Prof Jim Mcadam (an Irish delegate to the Executive of EURAF) gave a presentation yesterday to the DGCLIMA 2nd Carbon Farming Roundtable, on 30 years of results from a silvopastoral trial at Loughgall in Northern Ireland.
Jim gave economic results (full basic payments, full livestock output for 12 years, with grass yields recovering after thinning at 12 and 17 years, welfare benefits to sheep from a longer grazing period, and access to ash leaves for forage), environmental benefits (weather amelioration, biodiversity, reduced nitrate losses and ammonia emissions, reduced fire risk, soil porosity increased etc.) and a measured carbon sequestration rate of 2.5 tC/ha/yr from the trees and 0.8 tC/ha/yr in the soil pasture. With these results, agroforestry has the potential to sequester the equivalent of 64% of all emissions from this grass-based milk production system.
A potential Climate-Environment-Economics Win Win Win for farmers!