Forks Farm is a diversified livestock operation in Northeast PA that uses a
silvopasture system primarily for the farm’s hogs. The system takes advantage of the open sunny conditions initially created from thinning-and more recently from ash mortality-to support forage. Hogs are rotated through woodlot paddocks from spring to fall, where they root for grubs, graze on pasture mixes, and glean mast.
Once they have cleared a paddock, pasture mixes are sown. The hogs spend just enough time to ‘cultipack’ the seed mix before moving to another paddock. After hogs are harvested in the fall, chicken and cattle rotated through the silvopasture.
ABOUT THE SERIES
With support from the USDA National Agroforestry Center (NAC), a collaboration of Regenerative Design Group, Wellspring Forest Farm, and Inhabit Films announce the release of a free video series documenting Silvopasture systems in the Northeastern USA.
Silvopasture (grazing livestock with trees) systems are complex, dynamic and site specific. The practice is both rooted in indigenous land stewardship and its benefits are well documented by scientific literature. Adoption by farmers and land stewards of silvopasture is relatively low, but growing in interest.
This project began with an inventory of self-identified silvopasture practitioners in the Northeast US region which resulted in 145 responses across 9 states (ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, NY, RI, NJ, PA) of people who reported stewarding 26,782 acres, with 5,267 of those acres in Silvopasture. From these respondents a range of examples were selected for videos and case studies to offer a snapshot of the practice along with ideas and inspiration for others to follow.
Videos will be released biweekly through the Farming with Trees collective, a decentralized network encouraging collaborative projects in Agroforestry that are grounded in the wisdom and knowledge of people, communities and ecosystems. Find out more at www.FarmingwithTrees.org.