Agroforestry combines trees with crops or livestock in the same farming system. Silvopasture is one type, where pasture, trees, and understory growth are managed together so the animals, forage, and trees all contribute. Done well, it gives the same land more than one harvest, forage and animals now and fruit, nuts, and timber later, while it builds soil, stores carbon, shelters wildlife, and helps the farm handle drought and heavy rain. 

We've established silvopasture on parts of the property and plan more plantings over time. We choose each tree species for the conditions it will do well in, what it will produce, and what it gives the surrounding pasture and forest. 

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Carbon, Above and Below Ground

Agroforestry stores carbon in two places. Trees hold it for decades in their wood and roots, and the pasture between the rows builds its own soil carbon through living cover, deep roots, and grazing. A 2018 global review found that silvopasture in cool temperate climates like ours stores about 1.8 tonnes of carbon per hectare each year above ground and another 0.5 in roots. In plain terms, that's about a ton of carbon per acre each year that open pasture alone wouldn't hold. Soil carbon gains were harder to pin down when grassland became silvopasture, so we measure both: soil organic matter on the forage side, and standing biomass on the tree side.

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Silvopasture, In Practice

Our silvopasture puts trees, shrubs, and grazing forage in alleys, rows of trees with managed pasture between them, so that: 

  • The trees produce fruit, nuts, fodder, or timber over their lifetimes. 
  • The shrubs and forage between rows feed the rotating livestock. 
  • The animals graze the forage and fertilize the trees, with guards on the younger ones while they get established. 
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Tree species in our silvopasture work: 

  • Apple, pear, and stone fruits: heritage varieties chosen for cold hardiness, disease resistance, and productivity. 
  • Chestnut: restoration plantings of disease-resistant chestnut hybrids that will add nuts to the system as the trees mature. 
  • Black walnut: a high-value timber species, spaced for both nut production and eventual harvest. 
  • Honey locust: selected varieties with high-protein pods for livestock fodder, supporting nitrogen cycling. 
  • Native hardwoods: oak, hickory, and maple, worked in where the existing forest meets pasture. 

Forage between the rows is a diverse polyculture including cool-season grasses, warm-season grasses, legumes (clover, alfalfa, vetch), and broadleaves that support pollinator habitat and animal nutrition.

Tree Protection in Working Pasture

The risk in silvopasture is animals harming young trees by chewing bark, browsing buds, rubbing trunks, or compacting root zones. We guard against it in 3 ways:

Physical Tree Guards

On younger plantings, sized appropriately for the species and the animals that will pass through the alley.

Timing of Access

Animals come in only when the trees can handle them. Young plantings stay off-limits until they're protected, and we manage mature trees through rotation timing.

Stocking Density

We match the number of animals in each alley to what that alley can tolerate, and we move them before the system shows stress.

Like much of the farm, this is observation work. The silvopasture shows us what it can handle, and our job is to pay attention.

Why Silvopasture Works

These benefits compound over time:

  • Carbon Storage

    The trees add carbon in their wood and roots that open pasture alone doesn't hold.

  • Microclimate

    Trees shade, slow wind, reduce evaporation, and soften temperature extremes. Animals graze longer in summer shade and need less feed behind winter windbreaks, which keeps pasture productive more of the year.

  • Diversified Income

    Pasture yields forage and animal products. Silvopasture adds fruit, nuts, berries, fodder, and eventually timber, so the same land earns across several time horizons.

  • Wildlife Habitat

    Silvopasture supports more kinds of wildlife than open pasture. A 2026 review of 730 comparisons found about 28% higher biodiversity in silvopasture than in open pasture.

  • Drought and Flood Resilience

    Tree roots stabilize soil and open channels that let heavy rain soak in, and pasture between the trees holds more moisture in drought.