Advantages of Agroforestry

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

With modern technology and low unemployment, farm kids have a lot of career options, but there are things farmers can do to interest the next generation. Kevin Wolz is the CEO of Canopy Farm Management and says that he’s seen agroforestry bring renewed energy and renewed interest back into farming operations.

Wolz… “You know, there's a family we work with in Central Illinois that has been really excited about chestnuts and they really view it as a way of integrating all the generations on the farm. They kind of saw that the younger generations, just, they had no interest in sticking around. Now there's four generations on this farm actively involved and they view it as a really exciting opportunity for the different skill sets on the farm to get involved in different aspects of the operation.”

This isn’t the only benefit. Wolz says there are economic opportunities with tree crops and the ability to enhance row crop production systems.

Wolz… “Another example, like a larger kind of conventional farm, we integrated windbreaks around the whole farm to kind of protect it from a conservation lens but now that farmer is converting all the row crop ground to organic. It actually really helpful to them that they had the windbreak in there because the windbreak is on the edges of the farm where organic row crop farmers need that buffer between them and their neighbor. And actually as the trees grow, will prevent herbicide drift from entering the farm.”

Learn more about commercially implementing agroforestry at canopyfm.com.