Agroforestry for Your Property

Ionce rented a pasture that adjoined a yard containing two apple and two pear trees. Every fall when the fruit ripened, the loaded trees would drop any blemished fruit early. The homeowner hated mowing around the fallen fruits, and my cows liked to eat the ones that rolled across the fence, so when they were in the adjacent paddock, I’d throw the windfall fruits across the fence. At other times, I’d fill my pickup bed and drive the fruit to where the cows were. It was a great win-win method to clean up the yard and give my cows a treat at the same time.

But it was also time-consuming and backbreaking work. Instead of doing all this work, I thought, what if I planted apple and pear trees right where I needed the fruit to be: in my pastures? They could give my cows shade in summer, fruit in fall, and fallen leaves in winter as forage. Instead of just four trees for the entire herd, I could have a tree spaced every 30 or 40 feet on a grid, 30 or 40 trees per acre. Now that would feed a lot of cows!

This idea isn’t new—in fact, I read a book when I was in college that completely altered my view of what the future of agriculture could be. The book, , was written