Partnership Spotlight: Silvopasture

Building successful silvopasture pairings to support farmer education in North Carolina

Eliza Lawdley/ Clay Lawdley- Durham, NC

Project size: 27 acres 

Durham County, NC

Type of operation: Goats/ Poultry

Objective 1: Developing a silvopasture system in overgrown immature pine forest

Step by step:

  • Fall 2020: NC Choices Learned of interested farmer and land opportunity through BFRD project outreach and partnership with land trusts.
  • Fall 2020: NC Choices originally attempted to pair the Lawdley family with another beginning farmer and rancher but the pairing didn’t develop.  The family then decided to continue with an internal family lease to support Eliza’s access to farming the land.
  • Spring & Summer 2021: NC Choices met with Eliza to plan out small scale livestock budgets, grazing plans, lime and fertilization ratios to establish forage, and silvopasture design ideas for her livestock operation. 
  • Fall 2021: Eliza built the movable poultry shelters
  • Fall 2021: Temporary fencing and pasture management supplies secured 
  • Summer 2022: 900 broilers and goats are introduced to the site. 

Summary:

Beginning farmer, Eliza Lawdley, secured long term access to land from a family member, Clay Lawdley. All 28 acres of the property were forested; with young 15 year old Loblolly Pine and lots of secondary growth. The land was once part of an 80 acre tobacco farm. Before NC Choices worked with Eliza, she had completed tree thinning on her own. Over the past several years, she worked with consultants and family to clear parts of the property.about 11 acres of open area from unhealthy pine plantation plantings (the pine was so thick that you literally could not walk through it in some places) and hired a logging team to thin out the pine stands to about 50% of their former density through a silvopasture model referred to as an alley cropping model.  The overall layout of the farm is based on a sustainable design concept called “keyline design” which places an emphasis on maximizing beneficial water use of a property.

Their goals for the farm are to continue developing innovative agroforestry systems to raise food for their family and “graduate” out into the agroforestry zones with livestock, for which they needed technical assistance and support. However, none of the agroforestry areas are fenced and water on the property is also a challenge as they have one well that only gets 1.5 gallons per minute and one well that gets 1/2 a gallon/min.

Thus, these factors were taken into consideration when introducing livestock and silvopasture management. NC Choices agreed that livestock that would do well with these constraints would be chickens, turkey, or sheep and goats (or small numbers of ducks and pigs). NC Choices recommended starting with approximately 100-300 birds to fertilize fields to start (not enough to help the trees) but focus on developing the pastures in the alley/pasture as a starting place. Funding would need to be secured for predator protection. Eventually working up the size of the poultry flock. At the same time, a small herd of goats could assist with clearing and land management under the canopies. NC Choices assisted with production budgets, grazing plans, and processing considerations for meat birds.  Eliza’s farm is now selling meat to the public following a managed grazing plan.

Site meeting discussing alley cropping with livestock

Animals and infrastructure

Tall grasses with trees in the background. Surrounding the grass is a wire fence encircling the area. At the back of the fenced area there is a goat and also large twigs. A person is outside the fence
Two cages with wooden frames, wire enclosing them a slanted house roofs covered with cloth. These two large cages are in a field of grass
Birds eye view of three goats grazing in a field of grass