THE latest episode of the FarmForest series features a sheep farmer from Kealkill, Gerard Kelleher, speaking on the benefits of agroforesty on his land.

Gerard has integrated trees into his sheep system through the Department of Agriculture’s agroforestry scheme, which means he can continue to graze sheep while establishing trees at lower densities across his land.

For the programme Gerard gave a tour of his 21-acre farm to Ray Ó Foghlú of Hometree. Gerard says he was able to integrate agroforestry onto his farm, River Bank Farm, by planting beech, oak and sycamore trees in wide rows and so leaving space for the tractor, and by using guards to protect saplings from sheep and deer.

His land lies below the Ovane River which rises above him in the mountain and flows past his land. He muses on the need to ‘move with the times’ to survive in the agricultural industry today.

‘Leave the land do the work, trust in mother nature, and you’re away’ says Gerard.

‘If you’re living on a memory, you’re in trouble. If you can’t live now on sheep farming, you’ll only have to live forward.’

In conversation with Ray, Gerard recalls his introduction into farming life at the age of seven.

He notes how last year was the ‘worst year’, as wool prices were so bad that ‘it wouldn’t even play for the diesel to carry the wool to the supplier’.

He was inspired to take part in the agroforestry scheme by the experience of a neighbour, revealing: ‘A text came into his phone. I said, “she’s watching you”, and he said “no, that it was the agroforestry money is in the bank”. That’s what swung it for me.’

Ray says the scheme pays up to up to €975 per hectare, and the premium is paid for 10 years. The attractiveness of such a payment is, for Gerard, naturally beneficial coming ‘at a time of the year when there was no money coming in’.

‘January can be a depressing time of the year. Dark evenings, wet days, storms, frost. And you know, money is part of the cycle of life as well. It keeps you happy.’

‘That is the whole purpose of this. When you’re walking in the evening, and you see them coming up, it’s good for the mind and the soul as well. It’s like life, the river don’t go back. It has to go forward.’

Ray maintains the agroforestry scheme is extremely relevant to farmers, as it allows supports to be stacked and means farmers can diversify their income, without getting rid of livestock. Environmentally the benefits speak for themselves providing shelter, encouraging biodiversity, and providing soil protection, and the scheme is particularly suited to smaller or part-time farms.

The FarmForest series, a communications project funded under the Department of Agriculture, can be viewed on YouTube.