Farmer to Farmer Agroforestry Guidebook for the Northeast

Commodities

• Fruits: Honey Locust
• Nuts: chestnuts, Yellowbud Hickory
• Additional Plants: native plants
• Animals: bovine, sheep

Practices

• Animal Production: feed/forage, pasture renovation, winter forage
• Crop Production: agroforestry, alley cropping, grafting, no-till, nurseries, plant breeding and genetics, silvopasture, varieties and cultivars, winter storage
• Education and Training: display, farmer to farmer
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns, whole farm planning
• Natural Resources/Environment: afforestation, biodiversity, drift/runoff buffers, habitat enhancement, riparian buffers, soil stabilization, wildlife
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management, integrated crop and livestock systems
• Soil Management: soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: food hubs, local and regional food systems, new business opportunities, values-based supply chains

Agroforestry and the adoption of resilient and productive tree crops present one of the most sound beneficial solutions for Northeast farmers. These practices build habitat and soil health while producing abundant and nutritious food. Adoption of agroforestry has been slow in the Northeast, and one of the largest needs identified has been peer-to-peer learning (5). As a specialty wholesale tree crops nursery, we have been able to build connections and relationships with people who have intimately worked with species such as hybrid chestnut, hybrid hazelnut, american persimmon, honey locust, mulberry, black walnut, and more. We have been gathering a bank of information that can only be acquired through these relationships, and much of this information is vital for the adoption of resilient and productive tree crops in the northeast. Our solution is to provide a guidebook that goes in depth on topics such as appropriate genetics, nursery stock, existing yield data, current harvesting equipment, current processing equipment, and more. This guidebook will cover these topics for each of mentioned species, and will also include 5 comprehensive case studies of farms running successful operations using these crops. Our resources will be distributed through the agencies such as NRCS and NRCD that have been requesting us to provide this information. We will also distribute these resources through farmer listservs and agroforestry workshops. 

This project seeks to alleviate the bottleneck of limited primary source information for the adoption of resilient and profitable tree crops in the northeast. 

Objective 1: Provide ground-truthed, practical information from farmers to farmers surrounding resilient and profitable tree crops

• Create a guidebook that is available online and is printed that includes vital information on a species by species basis (hybrid chestnuts, hybrid hazelnuts, yellowbud hickory, american persimmon, mulberry, honey locust, ultra northern pecan, and black walnut.
• Guidebook also includes at least 5 in depth case studies of farms growing these tree crops 

Objective 2: Facilitate support systems for farmers to ensure success of their enterprises 

• Create a network of additional resources online where people can explore further
• Create a listserv where farmers can exchange new knowledge and observations