Profitability of sheep grazing in young conifer plantations of British Columbia, Canada

PosterIn British Columbia (BC), sheep grazing, as a silvopastoral system, is occasionally used as a biological weed control method in young conifer plantations. As it is a relatively new method in BC, there is presently a lack of information about the profitability of the practice. For instance, there is no scientific data about the gain in profitability as a function of the number of grazing treatments applied. What is known is that at least two grazing treatments in a given year or one treatment per year for two or more consecutive years are required to effectively deplete fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) root reserves, the predominant herbaceous competing vegetation. Our main objective was to analyze the profitability of sheep grazing for herbaceous vegetation control in young conifer plantations. The profitability was tested under two grazing treatments: a single sheep grazing treatment and two sheep grazing treatments applied over two years. Since comparing the profitability of treatments requires financial data on all the rotational period and is often not available, we used a simple approach that can determine profitability with little detailed information. Using this approach, grazing treatments could be compared in terms of time gain. Assuming that a grazing treatment shortens the rotational period by “X” years allowing a certain time gain, the additional relative cost can be compared with the break-even additional relative cost. Preliminary results indicated that two grazing treatments have the potential to decrease the time to declare a stand free-growing compared to one grazing treatment. Thus, this time gain, at a young age (e.g., 10 yr) could potentially result in a time gain at the end of the rotational period (e.g., 80 yr). This presentation will examinate the profitability of sheep grazing with more detail and show how this method has the potential to shortened the rotational period