Forestry & Farming
Livestock and woodland are often assumed to be conflicting land use interests. However, trees have a valuable role to play on farms and in how we best use our countryside now and long into the future.
What are the benefits of farmers planting trees?
Tree planting can give farmers additional long-term income, usually by planting trees on ‘marginal’ land unsuitable for growing crops. Farmers can get planting grants and the trees can provide shelter-belts for animals, reducing the cost of winter bedding and improving health and performance.
The woodland can be thinned as it grows, providing firewood, then harvested for timber and sold when the trees mature. For faster-growing species, this would still be 30+ years. This means tree planting on farms is an important consideration in succession planning on farms.
Some farmers might not have family members who want to take on the farm and decide to sell the land for forestry. This would often be a hill farm where crops cannot be grown and sheep numbers are low and the farm is not profitable. This land has limited capacity for food production.
Is it always a choice between farming and forestry?
No - they can exist and in many areas, do exist - side-by-side. The benefits are summed up well by Andrew Barbour, who farms at Bonskeid Estate in Perthshire in Confor’s report, Farm Forestry:
“On more extensive farms, it is possible to plant trees to benefit the livestock enterprise and to create a valuable source of capital for the future. On smaller farms the scope is reduced, but there is still always room to farm with trees which will add to the profitability of the farm…
"Will growing trees make you money if you go down this route? Our collective experience is that it can, provided it is done right. As government grants can create positive cash flow in the early years, the risk is taken out of this to a large degree.”
Shouldn’t good agricultural land be used for food crops?
Yes, there are clear guidelines about which types of land forests are planted on; this tends to be rougher, higher ground that isn’t suitable or profitable for food production. Of the 18.6 million hectares (about 46 million acres) of UK land considered as ‘agricultural’ in 2020, around a third was used for crops and over half was designated for ‘rough grazing’, for example in sheep farming.
Trees can be grown alongside grazing sheep and farmers who have adopted these practices tend to see increases in the profitability of their land. Additionally, the UK currently produces more lamb than it consumes - and consumption is decreasing.
Just over half the food consumed in the UK is produced here. Most of the rest is imported from the European Union. Trade relationships and domestic supply are stable enough to ensure food security, according to this report by the Department for Food, Environment & Rural Affairs (Defra).
What are the trends in farming that we should think about?
The latest UK Government data shows annual consumption of meat per person fell by 12.5% between 2018 and 2022. The Climate Change Committee, official advisers to governments across the UK, has said reaching net zero by 2050 is likely to require further reductions in meat consumption of 20% by 2030 and 35% by 2050.
With declining consumption of meat, and lamb self-sufficiency exceeding 100%, there is a market challenge for the sheep farming community. Diversification into tree planting could be an opportunity for some of these farmers.