Since a couple of years, we have been following the establishment of our agroforestry trial plot, Cockle Park (Agriculture Facilities | School of Natural and Environmental Sciences | Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)), A mixture of tree lines comprising poplar and willow trees (biomass tree crops) and annual crops (bean, wheat), we are using this trial to demonstrate proof of concept for method innovations – helping us to address pressing research questions and closing knowledge and data gaps.
Project webpage: Agroforestry research at Newcastle University | TROPS – TROPical landScapes (ncl.ac.uk)
What are some of our questions:
Do trees negatively impact yield?
Do trees buffer livestock from heat stress?
Do trees increase biodiversity?
How do trees grow in farmed land?
Do we want trees on farms?
What do we do: Measuring tree health, Monitoring microclimate benefits and costs of trees neighbouring crops, using terrestrial laser scanners and other remote sensing tools to measure and map health and structure of plants, assessing crop yield changes in response to trees on farms, biodiversity assessments, and identifying opportunities and constraints for scaling.
Full booklet here detailing above research activities: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q0l98ds-DW-OPH_LcZrZ9jj_HsskiQ-Y/view?usp=sharing
We do run outreach events to update everyone who is interested in what answers we have found to above questions – so look out for events here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/farms/
Presenting at our most recent event – Yorkshire Show: Look forward to seeing you at the next one.