Wooded hay meadows as viable production systems in sustainable small-scale farming

Abstract

Wooded hay meadows provide livestock fodder in the form of both foliage from pollarded trees and hay from the understorey, and can be part of an environmentally friendly agroforestry system. However, trees may also have a negative effect on fodder production. Such trade-offs between productivity and sustainability in farming are poorly understood, especially in high-latitude areas. We studied hay production in two sites in the same wooded meadow in western Norway, one restored 6 years earlier than the other, to examine whether there were differences in hay production over a 4-year pollarding cycle. We measured production in transects starting from the trunks of pollarded and non-pollarded (reference) trees and running out into open meadow, and transects entirely in open meadow. We examined whether pollarding influenced hay production, and whether hay