A national campaign lead by Pitlochry farmer Andrew Barbour which encourages sheep farmers to grow more trees has won the backing of a Perthshire producer.

Integrating sheep and trees

Andrew Barbour hosted a National Sheep Association (NSA) gathering on his land at Mains of Fincastle, as part of the organisation’s initiative to highlight the benefits of integrating sheep and trees.

The groundwork for Mr Barbour’s argument is that forestry offers financial and animal husbandry benefits. Mr Barbour, who farms 400 Texel crosses and 50 suckler cows on 540 hectares of land at 1000ft or above, insisted that he wouldn’t want to farm somewhere that didn’t have woodland shelter of some kind.

The importance of woodland

10% of Mr Barbour’s farm is devoted to woodland, with the shelter belts made up of pine and larch and the commercial plantations largely Douglas Fir Sitka Spruce and Scots Pine. Mr Barbour explained to The Courier just how agriculture has always been a primary objective, however every previous generation has planted shelter belts or woodland on the poorer land where there is access for lorries.

“Timber is very important to us financially. It’s like a source of extra working capital that you can draw on periodically. It makes sense to diversify and spread your risk. It doesn’t need to affect stocking rates. But I wouldn’t want to turn over the whole farm to woodland, which would be concentrating all your eggs in one basket.” Mr Barbour said.

With Mr Barbour having a mixed cattle and sheep farm, the primary objective of the woodland is to provide shelter for stock as there can be treacherous weather in Pitlochry, even in summer.

“The cattle are woodland-edge animals and as soon as there’s a drop of rain they head for the trees. They’re happy in there and a happy animal produces good calf. Sheep don’t go near the trees when the weather is fine.” He added.

Providing shelter

Mr Barbour said that the proximity of shelter belts had enabled him to change his flock from Blackfaces to Texels because the wood acted like sheds in the winter. “The benefits of forestry to farming can translate into pounds and pence saved” he added.

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