Event
Two Day – Agroforestry Training Day and Workshop
Looking to integrate trees into your arable farming business but don’t know which trees to plant, how many, or where? Unsure about fencing, tree guards or how it will impact your productivity?
Day One
Hosted by FarmED and two of the UK’s leading agroforestry practitioners, this training day will help you:
● Clarify your objectives for planting trees on a specific area of your farm
● Select tree species based on functional traits that match your objectives
● Decide on planting configurations and design (which tree, where and how many)
● Identify appropriate planting, protection, and other establishment considerations
● Understand how you can utilise agroforestry products on-farm
● Identify financial support available for tree planting
The day will include a mixture of inspiring talks, group discussions, a farm walk and farm design activities.
Speakers
Ben Raskin has worked in the commercial growing world for nearly 30 years and has a wide range of practical experience, starting his career growing vegetables for chefs, box schemes and farm shops. He is Head of Horticulture and Agroforestry for the Soil Association. He keeps his hand in on the field with a project implementing a pioneering agroforestry system on a 1500 acre farm in Wiltshire. He also works as an independent advisor, trainer and an author, writing books for children and grownups, including most recently “The woodchip handbook” and “Plant a tree – retree the world”
Niels Corfield is an independent farming advisor and trainer. He works with producers and landowners to implement regenerative systems, across all farming types. He’s studied agroforestry since 2005 and ran a productive tree nursery from 2008 to 2015. www.nielscorfield.com
Day Two
Researchers from the Agroforestry Research Group at the University of Reading will run a multi-stakeholder workshop that aims to address one of the main barriers to agroforestry uptake (knowledge constraints). The day will start with expert farmers introducing their experience of silvoarable farming. Then we will break into groups to produce:
● Ranked research priorities, which will be used to seed funding for agroforestry research, based on stakeholders priorities (rather than researchers’ priorities).
● Ranked educational priorities, which will be used to produce agroforestry training for farmers, including a podcast and video .
● Policy recommendations for DEFRA on silvoarable knowledge exchange.
Participants on Day two will be invited to co-author any outputs.
Speakers
Stephen Briggs – Whitehall Farm
David Wolfe – Wakelyns
Andy Bason – Newhouse Farm
Andrew Mahon – farm manager at the 840ha Bromborough Estate near Wellingborough for the last 15 years. Growing mostly combinable crops with a focus on more conservation practices. About to plant the first 22ha field of agroforestry this winter.
