The Rural Voice, 1998-11, Page 24cropping strips.
Researcher Gordon Price studied
earth worm counts in the fields where
trees were planted and compared
them to monoculture field crops, both
conventional tillage and no -till. In
spring and fall counts, he found a
significantly higher population than
in conventionally -tilled fields but
"no -till still kicks butt" when it
comes to earth worms. In summer the
worms tend to migrate closer to the
tree rows.
Earthworms have a hidden value
of increasing crop yields by
mixing organic matter into the
soil, creating channels to increase
soil porosity, aeration and improving
leaching in the soil. Earthworms can
contribute 60-79 kg of nitrogen per
hectare per year through dead tissue,
urine and mucus. They can also have
an immediate dollar value if farmers
choose to rent their fields to worm
picking contractors, Price said.
There's a future added value
agroforestry can bring, Andy Gordon
said. Canada has made commitments
to reduce the amount of carbon
emissions. Trees are an excellent way
to take carbon from the air and store
it. If the trees are then turned into
long-term products like furniture or
houses, that carbon is kept out of the
carbon cycle for generations.
So what about the practical
problems of farming amid the trees?
Peter Wilson, previously in charge of
the farming at the Guelph site and
now a private forestry and
environmental consultant, warned
those contemplating an experiment to
look at the farm equipment they'll
likely be using. The biggest problem
has turned out to be weed sprayers,
the width of which have increased
greatly. Space the tree rows in
multiples of the widest equipment.
Make sure the rows are straight,
he warned. Even the difference
between planting a tree to one side of
the hole you've dug compared to
planting it in the middle can create
headaches when you're trying to
negotiate large equipment through
the rows. "When the trees get there
you have to live with them for a long
time," he said.
The crops between the trees may
need to change as the trees grow,
Gordon said. Corn is the crop most
affected by shading and will probably
20 THE RURAL VOICE
be the first crop to be dropped out of
the rotation. Soybeans and wheat
aren't affected as much by shade
from the trees. The whole problem of
shading and of maneuvering sprayers
between the rows can be eliminated
if a crop like hay is grown. Hay
seems to be growing as a potential
cash crop, he said.
Ewald Lammerding of Grand
Valley, on whose farm Gordon
Andy Dixon (left) and son Jim stand beside
one of their towering walnut trees.
planted rows of black walnuts
intercropped with corn, grain and
hay, can see his seven and a half acre
plantation (180 trees) becoming a
pasture for heifers for his son's dairy
operation in the coming years.
Lammerding was one of several
farmers experimenting with
agroforestry who spoke on the tour.
Joe Banbury of Brighton planted
20 acres of walnuts in rows 50 feet
apart with two nuts to a hill, the hills
spaced 30 feet apart within the rows.
He grows spring grain, hay and corn
between the rows. You have to think
about the trees before using sprays,
he said. Though the trees take about
seven per cent of the acreage out of
crop production Banbury said he
didn't think that was a terribly big
disadvantage.
Dave McClure of Crediton has
two pieces of land. On one he planted
pine and black walnut. On the second
he planted black cherry and black
walnut. He is now harvesting hay
between the rows of trees.
Jose Frenandas has long been
involved in agroforestry, growing up
in Portugal where vineyards grow
legumes between the rows of grapes.
The interest was renewed in Canada
after a group of 100 poplar trees, 25
years old, was sold to a local mill for
$4,500.
He has become interested in
growing edible nuts, planting filberts,
hazelberts and Japanese hard nuts in
1993 using corn as a nurse crop.
The tour visited the farm of Jim
and Mary Lou Dixon near Lucan
where Jim's father, Andrew Dixon,
began experimenting with growing
trees on prime agricultural land in the
1980s. The Dixons have grown
apples on the farm since Andy, who
also taught school, planted trees on
the farm in the 1930s. Since then
strawberries and asparagus have been
added.
Welcoming visitors to the farm,
Andy Dixon says he is not in
agroforestry, but forestry -agriculture.
"I am growing trees," he says
emphatically. "If you can grow crops
between the trees, fine but I am
growing trees. And I'm growing trees
for one purpose only, to make a
dollar. If you want to grow
something between the trees that's
fine, as long as you don't interfere
with my trees."
The evolution of Andy Dixon's
thinking began after he heard
about a walnut tree in the
Niagara area that had been sold for
$6,000.
"I got thinking I've got about 300
trees in my bush. It got me thinking.
Why should I grow trash trees. Every
tree on this farm is going to have a
veneer quality log in it," he says. "I
want a veneer quality log and I want
it as soon as I can get it."
Dixon had become disillusioned
with the traditional way of growing
trees. Forestry advocates say plant
1,000 trees per acre but their most
optimistic estimate is that 200 logs
per acre could be harvested. "Why
would you plant 1,000 trees if you
only want 200? Is that common
sense?," he wonders.
Dixon had planted a woodlot at
the west side of his farm in 1939 to
act as a windbreak for the apple trees.
He took the advice of provincial