DRIFTLESS - About 10 members of the Tainter Creek, Bad Axe and Coon Creek Community watershed councils, along with Vernon County Land Conservation Department staff, attended a field trip to the Spring Green campus of the Savanna Institute on Thursday, July 20.

The group was there to learn more about agroforestry practices. According to Savanna Institute Executive Director, North Crawford graduate Keefe Keeley, “agroforestry is the integration of trees, crops and livestock into farming systems. In a nutshell, it means farming with trees.”

The Savanna Institute is a nonprofit organization that works with farmers and scientists to lay the groundwork for widespread agroforestry adoption in the Midwest. Inspired by the native savanna ecosystems that once covered much of this region, the Savanna Institute conducts research, education, and outreach to support the growth of diverse, perennial agroecosystems.

On-hand to conduct the tour of their North Farm and Elder Farm agroforestry demonstration installations were Keefe Keeley, Water Quality Program Manager & Tribal Liaison Devon Brock-Montgomery, and Field Crew Lead, Spring Green Campus Meg Weidenhof.

Chuck and Karen Bolstad represented the Tainter Creek Watershed Council. From the Bad Axe Watershed Council there were organic dairy farmer Travis Klinkner and third generation dairy farmer Phil Hendon. Cashton organic dairy farmer Matthew Pears represented the Coon Creek Community Watershed Council.

“The Savanna Institute is devoted to research, education and outreach to provide assistance to farmers interested in including agroforestry systems in their farm rotations,” Keeley explained. “We offer tools, tested tree crop varieties, and market development, and we are basically committed to de-risking agroforestry and helping others avoid the mistakes that we will make through our experimentation and research.”

Keeley told the group that Savanna Institute is a technical service provider through USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service. As such, they can assist producers in design of an agroforestry installation, securing funding, and in installing the system on their farm.

“We have four research/demonstration farms in the Spring Green area, and we also conduct research at farms in Illinois,” Keeley explained. “Our goals in Illinois are to explore introducing diversity into a place with little diversity, dominated by growing corn.”

Keeley said that their goal is to refine agrofestry techniques and crop varieties so that farmers can make a profit while at the same time improving their land, and water quality. What we are dedicated to here at the Savanna Institute is to do the legwork to ensure that agroforestry can be a viable option.

“A tree in the wrong place is just a big, dirty weed,” Keeley said. “A tree in the right place can be an asset and a crop.”

Types of agroforestry

Alley cropping is the cultivation of crops in the alleys between regularly spaced rows of trees or shrubs.

Silvopasture is the intentional integration of trees, pasture, and livestock, managed as a single system.

Windbreaks are strips of threes and shrubs designed to enhance crop or livestock production while providing conservation benefits.

Forest Farming is the cultivation of agricultural crops within a forest setting, such as mushrooms or ginseng.

In fields at the bottom of the farm, just across the road and up from the Wisconsin River backwaters, an impressive planting of fruiting shrubs was combined with various other crops being grown.

In one case, an impressive bed of basil was being grown by a neighboring farmer between the rows of honeyberry shrubs. The basil is used for a processed pesto business sold in the region.

“This planting demonstrates that farmers don’t necessarily have to do all of the cultivation on their farms,” Keeley said. “Sometimes, we’ve found, partnerships with other producers can assist with increasing diversity on the farm.”

Travis Klinkner asked Keeley what the return-on-investment is with the planting of perennial crops.

“We don’t know that yet,” Keeley responded. “What we doing here at the Savanna Institute is taking on the risk and the learning curve, and positioning ourselves to help farmers not make the same mistakes we will in our experimentation and research.

Keeley pointed out that the current dry conditions demonstrate that adding diversity into your farm operation can help to protect your farming business from upheavals related to weather or markets.

In addition, Keeley said that research has demonstrated that the amount of food that can be produced on 100 hectares of integrated crops and trees is equal to the amount of food that can be produced on 80 hectares of cropland plus 60 hectares of forest land.

“Integration of crops and trees intensifies the amount of food production per acre,” Keeley said. “For example, if you grow wheat between rows of walnut trees, the crops use the available sunlight at different times of the year, they access the water at different depths in the soil and trees, in the process of drawing water up out of the aquifer can actually supply more water to annual crops planted between them.”

The contrast in the upper field at the North Farm campus between this reporter’s visit in summer of 2021, and in summer of 2023 was impressive. In 2021, the farm had just been acquired and the main activity being undertaken was the planting of cover crops to prepare the soil for alley cropping installations.

In 2023, watershed council visitors were treated to a wide vista of rows of chestnut trees, and various crop-producing shrubs such as hazelnuts, black currants, elderberries and more. The ‘alleys’ between were cultivated in cover crops, various row crops and pasture. Just added the week before, a herd of pastured sheep were seen grazing peacefully in the rows between various varieties of Chinese Chestnut trees.

“We are conducting a cold hardiness trial for different varieties of chestnuts here,” Keeley said. “Chestnuts are a very starchy crop, and can be used in product formulations that require starch.”

Keeley pointed out that though not commonly consumed in the United States, Chestnuts are a big part of the diets of Eastern Europeans and in northern Italy. One farmer who grows chestnuts here in the U.S. told Keeley that “his problem isn’t finding a market for his chestnuts, but rather his problem is in rationing them among his customers.”

“Chestnuts require a cold chain like apples do,” Keeley said. “One application for chestnuts is to make a gluten free flour, which has become increasingly in demand by consumers here in the U.S. Another application could be for chestnut finished turkeys, who could be turned out post harvest to clean up the orchard.”

Keeley said that the trees planted this year will be in full production in 10-12 years. Since our area is at the northern edge of the hardiness zone for the tree, the Savanna Institute’s research with UW-Madison is looking to identify cold-hardy cultivars, and also in breeding for “precocity” or cultivars that reach full productivity sooner.

“The size of the tree is similar to an apple tree,” Keeley said. “The canopy will produce about 50 percent shade when mature, and so a producer could get about 80 percent growth of cool season grasses and forbes in the rows between the trees.”

A little further up the valley were rows of different cultivars of hazelnuts, with cover crops or root crops established between. Keeley said that the rows between the hazelnuts are meant for cropping, and not for silvopasture. He pointed out that they have also integrated a few alleys containing short grass prairie in order to provide habitat for pollinators.

Keeley explained that the Savanna Institute’s plantings represent the first planting at scale in the Midwest of Hazelnut cultivars. He explained that the shrubs grow in the wild in northern Wisconsin.

“The hazelnut is a shelf stable nut, and can be stored like grain,” Keeley said. “Cultivation of hazelnuts produces more oil per acre than soybeans, and can be sold at a higher margin.”

Keeley said that in 2024, they plan to launch a trial with the Kernza grain, a perennial wheat crop.

Ecosystem services

The Savanna Institute employs an ‘Ecosystem Services Manager, who leads the science to measure various ecosystem services that agroforestry can provide on a farm.

“It’s unclear when the carbon markets will really launch and become widely available,” Keeley told the group. “Nevertheless, our Ecosystem Services Manager is working on measuring the carbon sequestration of various crops, and is also developing the capacity to measure carbon with a drone capture system.”

In addition, they are also conducting a longevity study of water quality conditions before planting, and then every year that the agroforestry systems are in place. The goal is to document the ecosystem services that including trees and shrubs in farm rotations can provide.

“The roots of perennial shrubs and trees grow at a deeper level in the soil than other crops, and can spread out at depth under crop beds,” Keeley said. “In this way, they are available to capture excess nitrogen from crop beds that would otherwise have capacity to leach into the groundwater.”

The Elder Farm is a property acquired by Savanna Institute in 2022 in the Lowery Creek Watershed on the south side of the Wisconsin River in Iowa County. The farm is a silvopasture demonstration farm, and also has a house that will eventually be developed into an event and conference center.

“We were able to acquire this farm because I got to know the former owners, and came to understand their goals for their land,” Keeley said. “We currently rent the pastures to a neighbor who pastures his Murray Grey cattle on the property. It’ a great connection to have because the farmer, Michael Dolan, is the president of the Upland Hills Watershed Council.”

Dairy farmer Travis Klinkner shared with the group that he has a section of woodland on his farm that he wants to improve, and possibly put into some kind of production. He had lots of questions about what the best methods to clean up a woods are, what to do with the resulting brush piles, how much to thin the trees, and what kinds of tree species work best in a silvopasture format.

“Black walnuts are great silvopasture trees, because when they’re mature, their leaf canopy lets more light through than other tree species,” Keeley told him. “Other good species for silvopasture include mulberry, honey locust, black locust, willow and poplar.”

“We are currently working to develop a seed-sterile cultivar of black locust to help control its spread,” Keeley explained.

Keeley emphasized that when considering tree species to plant on your farm, you first need to be clear about your goals. For instance, he said, if you have a good stand of Sugar Maple, you will be able to harvest sap and timber. For this reason, you wouldn’t want that area to be in silvopasture or you would at least want to consider excluding the cattle at certain times of the year. Also if you have an area of your woods where you’re seeing natural regeneration of valuable timber species, then that probably isn’t the best place for livestock.

“If your goal is to pasture livestock, then that’s a different matter,” Keeley said. “Walnut is a high value timber species, and is very compatible with good pasture growth underneath if given the right spacing.”

Keeley pointed to a book by author Steve Gabriel called ‘Silvopasture’ for more information about selection of tree species. He said that willow is good forage for animals. For legumes, you’d want to consider locusts for their nitrogen fixation and as additional forage. For Forbes, you would want to consider including Mulberry.

“These species are all durable, fast growing, and cheap,” Keeley said.

If what you want is timber, then you should look at oak, hickory and walnut.

“Older stands of established trees can be more sensitive to compaction from livestock,” Keeley explained. “On the other hand, younger trees can adapt and deal with it.”

Keeley said that brush and shrubs such as dogwood, willow, raspberries, blackberries, and gooseberries get a bad name, but they do have some forage value. He said that planting these species can also help manage for biodiversity and wildlife.