The Association for Temperature Agroforestry posted an interesting article describing the benefits of using silvopasture in livestock production. The scientists studied the behavior of sheep raised in a forested pasture and noted that the cooling produced by the shade trees resulted in less stress on the animals. Even though the available forage was 30% less than in traditional open pastures, they showed that “Greater animal comfort provided by the black walnut trees likely compensated for any changes in forage production and nutritive value in these systems.” You can read the full article here. They believe that similar results would occur in cattle production.
