Considerations when planning a windbreak

Michael ask in the comments if the windbreak that Southern Belle and Handsome Hombre will be planting will have food-plants incorporated into it.

Not at this time

No, there are no plans to incorporate food-plants into the windbreak upwind of the house.

As a consultant, I need to be hyper-aware that I listen to what is important to the clients. This is not my wind-break. It is not my property. They have to "own" the windbreak.

Parameters that come into play

Handsome Hombre, Southern Belle and Quicksilver are very animal oriented. They want many different species of domestic animals. They want to see and touch them. They want the property to produce most of the food that sustains those animals.

 

 

A windbreak, or a shelterbelt in very severe climates like the Great Plains states, requires a substantial footprint. A single row of trees might mitigate high winds but a broad belt of trees and brush is required to really tame it and to trap the drifting snow. A single row of tall trees has the distressing tendency to increase wind velocity at ground level when the lower branches die.

SB's property does not have a shape that supports that kind of wide footprint. Her property is very long and skinny. A fifty or sixty foot wide shelter belt would obliterate a substantial portion of her pasture.

Fortunately, the parcel that is upwind of the house is swamp filled with buttonbush, dogwood (Gray, Silky and Red Osier), willow, poison ivy and other "pucker-brush". That will capture drifting snow.

From an elevation standpoint, though, the existing pucker-brush is far too low to slow wind velocity at the house which is 2-1/2 stories and is on a slight knoll.

On the plus side...

Handsome Hombre loves fruit. He is one of the very few people I know who will help himself to a ripe American Persimmon, eat it and then reach for another.

Southern Belle is open to the idea of "sacrificing" a 10' wide strip west of the pasture to plant trees like oak, chestnut, nut pines, hazelnuts, peach trees and persimmons.

Things will not be moving with lightning speed. There is never enough time or money to push a button and make everything happen at once. Fence costs money. Animals cost money. Brush-hogging costs money.

Given the cyclic nature of the cattle business, one way to proceed would be to fence half of the pasture. Seed the bare spots. Control the brush and weeds with a 2x a growing season mowing/brush-hogging. If a screaming-deal in terms of a couple of calves shows up, then pull the trigger.

Plant small seedlings, seed nuts, acorns, peach pits, etc. in the 10' wide band on the upwind side of the pasture. Mark it off so the man who is mowing or 'hoggin doesn't mow them down.