Introducing trees in Dutch dairy and poultry farms

Summary

The potential of free range areas and grassland on organic farms for performing natural behaviour and offering natural feed is not fully utilized yet. Moreover, there are also chances to be picked up for enhancing biodiversity, carbon fixation and mineral cycling. For example, Dutch organic and free range poultry farms together have 2300 ha range area available. In dairy farms this area is much larger. Challenges on goat and cow farms are a natural enrichment of the ration of the animals and making larger areas of the meadows attractive by providing natural shelter against bad weather. We try to ‘solve’ these problems by introducing forestry in animal production and designing silvopastoral systems. Silvopastoral systems, which are the combination of trees and livestock, are applied traditionally already long times in ‘low input systems’ in Africa and in Mediterranean countries. Trees introduced on purpose in more intense livestock production systems in northwestern Europe is rather new.