By Becky Mills
Contributing Editor

"Thinning left the ground open for weeds," explains Andy Andreasen. "But the cattle grazed the weeds along with volunteer grasses and helped us manage the understory. (DTN/Progressive Farmer image by Becky Mills)

Andy Andreasen already had planned to graze cattle under his pine trees after the trees were thinned in 2004. When a tornado from Hurricane Ivan thinned them again six months later, the plan became a necessity.

"We lost $30,000 worth of timber in one night," says the Marianna, Fla., cattleman. "It opened up the stand considerably more than we planned."

As it turned out, the cattle and pines benefited each other, starting with the cows' role in weed control. "Thinning left the ground open for weeds," explains Andreasen. "But the cattle grazed the weeds along with volunteer grasses and helped us manage the understory.

"I was pleased to see how the trees recovered," he adds. "The cattle leave urine and droppings around the trees and the nutrients help stimulate growth.

"We were trying to maintain a basal area between 50 and 60. Now 80% of what's there should be sawtimber. By 2010 we should be able to thin for saw logs if the economy turns around." Andreasen says saw logs normally bring five to six times more than pulpwood.

The pines, in turn, have been good for the cattle.

"The cattle are grazing the area under the trees during the heat of the day. Cooler conditions under the trees during the hot summer months increase cattle intake, and that equals better gain or body condition."

Auburn University grazing lands ecologist Mary Goodman backs up Andreasen's observations. "The cattle's use of the land is more evenly distributed, and they graze for a significantly longer portion of the day under the pines for more even utilization of forage. They do more loafing when they have access to shaded areas."

Obviously, there has to be forage under the trees for the cattle to graze. In the fall after the tornado, Andreasen had ryegrass seed flown on so the cows could have winter grazing. "That worked really well where the ground was roughed up from the thinning," he says.

In the warmer months, he had volunteer crabgrass under the pines and a stand of bahiagrass in an adjacent field. He decided to focus on the bahia. "It is low-maintenance and works well. We used a cyclone seeder to spread the seed and let the cows walk it in. We fed bahia hay under the pines too."

Goodman agrees with Andreasen's preference for bahiagrass. "It is more tolerant to shading than most other introduced warm-season grasses. Bahiagrass also persists well in sandy soils that tend to be droughty, like many found in the Coastal Plains, where native grasses also work, but they need more intensive management if used for grazing," she says.

Two years after the thinning, Andreasen geared up for clover by applying 2 tons of lime per acre. "We did that well ahead of time so we could get the pH right." That fall he added 300 pounds per acre of 3-9-18 fertilizer and spread crimson clover with a cyclone seeder.

"The bahiagrass stays later in the fall because it has frost protection. The crimson clover, which is a cool-season legume, comes on earlier in the fall because it is cooler under the trees." The cooler temperatures under the pines also help the clover persist in the late spring.

Andreasen even had bermudagrass volunteer under a stand of pines. "You don't think of bermudagrass working in the shade, but maybe it is because the shade helps conserve moisture during drought," he says.

By grazing cattle under his 100 acres of managed timber, Andreasen has increased his herd by 30 head to 120 cows. He also stockers around 90 calves a year. In addition to the timberland, he has 200 acres of open pastures and hayfields and is careful to rotate his cattle to keep them from damaging the trees.

Although he planted the trees in 1989 and didn't turn the cattle in until 2004, he says stocker cattle can be grazed on trees as young as 3 years old.

"Stocker cattle aren't nearly as aggressive. The cattle help prune the trees by breaking off the lower branches. If you have wide row spacing, the trees will get limby on the open side, especially loblolly pines. If you prune them up to 10 to 12 feet you are forcing the trees to grow up."

With mature cows, he advises grazing them only in areas where the trees are at least 5 years old—6 for bulls. Andreasen says, "They ride the trees and break the tops out of them."

With experience double-cropping timber and cattle, Andreasen is convinced it works and pays.

"We have yearly cash flow from the sale of our calves. If I wasn't grazing cattle under the trees, I wouldn't have any income from the forested land until we thinned the trees."

For more information on working trees for livestock, visit the USDA National Agroforestry web site at www.unl.edu/nac/silvopasture.htm.

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