In association with Poultec Training Ltd

Trees and shrubs are an essential part of the range, but what are the best varieties and how do you minimise losses? Ben Scotting from Yorwoods, the woodland initiative for Yorkshire and the Humber, has some advice.

Trees and shrubs serve a number of purposes on free-range units. As well as encouraging birds to range over a wider area, they also provide shelter and simulate the birds’ natural environment.

Species

Most poultry keepers are likely to opt for a mixture of broad-leaved, native species like oak, ash and hazel. However, decisions on tree and shrub species largely depend on soil type.

Assuming that the hens’ range is fairly well drained, a site with a fairly neutral soil pH is suitable for a wide range of trees and shrubs. Farms with acid soils will favour species like birch, Scots pine, sessile oak and rowan ash. Shrubs could include plants like crab apple, bird cherry, hawthorn and blackthorn.

On more alkaline soils, pendunculate oak would be preferable to sessile oak. Other suitable species are common ash, hazel and wild cherry. Most of the shrubs suitable for acid soils will thrive equally well in soils with a higher pH.

The optimum planting time is from the end of October, until the end of February. During the winter period, only bare-rooted stock will be available, as trees should not be moved until they enter the dormancy period. It is also important to avoid planting in a hard frost or in snow.

Saplings need protection from ranging hens.

Protection

Care should be taken to keep the plant in its protective casing, right up to the moment of planting. Planting depth is not critical, but the prepared hole should be large enough to easily accommodate all the roots. The main rule is to ensure that all the roots are covered with soil and that the surrounding area is pressed down firmly.

For long-term durability, producers are advised to choose the best quality stakes and protective spirals or tubes within budget, particularly if hens are to have access to the woodland before it is fully matured. The other option is to fence off the woodland, to give the young plants time to grow. Where hens are allowed to roam, 0.75m (2.5ft) stakes and 0.6m (2ft) collars are a necessity. If there are roe deer in the area, collar heights should be increased to 1.2m (4ft).

Standard protective collars should only be removed once they show signs of splitting as the tree grows, although some biodegradable versions do not require subsequent management. In fenced-off woodland, it is important to strim or spray the immediate area surrounding new plants annually, for the first three years. This will eliminate competitive weeds. It is inevitable that replacement stock will need to be purchased.

It is quite normal to lose 10% of new plants every year, within the first three years. Therefore, 30% of all planted woodland will need to be replaced, in the early stages.

Density

The space left between new trees and shrubs may be dictated by grant aid requirements. However as a general rule, the advice is to leave at least a 2.1m (6.9ft) radius around new plantings and 3 x 3m (9.8 x 9.8ft) around new plants in existing woodland. Consideration should also be given to establishing “rides” for access. This aspect is particularly important, if firewood is to be harvested using a tractor in the future.

A new woodland established on 1ha (2.47 acres) of land using standard spacings and some open ground would require around 800 trees and shrubs. While there are no hard and fast rules for species distribution, siting the majority of the larger trees in the centre, with shrubs around the edge, is the most popular arrangement.

This system also ensures that the smaller plants have a degree of exposure to sunlight. Some people like to distribute the species fairly evenly over the site, while others prefer to establish a grove of alder or beech, for example.

Woodland grants

Grant aid for planting woodland and shrubs may be available, although financial help and conditions depend on timing, and may vary between regions, with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each having their own Forestry Commission organisation. One example of current grant aid available in England is the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS), which offers a flat rate of £1800ha (£729/acre) for the creation of native woodland.

In Scotland, the Scotland Rural Development Programme offers a Woodland Creation option, under its Rural Development Contracts Scheme. Meanwhile in Wales, the governing body is the Welsh Assembly Government’s Department of Forestry, which has a Better Woodlands for Wales scheme. In Northern Ireland, enquiries should be made to the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland’s Forestry Agency.

Both new hedge/tree planting and the maintenance of existing woodland can be used to score points on environmental stewardship schemes like the ELS (Entry Level Scheme). However successful applications may impose management restrictions, such as limiting hedge trimming to alternate years.

The level of financial benefit to producers usually depends on how much work they plan to do themselves, and what type and quantity of protective materials are used. If you do most of the planting yourself and opt for the cheaper varieties of protective stakes and spirals, the grant should allow you to break even.

But if contract planters are brought in and you buy hardwood stakes and top end spirals, then new woodland might end up costing you money. But the investment can be offset, if the woodland is regularly harvested for firewood.

Want to know more?

Yorwoods (not for profit, public and private sector initiative proving support services to the forestry industry in the Yorkshire region).

Forestry Commission: Government department responsible for the protection and expansion of Britain's forests and woodlands.