Farmer experience with tree fodder

Abstract

Use of trees for drought feed on New Zealand farms has been practised sporadically for many years, after farmers found that tree prunings were useful as supplementary feed during summer droughts. The Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) Sustainable Farming Fund recently funded a farmer-led team to develop the concept of tree fodder use on livestock farms in the southern North Island. Livestock farmers in Hawke's Bay, Rangitikei and Wairarapa who are already using tree fodder were interviewed to generate practical guidelines from their experience. Additional experience from Otago has been included here. Farmers obtain tree fodder by pruning and pollarding soil conservation trees, and by coppicing or grazing livestock on fodder blocks, or by taking advantage of natural leaf fall from poplar trees. The most common practice was pruning willows and poplars originally planted for soil conservation, during summer using a chainsaw. Most farmers found tree fodder feeding a valuable practice and well worthwhile. Over a three-tofour week period, two farmers reported taking 1.5-2 hours per day to feed 1,000 sheep, or cutting five or six trees per day to feed approximately 1,000 ewes. Keywords: tree fodder; poplars; willows; coppicing; pruning.