A big thank you to Rich Thomas who hosted the third event in our Meadows, Mosaics and Mitigating Climate Change spring series. We kicked off the afternoon with guest speaker Sam Hollick (Bangor University) who spoke to us about his research on shelterbelts and how they can be integrated into grassland systems to help improve livestock productivity and resilience.

We then went out into the field and were shown around a new ‘Living Barn’ project being trialled by Rich Thomas and supported by the Woodland Trust. The rows of mixed fruit, nut and browsing trees will provide shelter from both the wind and the sun, supplementary nutrients, in particular cobalt, and a secondary output from the existing herbal ley in this field.

You can look through Sam’s presentation slides again here. presentation to herefordshire meadows march 22-2

Have a go at simulating windbreak effects using the windbreak herokuapp here.

Coed Cymru have produced a great paper giving an overview on how to increase farm productivity using shelter belts which you can access here.