Making less productive marginal farmland work for you

Most farms have an area of land that could work a bit harder to earn its keep, but the soil isn’t suitable for crops or decent grazing.

Or it may be that due to changing farming practices or incentives, it is becoming uneconomic to farm that area.  However, the area is large enough that it needs to be earning.

Trees don’t need the best land in order to grow and can help you diversify your less productive marginal land, without having to change the way you farm or your way of life.

There has never been so much funding and income opportunities available to help you plant trees. 

There are excellent grants available to support the planting and establishment of trees, including the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO), which covers most of the costs involved with planting.

Woodland creation provides a huge number of benefits, including diversifying your income streams, and future-proofing your farm, without using up prime agricultural land.

What other benefits can woodland creation bring to a farm business?

There is so much more you can get from woodland on farms. Strategic planning and planting can offer more shade for livestock, crucial as we see summer temperatures breaking records each year.

Trees are a natural way to provide cooler areas, helping you keep livestock out for longer, reduce feed costs, increase growth rates, and possibly lowering vet costs.

Where you have ground that is only giving your stock a limited bite, then it may be more beneficial to plant it with trees.

Timber and carbon related opportunities may earn more in the longer term, and in many cases, spending less time managing poor ground can let you focus on getting the best out of your quality, productive farmland.

Woodlands and trees can also be a real boost to wildlife, increasing the overall diversity on the farm and by planting wooded areas you could also provide sporting cover, and therefore a further income stream.

What are the steps a farm business needs to take if they want to generate an income from carbon credits utilising tree planting?

Generating income from Carbon Credits can seem a daunting prospect. The very first step is to get an experienced and qualified forester to visit your farm who can advise and work with you to design the woodland and make sure that you are putting the right trees in the right place.

Once you have the design for a woodland mapped out, CarbonStore will help you every step of the way to realise the £6,000 – 7,000 per hectare income the woodland carbon could be generated from your new woodland.

CarbonStore can then help with the lengthy and bureaucratic paperwork that’s necessary to generate the carbon credits.

We then also help you sell the carbon credits to a buyer, getting the best possible price, whilst also being supported by clear and robust legal agreements.

CarbonStore has worked hard to design an efficient, effective and streamlined service, with a clear and transparent fee structure, helping you to maximise the income you earn from selling your woodland carbon credits.

Give David McCulloch of CarbonStore a call to see how trees can help you gain the most from your marginal land.

Contact David McCulloch:

Tel: 01786 649387
Email: info@carbonstoreuk.com
www.carbonstoreuk.com
www.tilhill.com