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Trees for Shade and Shelter

Shelterbelts of trees can increase pasture productivity by providing a warmer microclimate. These trees can also yield valuable timber or fibre and can increase overall farm income.

By providing shade for stock, trees on farms reduce stress on animals and improve the environment, thus improving productivity.

Tree Grower articles

  • A diverse sustainable dairy farm and forestry landscape (Access: NZFFA membership)
    Murray Downs, February 2022
    Trees in agriculture, and in particular a dairy farming landscape, are a hard sell, especially when it starts to take up the productive area of a paddock. The question for the…
  • Cattle want shade trees in summer (Access: unrestricted)
    Keith Betteridge, February 2014
    A severe drought, the best winter in years, then wet spring soils, fallen trees and shelterbelt damage – what more will be thrown at us? Farming was never promised as…
  • Alexander Trust shelterbelt spacing trial (Access: unrestricted)
    Paul Silcock, May 2013
    Shelterbelts suffer from many of the ailments which exposed, open-grown radiata crops on fertile farmland are often accused of possessing. Rapid growth rates and unbalanced crowns which are exposed to…
  • Tree shelter is important (Access: unrestricted)
    Wink Sutton, November 2011
    Farm foresters are aware of the importance of shelter on farms and it may seem inappropriate to raise the subject of shelter in this magazine. However some farms, perhaps many,…
  • Shelter design – what is best for your land? (Access: unrestricted)
    Hawkes Bay Regional Council, May 2011
    This article is the first in a feature on shelter which will run in the next few issues of Tree Grower. The main purpose of farm shelter is to protect…
  • Agroforestry – the Tikitere experience (Access: unrestricted)
    Martin Hawke, May 2011
    In the mid to late 1970s no farm forestry visit to the Bay of Plenty was complete without a visit to the Tikitere agroforestry trial. Within a decade or two…
  • Indigenous shelter planting (Access: unrestricted)
    Bruce Winter, February 2009
    Our sheep farm of 196 hectares at Spar Bush, Invercargill is an amalgamation of several smaller farms. We ended up with several old homesteads which had macrocarpa planted around them.…
  • Remember the four Ps: Planning for successful shelter systems (Access: unrestricted)
    Ron Hinton, November 2008
    The establishment of effective shelter systems, for dairy farms as well as any other farm, is a complex process deserving considerable planning and research before ringing the fencer or visiting…
  • Dairy farm planting for shelter (Access: unrestricted)
    Neil Cullen, November 2008
    On many of the dairy conversions undertaken in the south, the first victim is often the farm’s existing trees. Sometimes there are valid reasons for removal of these trees. They…
  • Natives and those problematical pivots (Access: unrestricted)
    Mark Robins, November 2008
    I retired from farming a few years ago after living in the Ruapuna district of Ashburton. Trees have always been of great interest to me, an interest nurtured from my…
  • Trees combat erosion and protect stock (Access: unrestricted)
    Mike Halliday, May 2008
    Continuing our series of articles profiling the farm forestry model in action. We present here a case study showing another practical example of how trees can be integrated into the…
  • A planned shelter system on the Hunter property at Maheno (Access: unrestricted)
    John Prebble, February 2005
    Situated three kilometres south of Maheno on either side of SH1 is the Hunter family property. John and Dorothy Hunter have farmed this 241-hectare property since 1962 when they took…

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Trees on Farms Videos

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Headlines

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Blogs

  • Tree shelter is important: Wink Sutton's Blog, November 29, 2011
    Farm foresters are aware of the importance of shelter on farms and it may seem inappropriate to raise the subject of shelter in this magazine. However some farms, perhaps many,…

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Farm Forestry - Headlines

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