Wood Pasture

[corylus]

Cows and young trees don't mix. You can protect with 1.2m shelters and thick stakes from sheep, maybe even double staking. Coppice stools we protect (mainly from deer...just the odd escapee sheep) with 2" weldmesh of a light gauge supported by 3 or 4 posts and tie wrapped on, forming a circle of approx 1m diameter. Not strong enough for cows though. We have done a small amount of trees with full cage shelters made of fence rails. Seem cow- proof!

[Daniël Bos]

You are correct, there is no such word.....it is a ruse to flush out pedants. First heard on Radio 4 as "no one likes a pedantist.........to which someone replies...'don't you mean pedant?' "

 

(I blame the long dark winters in Swaledale btw)

 

Your project sounds exciting, any more info?

 

Dagnammit! I'm so easily lured in by the promise of being right...

I'm not a native English speaker though....

 

 

I've 12 acres of grass that I'll be planting up with a variety of trees.

I'll be planting fruit trees, nut trees and a few specimen trees of other beneficial use like Robinia -nitrogen fixing, excellent for bees and can be "shredded" for fodder, Some hybrid poplars for their ability to produce such huge amounts of leaf and thus add carbon to the soil=better grass, as well as bring other trees up a little straighter etc. and probably some just for beauty, perhaps plant some cedar, wellies or some such for visual enjoyment only.

 

We're probably aiming for about 1/4 to 1/3 tree cover so there are no areas shaded permanently but the whole field has an equally spaced splattering of trees.

This should provide shade and shelter for the animals (we've cattle, sheep and hens, pigs to follow...) without impeding grass growth too much.

The nutrients brought up by the trees from areas deeper than the grass roots will be shed by the trees by their leaves thus enhancing the soil and making better for grass growth, hopefully compensating for the diminished light.

It also means we can create a "3D cropping" system, with the trees using much deeper soils and heights no other crop can benefit from, where other arable or pasture just uses a foot or so either side of soil level...

 

That's the rough plan anyway.

[corylus]

Sounds a cracking idea. Nice thinking.

 

Pigs will destroy your pasture though if they are not nose-ringed (sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs).

[Daniël Bos]

Sounds a cracking idea. Nice thinking.

 

Pigs will destroy your pasture though if they are not nose-ringed (sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs).

 

 

I want them to...

 

They'll be on a rotation: Grass for 6-7 years, then pigs, then veg, then hens and pigs again (to clear up any unharvested veg) then grass again.

 

 

p.s. I've asked my granny: she knows very little about sucking eggs?

[corylus]

Ahh I see.

 

Pigs and young trees.......sounds like a recipe for disaster BUT I did read somewhere (Rackham?) that forests without wild boar are effectively dying!

 

Anyone confirm/refute this?

[Stereo]

I always imagined that any wooded pasture would be pollarded? Thereby allowing selected harvest of timber products whilst keeping the trees healthy and productive and providing shade and shelter to animals.

 

Interesting about 'copse'. We have one in our land but it's all mature beech and oak now. Is copse a south west version of coppice?

 

Lastly, on rotation and pigs, I like your ideas. Changing land use between disturbance and planting is a great way to keep it fertile and vibrant. Also avoids issues with disease burden etc. I think personally that pigs are great for a wood. They get in and root up all that mulch. Bring seeds to the surface and Hoover up spare acorns and beech nuts etc.

 

Locking woods up like we do can't be good for them. Get the pigs, cattle and poultry in there. Shake it up a bit and get free meat at the same time.

[openspaceman]

 

Interesting about 'copse'. We have one in our land but it's all mature beech and oak now. Is copse a south west version of coppice?

 

 

Coppice is the practice, copse is the result. Just like thicket is a wood at a certain stage of maturity, spinney is a clump of blackthorn, hanger is a wood on a steep bank, gill is a wood on a bank leading to a stream, shaw is a strip of woodland between fields (as is rue) etc.

[corylus]

Coppice is the practice, copse is the result. Just like thicket is a wood at a certain stage of maturity, spinney is a clump of blackthorn, hanger is a wood on a steep bank, gill is a wood on a bank leading to a stream, shaw is a strip of woodland between fields (as is rue) etc.

 

Are these terms definitive or local names (or both)?

 

Coppice I presume can be a noun and a verb.

 

"Spinney or spinny...a copse or small clump of trees, from the Latin 'spinetum' a thorn hedge which derives from 'spina' meaning thorn" according to Chambers dickshonnery.

 

Gill we use round here, but not heard of 'shaw', which again according to Chambers means a small wood from Old Norse 'skogr' and Danish 'skov'. This is surprising as we have many Norse names round these parts.

 

Does anyone know of a Woody dictionary?

 

Sorry.......appear to have gone a bit off topic here......

[Stereo]

Interesting. We have a copse on our farm (aforementioned mature beech, lime and oak wood on a rocky hill). We have spinneys which are usually wedges of boggy ground, mainly populated by Alder and I haven't heard of the other names to be honest. I don't use these names definitively, just what my parents and grand-parents called them.

[openspaceman]

Interesting. We have spinneys which are usually wedges of boggy ground, mainly populated by Alder .

 

It's a carr rather than a spinney then.