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Narrator
As you drive through the countryside, notice the rows of trees planted in farm fields or along laneways and roads. In many cases, these are multifunctional windbreaks, planned purposefully by farmers, with the assistance of OMAFRA and local area Conservation Authorities
Todd Leuty
I think there's a lot of interest in establishing windbreaks in the province. Depends on the commodity you're working with. It's the high value horticultural crops and also field crops. Also livestock producers have special problems that windbreaks can resolve.
Todd Leuty
And I think the best place to start with is the Conservation Authorities in their area of the province. They're the ones who know the tree species in their own areas the best, and the soils the best and the drainage situations. And they often have the best advice for each local area in the province for selecting the species. Also, I think it's good to encourage the farmer to come up with their own ideas and things they want to try with conifers or deciduous trees or shrubs. If they have some ideas of their own - give it a try because we can all stand to learn from what they want { } from a windbreak.
John Enright
For most of our farmers in our watershed I would say the reasons their planting windbreaks is for soil erosion to protect the soil, keep the soil on the land. And in the long run that will provide increases in crop yields and production. And I think that's probably the main benefits for farmers within our watershed.
John Enright
I think over the 25 years we've seen fluctuation in the number of trees that we do plant. And I think a lot of it is related to crop prices and land values. Currently, with high crop prices and land values, our tree numbers are down. During years where crop prices are lower we definitely will plant more trees.
John Enright
I've talked to some farmers with GPS on their combines now and they'll tell me that they can definitely see an increase in crop yields adjacent to their windbreaks.
Even when we look at windbreaks, we can see loss in the first couple of rows in growth. But it's the yield further out into the field; the 15-20 times the height of the windbreak where the actual increase in yield is coming on the field - which is really important.
Narrator
Careful planning is needed when planting a windbreak to ensure success.
John Enright
We do a farm assessment. We come out; we meet with the landowner. Find out what their objectives are. We can provide comment. We look at the soil type. We look at the drainage, what the moisture is like. Some of those factors will (depend) impact on what species we may recommend.
John Enright
There is the OMAFRA Bmp manual, which is a good source of information.
. It goes through the stages. Everything from your preplanning, site preparation, ordering stock, appropriate stock to be using, and the follow up maintenance and tending - the long term I guess, to ensure that the plantings do succeed, which is critical.
All conservation authorities will have field staff who are willing to meet with landowners, to conduct site visits, and get involved with the actual organization and planting of windbreaks.
Narrator
In addition to soil erosion prevention, crop, building and livestock protection, windbreaks can perform many multifunctional roles with value-added benefits.
John Enright
Windbreaks will produce additional on-farm income in the future.
Depending on the species that was planted, if it's conifer it could go for a small saw log. If it's hardwood - saw logs again, possibly veneer if the trees have been pruned properly which is really critical in the younger years of the trees' growth, if you're growing them for veneer.
Todd Leuty
There's new ideas coming in. Different ideas….there's interest in providing forage for honey bees, for honey production. There's some interest from nut growers in putting Korean pine nuts as the conifer in a windbreak that maybe they can harvest pine nuts one day from their windbreak. There's a lot of people to help out on the educational side and again the conservation authorities are very interested in promoting windbreaks and we are too in OMAFRA and MNR in promoting windbreaks cause soil is our most important resource in agriculture and we need to protect it and windbreaks are a good answer for that.
Narrator
For more information on planting and the benefits of windbreaks, please contact your local Conservation Authority.