'Gift we don't use': Gippsland farmer puts cattle under trees for bigger bucks

Clinton Tepper, Warragul, has been trialling combined forestry and cattle farming for years and is adamant that farmers have more to gain with tree plantations than ever before.

Operating as a forestry consultant under his business, 'Just Add Trees', he said over 1000 farmers have visited his property since 2017.

Stock & Land visited the South Gippsland farm recently to examine Mr Tepper's trial sites and learn more.

The operation spanned 45 hectares and hosted 100 Friesian and first cross beef cattle of mixed ages.

A total of 7ha was currently under plantation and Mr Tepper planned to increase this to 40 per cent of the farm over time.

Cattle were rotated through 35 paddocks, hitting each paddock every 50-60 days, and all tree plantation fields were also grazed.

He said a trial site first planted in 2014 was now out performing neighbouring non-planted paddocks with grass growth almost neck and neck and palatability far greater.

"It's actually better in here at the moment," Mr Tepper said, standing amongst the now 10 year old trees.

"Over the years, this is just 10pc down on pasture yield but the palatability is actually a little bit better and that's to do with the composition of the different [grass] species in here," he said.

"The cattle are putting more weight on in here than they are out there."

Mr Tepper said more and more farmers were becoming interested in trees and that older farmers were often returning to the idea of planting after years of trying other things.

"What's been the really big difference in the last three years is we're starting to see full time farmers, dairy farmers, bigger beef farmers, getting into it," he said.

"I think farmers have explored a lot of other avenues to make their farms more resilient and more profitable and some of them have been successful and some haven't been.

"Farmers are starting to realise that trees have more value than simply being put in a shelter belt for more shelter.

"They're realising that they've got multiple benefits."

These multiple benefits included trees improving and maintaining soil health, greater water filtration, shade and added income.

"Trees are a gift that we just don't use to its optimum capacity," he said.

"Clearly there's the shade and shelter but we're also growing timber and because we're growing timber at a pretty good rate we're sequestering carbon as well.

"We're mulching the prunings and thinnings from the trees back into the ground so we're accelerating that degradation."

Mr Tepper said just because a field was planted with trees, didn't mean livestock needed to be shut out.

When managed correctly, and with the right species used, he said cattle could be given access to a new plantation after 18 months.

The 10 year old 1ha trial site of multiple tree species including Spotted Gum, Silver Wattle and Silver Top, had undergone thinning and pruning and did not look the worse of any cattle disturbance.

The paddock was mob grazed for 24 hours and Mr Tepper said the stock really thrived under the branches.

"We're getting some really good grazing value here particularly in the summer and autumn," he said.

"In February and March when it barely rained, the rest of the farm pretty much went brown but the shade here reduces evaporation.

"Clover hangs on and that sort of thing.

"[The cattle] don't sit in one mob, they graze the whole paddock and they don't camp in a particular corner."

He said many farmers, including some large dairy farmers across Victoria, were beginning to get clued in to these benefits.

He explained how he was working with a number of clients who were facing a drop in milk yields during high temperatures and needed a solution.

Tree plantations were allowing cows to graze while keeping cool with subsequent improved production.

The cattle also benefited the tree growth, and aided timber production, according to Mr Tepper.

"My passion lies with the trees but the cattle are very necessary to make the system work," he said.

"We call it multi story farming because we're paying a lot of attention to the soil, the pastures, the cattle and the trees.

"We're trying to integrate them all and there's a synergy there if we can get the site and species matching right and the management regime matching right.

"They all benefit each other."

There was also a carbon and biodiversity element to tree planting.

"I think the carbon side of things has played a small role," he said.

"I think a lot of farmers are beginning to realise that they're going to have to keep as much carbon on their farm as they can to offset their own emissions."

There was a notable strong presence of native flora and fauna at the Warragul farm test sites.

"You can probably hear nine to 10 different species of birds above us in the plantation," Mr Tepper said.

"Certainly we've got more bird life here and we do species counts and we've got something between 30 and 40 different species spotted on the farm since we started tree planting."

The 1ha trial site was initially planted with a range of grasses and crops with lucerne coming out on top, in terms of performance.

Mr Tepper had planted 7ha of the crop on the farm with 25 tree species planted and studied on 3ha of the paddock.

The results were promising and in future, he aimed to push this - tree plantations with lucerne underneath - as his main business model.