IAF News

Northern Ireland’s First Regenerative Agriculture Festival Glenairm Estate, Co.Antrim

The Fields Good event yesterday was a great success. There were about 400 attendees overall and a steady stream of interest in the Agroforestry tent. We had over 55 people “signed up” for the agroforestry walk which focused around Fred’s demonstration of tree protection. This attracted a lot of interest eg from AFBI, Agrisearch, the IFJ, Soil Association and when Minister Muir visited our stall it was easy to get him out to look closely at the system. He was extremely interested in such a low-cost , effective protection option and took pictures and assured us he would try and visit Fred’s farm on a visit to Fermanagh planned for later in the year. There was a very positive feel around the whole event. The Agroforestry presentation was very well attended, few seats left in the tent. Jim McAdam

IAF Director Jim McAdam and his colleagues report here on the Falkland Islands’ history of formal agricultural research which, since inception in the 1970s, had to involve On-Farm Experimentation (OFE) to answer the challenges of a particularly remote and disperse population scattered over vast and mostly uninhabited environments, in conditions that were challenging for human settlement let alone a research programme.

An OFE legacy on remote pasture improvemement: the history of the Falkland Islands

Read here

New Agroforestry Podcast Series

Welcome to Conversation Beneath The Trees, a podcast bringing together scientists, farmers and innovators from all around Ireland to share their ideas and experiences of farming with trees. This podcast has been produced by the Irish Agroforestry Forum in association with GrowIn. It is funded by the Woodland Support Scheme provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Available on Google Play, Spotify, Amazon Music and iTunes.

Listen Now!

IAF Director Clive Bright visited the agroforestry site at Loughgall on New Year’s Day. The agroforestry plantations at Loughgall were planted in 1989. Ground conditions at the sites were really good. You can read more about the Loughgall research in this paper.

***April 2022 IAF Director Jim McAdam met The Woodland Trust at the 30 year old Agroforestry Site at Loughall to discuss the benefits of agroforestry to farms.***
Gregor Fulton (WT), Clare Jones (WT), Andrew Baird (Mourne Heritage Trust – partnership woodland officer post with WT), Stephen Duggan (WT), Jo Boylan (WT), Lisa Critchley (Belfast Hills Partnership – partnership woodland officer post with WT), James Rodgers (Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council) (L-R)

Gregor Fulton, Senior Outreach Manager for the Woodland Trust Northern Ireland said:

“The Woodland Trust wants to increase tree cover in Northern Ireland and one way we can achieve this is by

encouraging landowners to incorporate agroforestry on their farms. It was great to visit Agri-Food and

Biosciences Institute and get an update on their research work and future plans.

“We help landowners plant the right trees in the right place and we can provide advice on trees, grants

and funding schemes available. Trees have so many benefits on farmland: they provide shelter, prevent

soil erosion, reduce flooding and much more.”

Silvopasture Webinar

Speakers: Professor Jim McAdam, IAF and QUB, Dr Lindsay Whistance, Organic Research Centre UK. IAF Director Clive Bright, Maureen Kilgore ( IAF) William Frazer (GrowIN) and Helen Keyes (GrowIN). Farmer panel: Rossa Gibbons, James McCrossan. Hosted by the Irish Agroforestry Forum with Professor Jim McAdam and Dr Lindsay Whistance, the webinar was packed full of valuable, evidence based insights. The discussion covered the many benefits of silvopasture systems for animal welfare, biodiversity, soil health and productivity. It also tackled some of the questions people had about how planting trees might affect land value or increase flies.This webinar was produced in collaboration with GrowIn and funded under the Woodland Support Scheme provided by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.