Introduction under hardwoods and pecan orchards to rangelands that include a managed tree or shrub component [8-10]
1. Introduction under hardwoods and pecan orchards to rangelands that include a managed tree or shrub component [8-10]
Silvopasture is an agroforestry practice that which have been successfully established for cattle combines spatial and rotational growth of timber, production on large farms in the southeast US [11]. In forage, and livestock [1-3]. The system presents an recent years, combinations with goats are becoming of opportunity to increase land productivity and to interest to smallholder and limited-resource farmers improve cash flow by combining income from
and forestland owners but adoption has been stalled agriculture, forestry, and animal production on the
by the lack of informations on how to profitably and same piece of land. Special tree arrangements in
sustainably produce goats in pine plantations in the silvopasture allows for tree and forage growth, as well
region. This paper fills the void by conducting as for grazing livestock [3]. Benefits to the farmer
economic evaluations so that landowners, extension include income generation while converting from crop
personnel, and other decision makers can correctly to timber (or vice versa), improvement in water
assess the potential of silvopasture practices among quality, wildlife habitat, and soil erosion control [4-7].
the many land-use options. There are several reasons
Silvopasture systems ranging from rotational why incorporating goat production in silvopasture grazing in pine plantations to intentional grazing
systems may be attractive to small farmers. Firstly, the necessary economic inputs for goat production are
Corresponding author: Brandi Broughton, M.Sc., research assistant, research field: agribusiness. E-mail: [email protected].
comparatively modest compared to, dairy cows and
Economic Feasibility of Simultaneous Production of Pine Sawlogs and Meat Goats
on Small-Sized Farms in Alabama
beef cattle, for example. Secondly, goat life cycles are seem to support this conclusion, except for the lowest short which enhances cash flow. Thirdly, land
(5 percent) interest rate (Table 1).
requirements are modest and goats can be productive Several financial analyses of silvopastoral practices in a range of environments, they prefer a variety of
have also been documented. For instance, Grado, feedstuffs found on many farms, and prices are
Hovermale, and St. Louis [17] examined the success adequate to produce a reasonable profit. Fourthly,
of silvopasture in Mississippi where they combined demand for goat meat in the United States is at an
livestock with loblolly pine and fee hunting. Six increaseg. Lastly, a significant number of people
alternative land-use treatments were analyzed over a staying on rural farms in the region are largely aging
period of eight years showing higher LEVs for population, which favors a shift from cattle to
silvopastoral practices compared to pine only practices. smaller-sized animal production due to their ease of
Lundgren, Connor and Pearson (1983) calculated the handling, presents an opportunity for diversification
real rate of return for four silvopasture practices with into innovative farming systems.
three rotation lengths (30, 40, and 60 years) and The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Firstly,
varying intensities of thinning (no thin, 1 thinning, 2
a review of previous studies that have examined the thinning, and 4 thinning). Their results showed that economic and financial feasibility of silvopasture
silvopasture managed under the described conditions system is presented in section 1. Section 2 presents
had a very satisfactory real rate of return ranging from materials and methods describing the study site, field
0.5% to 4.5%.
experiment and data collection technique. The results Husak and Grado [20] built on these two studies to and concluding remarks are presented in sections 3
compare the economic performance of silvopasture and 4.
with that of soybeans, rice, cattle and a pine plantation. The literature shows silvopasture systems to be
Using LEV, equivalent annual income (EAI) and rate profitable in many parts of the world [8, 13-18]. In the
of return (ROR) as the primary indicators for U.S., studies have reported productive livestock
comparison, silvopasture practices were shown to grazing under pine canopies while maintaining, or
outperform the other four land use practices in all even improving high-value timber production. In
cases. Silvopasture had an ROR of 14.6% compared northwest Louisiana for instance, Clason [18] reported
to 12.9% and 13.4% for cattle systems and pine that silvopasture generated a higher internal rate of
plantation systems, respectively. By applying income return than managed timber or open pasture. In
from hunting leases the authors showed that hunting southern Mississippi silvopastures attained higher land
revenue could further increase the financial values than commercial pine plantations. Optional
performance of silvopasture by 5% to 26.4%. The hunting fees added yet more value to those systems
general conclusion from financial studies of silvopasture [17]. In Georgia, there are examples of enhanced pine
Table 1 Equivalent annual income from loblolly
growth with controlled grazing [19]. Dangerfield and
pine-based silvopasture, cattle cow-calf operations, and Harwell [14] show loblolly pine-forage-cattle loblolly pine plantation in 1,999 dollars.
practices in the Coastal Plain may have up to 70
Interest rate,
Silvopasture Cattle Pine plantation
percent greater NPV than a pure forestry operation. $/acre 5 67.06 55.31 69.26
These examples suggest that converting timberland to 7 51.15 55.01 45.00
silvopasture could be more economically attractive 9 38.27 53.70 26.62 than adding timber to existing cattle operations. Husak
54.67 46.96 and Grado [20] summarized published data, which
Average 52.16
*Source: Husak and Grado [20].
82 Economic Feasibility of Simultaneous Production of Pine Sawlogs and Meat Goats
on Small-Sized Farms in Alabama
is that silvopasture has the potential to improve earliest feasible point in this rotation to produce a financial performance over pure forestry or pure
minimum of 26 tons (~10 cords) of fiber per acre to livestock management practices. This financial benefit
ensure an economically viable logging operation. The is measured by increased net present value (NPV) [20,
second thinning is conducted in the 17th year and the 22], increased annual equivalents (whether it be
final tree harvest occurs at an optimal rotation length annual equivalent income or land equivalent values)
of 30 years.
[20, 17], improved cash flow [14], or higher rates of Harvest volume information is obtained from the return [12, 21-22]. Clason [12] even showed that
growth and yield model. The model predicts cord and future net value (FNV) can be improved by adopting a
international 1/4 MBF (thousand board feet) volumes silvopastoral practice with loblolly pine.
that were subsequently converted to tons. The cordwood volumes were converted to tons using a