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The gentle rumble of a tractor echoed across the Â鶹app research plot as our field day group gathered to witness silvopasture science in action. What had once been dense forest was now being transformed through the ADAPT Project—a five-year USDA-funded collaboration between UNH, Dartmouth, and Yale aimed at developing climate-smart strategies for expanding New England agricultural production. 

Aaron, one of ADAPT’s Project Managers, led our group across the experimental landscape where trees, livestock, and pasture grasses are being integrated in carefully planned systems. 

Two Paths to Silvopasture 

Silvopasture—the integration of trees, livestock and pasture—can be established through two main approaches, both of which are being tested at the UNH site. Aaron took us to the "silvopasture by subtraction" plot, where the process starts with forested land, and involves selectively removing trees and establishing forages to create productive grazing areas while maintaining beneficial tree cover. 

The preparation work was evident everywhere. Lime had been spread to address the soil's challenging pH of about 4—extremely acidic and nutrient-poor conditions that make this site particularly valuable for research. Fresh manure was being applied from recent barn cleanings, providing precious nutrients. The forestry mulcher, despite struggling with the uneven terrain, had processed remaining slash into wood chips of various sizes, distributing natural mulch throughout the area. 

Working with Natural Systems 

When the team encountered a persistently wet middle section, rather than fight the hydrology, they modified the research layout, creating silvopasture on both sides of the wet area, with completely treeless pasture beyond. This arrangement provides data across one hectare each of silvopasture, treeless pasture, and reference forest, enabling the researchers to compare land uses. Laneways flanked both sides of the central wet area, with gates allowing dairy cows to move efficiently between milking in the barns and the fresh paddocks in their rotational grazing system, the kind of practical consideration that researchers must have when operating on a working farm. 

The infrastructure serves both research and practical farming needs. A complete set of equipment—manure spreader, seed spreader, forestry mulcher, and disc harrow—supports the work. The site is established with a team approach in which UNH’s Land Use Coordinator, Steve Eisenhaure, and UNH’s Burley-Demeritt farm managers, Jason Scruton and Isagani Kimball, cleared and prepared the site. The ADAPT Project’s Silvopasture Science Team and Aaron as the project manager provide technical direction and document results. 

The silvopasture establishment process is emerging into a successful formula: Thin the forest, remove brush, scarify the soil, then seed in the early fall to give forage grasses a competitive advantage before winter.  However, there is still much to learn before protocols for establishing silvopastures by subtraction in New England are standardized. Researchers are examining how establishment practices vary across the region, and how practices such as adding lime and manure can help establish silvopastures in poor soils like these. 

Tradeoffs in infrastructure are also an important subject of research. While fencing materials remain relatively affordable, labor costs for post installation drive project expenses. The right equipment makes a difference; the fencing contractor they hired installed a fence post through a stone wall in just minutes, a capacity that impresses the ADAPT team. UNH was fortunate to have a forestry mulcher on-site to assist in establishing the research site. 

The goal is to “move at the speed of possibility," Aaron explained, capturing the balance between research rigor and establishing a system that will function on a working farm. 

Ecosystem Services in Action 

Operators recognize that well-managed livestock grazing in a silvopasture can simultaneously provide the agricultural benefits of food production and the ecosystem services associated with forests. Agriculture contributes economic livelihoods and regional food for healthy communities; forests provide clean water, clean air, building materials, wildlife habitat, carbon storage and sequestration, and more. The field day highlighted the ADAPT Project’s ongoing silvopasture research as both scientifically rigorous and practically grounded, addressing immediate challenges while building knowledge and exploring the benefits and tradeoffs provided by silvopastures and other forms of agroforestry in New England.