuel Pachas

Caribbean Pine system at Cardwell, QLD

A silvopastoral system with commercial Caribbean pine in 10m alley configuration. Photo: Nahuel Pachas

This project will provide data and advice to the beef and forestry industries across the 48 million hectares (ha) of sub-tropical and tropical Queensland and northern New South Wales suitable for the development of silvopastoral systems, and how to integrate commercial trees on farm without affecting livestock productivity.

Currently a series of silvopastoral systems experiments have been established across 14 sites, covering a total of 900 ha. This consists of 818 ha of private native forest across seven sites and seven sites of hardwood plantations across 67 ha. The plantations cover a wide age range, including 29 ha (~12,000 seedlings) of newly established SPS, where trees are planted in double rows in between 15-20 metre pasture alleys.

CLICK HERE to view the location of SPS experiments throughout QLD and NSW.

Brian Pastures, Gayndah

Spotted gum in alley configuration with comparison open pasture paddock. Photo: Nahuel Pachas

Boreelum, Miriam Vale QLD

Spotted gum in alley configuration with improved pastures. Photo: Adam & Jacinta Coffey

Spotted gum planted in alley configuration, 2 years of age. Grazing managed with use of electric fences. Photo: Nahuel Pachas

Dunrobin- Super Forest Plantations, Sextonville NSW

Commercial timber plantation with mixed hardwood species (7 years of age) with 12m alleys. Photo: Nahuel Pachas

Stanwell Energy Corporation, Stanwell QLD

Commercial timber plantation (14 years of age) double tree rows with a 20 m alley. Photo: Nahuel Pachas

• Determine the potential for livestock producers to manage their private native forests and/or incorporate commercial trees on farms to sequester carbon and meet the CN30 goal, as well as help the Australian red meat industry improve the value of livestock sales.
• Investigate appropriate options for SPS establishment in native forests and integrating commercial trees on farm.
• Improve the existing carbon calculator tools by more accurately estimating carbon sequestered in trees.
• Evaluate the financial and economic performance of SPS.
• Assess SPS as potential alternatives for sequestering carbon and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
• Determine the co-benefits SPS can deliver, such as improved animal welfare and increased livestock productivity, enhanced land use and income diversification, and improved on-farm biodiversity.

Alley planting is being evaluated as an alternative way to establish commercial trees on farm. The main advantages of this planting configuration are:

• allows good balance between trees-grass interactions
• has a low cost of establishment
• allows for a greater number of trees to be planted, without affecting the grass productivity (compared to evenly dispersed trees in block planting)
• reduces the impact on pasture productivity due to delayed thinning/pruning operations
• allows grazing as soon as possible after planting using low-cost electric fences

Below is a table with some initial planting configuration in block planting and alley configuration for silvopastoral systems:

*numbers in brackets refers to the single, double or triple tree rows.

The below image illustrates the incorporation of both thinning and alley configuration on pasture growth in a plantation context.

In much of the commercially harvestable native forest on private land in south-eastern Queensland (approx. 1.6 million hectares), cattle grazing is the predominant land use. Although the quality and volume of the pasture below these forests is crucial to livestock productivity, most of these areas are at present unmanaged and limited in productivity.

The implementation of sustainable forest management practices can lead to an increase in timber and pasture productivity. The adoption of sustainable forest management practices such as thinning, with the introduction of improved pasture, or even with native pasture, will significantly enhance both timber and beef productivity in spotted gum forests.

The above images show the impact of thinning within a Spotted gum private forest at Gaeta, QLD (Left photo: un-managed forest. Right photo: sustainable management of the forest with improved pastures). Photo: Nahuel Pachas

The image below illustrates the impact of thinning upon productivity in a red gum forest in Miriamvale, QLD.

Both silvopastoral systems in private native forest and commercial plantations are being evaluated for financial performance in the Steak ‘n Wood project. This evaluation is being conducted in conjunction with Dr Tyron Venn from The University of Queensland.

There are currently two sites involved in the evaluation of biodiversity as part of the Steak ‘n Wood project.  These are at Stanwell in central QLD and Brian Pastures in the north Burnett region.  PhD student Tien Nguyen (Sunshine coast university) is evaluating the composition, abundance and diversity of invertebrate morphospecies within Open pastures, SPS and native forests, as well as surveying bird communities.

Pitfall traps are used to capture invertebrates across the different production systems and samples are taken back to a laboratory for identification with high powered microscopes.

Tien setting up pitfall traps at the Stanwell site.

Pitfall trap in-between tree rows at Brian Pastures, Gayndah.

Click on each title to read further information about the Steak ‘n Wood project:

Steak ‘n wood project aims to incorporate trees and livestock grazing at Adam and Jacynta Coffey’s property (Nth QLD  Register)

 Early results for silvopastoral experiment at Brian Pastures Facility revealed (QLD Country Life)

Pasture under shade – the science tells us daily weight gain in livestock is unaffected (The Land)

Steak ‘n wood: demonstrating livestock productivity and environmental service benefits of trees on farm in northern systems (MLA)

 Steak and wood among the trees (Timber and Forestry news)

How can we grow the plantation estate and improve private native forest management in Australia? Silvopastoral systems provide a solution (Australian Forestry Journal)